Alison St John (Guest Host): Twenty percent of Americans ages 12 or older now listen to radio on the Internet, according to Arbitron. That's nearly 50 million Americans.
Webcasting is growing, along with everything else on the internet. But today, Tuesday June 26, you may find nothing but static or the sound of ocean waves when you tune to your internet musicradio station.
KPBS’ website will not be observing this so-called "Day of Silence" because we air talk rather than recorded music. But several other public radio webcasts are joining music webcasters around the nation in going silent. It's part of a battle raging right now over how much internet radio should pay in royalties to the artists whose music they play. Obviously, musicians deserve to be rewarded, but will the proposed rates knock small independent radio stations and the music they play off the internet?
Guests
- Kurt Hanson, publisher of the Radio and Internet Newslette r.
- John Simson , executive director of SoundExchange , a nonprofit performance rights organization charged with administration of royalties.
