More sports on FM: WIP(AM) to simulcast on 94.1

[Brian Vita]

Garrett, I believe you are wrong here.  The killer won't be ASCAP, BMI or
SESAC.  It will be SoundExchange.  They are already shaking down radio
stations that webcast along with internet streamers on behalf of the RIAA
(yes, the record companies).  They are dying to get their hooks into over
the air broadcasting for a bigger revenue stream.  They will be the final
nail in music formats.

Brian Vita
President 
Cinema Service & Supply, Inc.

> "The record companies" may well be run by total idiots, but they have
> no influence over the cost of music licensing for radio stations.
> (Well, they can lobby the Copyright Office to increase the statutory
> license fee for "digital broadcasting" -- streaming and satellite.)
> The people who set the royalty rate for broadcasters are the
> collecting societies: in this country, ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC.
> 
> I think the big increase in license fees has been due to two changes
> in the industry: first, SESAC signed up a number of very popular
> songwriters, requiring many stations to get a SESAC license where
> previously they could ignore SESAC music and get everything they
> needed from ASCAP and BMI; second, the collecting societies moved from
> a (more fungible) revenue-based accounting model to an audience-based
> model using Arbitron ratings data.  The latter is what hurt people
> like Bob Bittner, and is the reason WJIB no longer appears in the
> ratings since the introduction of the PPM in Boston.
> 
> -GAWollman