Please give the Free CD's Back

This is brilliant. (Internet) radio stations in the US are angry that the rights holders associations in the US want to charge a crazy amount of money to stream music over the web. In my view, the RIAA are moraly bankrupt - these guys just don't get it. So this station in Chicago came up with a truly brilliant protest.. This came in yesterday.


CHICAGO IL – Records and CDs have long been expected as prizes by radio listeners along with station t-shirts, until now. In what appears to be an act of solidarity with SoundExchange and the RIAA, 9 FM Radio in Chicago will no longer give away any free music. “When I read that the RIAA and SoundExchange needed money so badly that they were going to price gouge independent web streamers and radio stations who stream online, I knew we had to do our part.”, said Matt DuBiel, Director of Programming for 9 FM. “In the face of the RIAA’s struggles, it just doesn’t seem fair for us to be giving away CDs (for free) to music fans fully capable of paying for the music themselves. We’re inviting everyone who has won a CD from 9 FM or any other radio station in Chicago this year, to return it to us and we’ll exchange it for a 9 FM T-shirt and give the CDs back to the RIAA. Radio stations need to be able to stream online affordably.”


9 FM has been airing public service styled announcements encouraging listeners to voice their concerns over the latest ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board (to raise streaming royalty fees) by signing a petition posted on 9 FM’s website. The CRB is adopting the “ ‘per play’ rate proposal put forth by SoundExchange (a digital music fee collection body created by the RIAA)...[The] math suggests that the royalty rate decision — for the performance alone, not even including composers' royalties! — is in the in the ballpark of 100% or more of total revenues.'” 9 FM currently pays royalty fees (thousands of dollars per month) supporting the writers, publishers and artists in the music industry.

Newsweb Radio Company’s 9 FM trimulcasts on 92.5 fm (WDEK), 92.7 fm (WKIE), 99.9 fm (WRZA) and streams online at WePlayAnything.com… - at least for now.