Alex Orr
Jul-10-2007, 11:10am
Posted on Stefan Grossman's Blues Guitar forum:
Well folks, a big heads up here - the situation does not look good for Weenie Juke. And unless something happens within the week (doubtful) The Weenie Juke will be taken down on July 15.
There may be a situation in the future where The Juke could be put up -- but until things shake out a bit, our only prudent choice is to shut it down. And it is really not something you as a member can do anything about either, so don't send me any money trying to save the Juke - it won't happen at this point in time. This only affects our streaming broadcast Weenie Juke, it does not affect the WeenieCampbell site or Forum. Unfortunately, the Weenie Juke, with its Amazon sale commission earnings subsidized a good deal of the entire operation. For a hobby/recreational website - it was working beautifully. But I'm starting to get sentimental already, ahem!
OK, here is the situation in a nutshell, complete with numbers.
1) It does not look likely that congress will act on the bills introduced to stop the fee structure before July 15th.
2) It doesn't matter if we are playing non copyrighted music or not, whether the artists are dead or alive -- the fees apply to All music unless you get individual artist written permission to play the music.
3) There is some talk about Sound Exchange capping fees "per service" (or per channel) to $2,500, through 2008, but that seems a half hearted 'transitional' ploy to the higher fees. So, the minimum for Weenie Juke even if this compromise is reached would be: $500 minimum fee plus $2,500 minimum performance fee plus the $300 BMI royalty fee we've been paying annually. The entire income for all of WeenieCampbell.com is $2,000-$2,500 range, for all sources (I know it may Look Big, but it is a recreational hobby website after all). The compromise is temporary, so it hardly seems worthwhile to chase even this lousy morsel of an offer.
4) I may be personally liable for these very high fees as the act is retroactive to January 2006, but again do not send money. If I need a fund raiser or if I need some bail money - I'll let you know! Some stations will stay on the air and flaunt the law, but given the past zeal of RIAA to go after P2P college students - I don't think I have the stomach or funds to join them.
Now to the numbers. The old law charged broadcasters by percentage of income. Since we have little income, we paid the minimum of $300 annually. No problem. The new law charges All internet broadcasters by performance. A performance is: Number of Listeners Times the Number of Songs played. Our broadcast software tracks this. So I took the first quarter of 2007 and extrapolated the entire year. Here is the breakdown:
2,132,600 annual performances (not bad for 50 listening slots, eh?)
X .008 per performance
-------------
17,600.80
+ 500.00 minimum fee
--------------
18,100.80
+ 300.00 BMI Royalty fee
--------------
18,400.80 Projected annual fee
Not a pretty sight.
I really hate this and I'm sure many of you do too. Lots of folks have contributed time, effort and money to making Weenie Juke work and into making it a wonderful and worthwhile resource and project. It was a major piece of the WeenieCambpell website and I cannot tell you how many great comments, compliments, astonishments I have received from people over the years. In fact I'd publish them except that it would probably make my cry!
In any case, thank you all for supporting Weenie Juke and I will promise you that I will be ever vigilant for a way to get Weenie Juke broadcasting again.
Yours,
Slack
I really loved this station.
http://www.weeniecampbell.com/juke/...ter=13111944811
I enjoyed the hell out of it and learned a LOT. Hell, I'd venture that it's even helped me get better at playing old country-blues on my guitar. There really is nothing else like this site anywhere on the net. #If anyone else loves old pre-war blues then give it a listen while you can - odds are there won't ever be any station like this again on the net, at least not anytime soon.
Oh, and if anyone knows how to get the italics text working let me know...I tried six ways to sunday to get that quote above in italics but it just wouldn't take.
Well folks, a big heads up here - the situation does not look good for Weenie Juke. And unless something happens within the week (doubtful) The Weenie Juke will be taken down on July 15.
There may be a situation in the future where The Juke could be put up -- but until things shake out a bit, our only prudent choice is to shut it down. And it is really not something you as a member can do anything about either, so don't send me any money trying to save the Juke - it won't happen at this point in time. This only affects our streaming broadcast Weenie Juke, it does not affect the WeenieCampbell site or Forum. Unfortunately, the Weenie Juke, with its Amazon sale commission earnings subsidized a good deal of the entire operation. For a hobby/recreational website - it was working beautifully. But I'm starting to get sentimental already, ahem!
OK, here is the situation in a nutshell, complete with numbers.
1) It does not look likely that congress will act on the bills introduced to stop the fee structure before July 15th.
2) It doesn't matter if we are playing non copyrighted music or not, whether the artists are dead or alive -- the fees apply to All music unless you get individual artist written permission to play the music.
3) There is some talk about Sound Exchange capping fees "per service" (or per channel) to $2,500, through 2008, but that seems a half hearted 'transitional' ploy to the higher fees. So, the minimum for Weenie Juke even if this compromise is reached would be: $500 minimum fee plus $2,500 minimum performance fee plus the $300 BMI royalty fee we've been paying annually. The entire income for all of WeenieCampbell.com is $2,000-$2,500 range, for all sources (I know it may Look Big, but it is a recreational hobby website after all). The compromise is temporary, so it hardly seems worthwhile to chase even this lousy morsel of an offer.
4) I may be personally liable for these very high fees as the act is retroactive to January 2006, but again do not send money. If I need a fund raiser or if I need some bail money - I'll let you know! Some stations will stay on the air and flaunt the law, but given the past zeal of RIAA to go after P2P college students - I don't think I have the stomach or funds to join them.
Now to the numbers. The old law charged broadcasters by percentage of income. Since we have little income, we paid the minimum of $300 annually. No problem. The new law charges All internet broadcasters by performance. A performance is: Number of Listeners Times the Number of Songs played. Our broadcast software tracks this. So I took the first quarter of 2007 and extrapolated the entire year. Here is the breakdown:
2,132,600 annual performances (not bad for 50 listening slots, eh?)
X .008 per performance
-------------
17,600.80
+ 500.00 minimum fee
--------------
18,100.80
+ 300.00 BMI Royalty fee
--------------
18,400.80 Projected annual fee
Not a pretty sight.
I really hate this and I'm sure many of you do too. Lots of folks have contributed time, effort and money to making Weenie Juke work and into making it a wonderful and worthwhile resource and project. It was a major piece of the WeenieCambpell website and I cannot tell you how many great comments, compliments, astonishments I have received from people over the years. In fact I'd publish them except that it would probably make my cry!
In any case, thank you all for supporting Weenie Juke and I will promise you that I will be ever vigilant for a way to get Weenie Juke broadcasting again.
Yours,
Slack
I really loved this station.
http://www.weeniecampbell.com/juke/...ter=13111944811
I enjoyed the hell out of it and learned a LOT. Hell, I'd venture that it's even helped me get better at playing old country-blues on my guitar. There really is nothing else like this site anywhere on the net. #If anyone else loves old pre-war blues then give it a listen while you can - odds are there won't ever be any station like this again on the net, at least not anytime soon.
Oh, and if anyone knows how to get the italics text working let me know...I tried six ways to sunday to get that quote above in italics but it just wouldn't take.