That’s something that will surely need to be addressed at a later date. The fire that burns in my belly today revolves around many of my fellow Christian broadcasters who have suddenly had to cease their internet streaming options because of the unbelievable fees they are being charged merely to present Christian music on the web.
At the core you’ll see the blame focused upon an unprecedented industry-wide struggle that began when Record Labels were allowed to collect licensing fees from the broadcasters who played any kind of music over the internet. (By the way, this goes to the heart of why ActofGraceRadio.net opted for a talk-formatted offering.)
Prior to the advent of an internet streaming option, standard radio broadcasting venues, recording artists, and record labels have operated under a mutually benefiting relationship. Radio provides an outlet for artists to have their music listened to by a mass audience, in turn the record labels are able to sell their CD’s (and now downloads) that invariably encourages more investment in promoting the careers of musicians who can sell tickets to their concerts, more CD’s, and other related paraphernalia like T-shirts and such.
Granted, over the course of history, nobody was ever really happy with this forced relationship mainly because it was based on everybody scratching everybody else’s back. In order for record labels to have a proper platform to introduce potential customers to the latest offerings by musical artists then radio had to remain a free, unencumbered, option for listeners.
But then the internet’s popularity brought about some very big changes, very quickly, and most everybody in the recording/broadcast world was caught looking in the other direction. Before anyone really knew how to control the issue, consumers were finding the convenience of downloading individual songs far more to their liking, than buying a whole CD at a record store.
I mentioned, AGR is a talk formatted internet offering, so what do I care that music stations are dropping out of the picture? I care because of why this has become their only option. And I see this as only the tip of a very nasty iceberg intended to bring regulations and restrictions to bear upon every type of Christian outreach effort.
Now before you completely pooh-pooh my premise take a look at what has happened over the last couple of years:
Today’s ‘digital age’ has seriously altered what had been the status quo. (And I’m always a proponent of something like that anyway!)
The trouble is instead of embracing this new “internet download” paradigm and reinventing an appropriate business model to address it, the recording industry has opted to hang on to their “old ways” of operating. Having already missed a significant number of opportunities to capitalize on the advances in technology, record labels as a whole, are experiencing a dwindling source of income…and that’s always felt most profoundly in the CEO's take home pay.
After many decades of not being all that fond of being reliant upon their “radio relationship” the labels are further damaging this acrimonious alliance by reaching out their radio “friends” now and asking them to now pick up the tab for the labels long standing “head-in-the-sand” attitude by paying a newer, higher, and absurd level of licensing fees associated with every song played over the airwaves. (It’s important to note that radio stations already pay a similar fee directly to the composers and publishers…plus the record labels already get another nice chunk of change when the station streams over the World Wide Web anyway. These fees, by the way, have unexplainably increased 1000% in just the last four years.)
Certainly the U.S. Congress has not been blind to this issue. They have, in due process, implemented what they call “fair rate negotiations” between record labels, mainstream radio, public radio and every other form of broadcast entity save Christian radio…You should be hearing alarm bells going off right about now!
In a nutshell, the costs of paying for the right to stream music over the internet can be recouped by commercial radio stations because they sell advertising. (That’s why you have all those annoying pop-ups and commercial what-not’s prior to your download starting.) On the flip side non-commercial endeavors, as many Christian stations are classified, are not allowed to sell advertising and therefore are at the mercy of listener support to continue operating. Just to compound the insipid unfairness in all of this, National Public Radio (NPR) a non-commercial outreach that is allowed to receive donations from listeners also receives funding from the U.S. government. Do you think this option is available for Christian broadcasters? It isn’t.
The latest form of Congressional shenanigans involves what is being called a “Performance Tax”. This wonderfully bright idea, derived at the behest of record labels, means a further tax is now being assessed for every song played, anytime, on any radio station…resulting in merely adding an additional fee to an already escalating cost of doing business for radio broadcasters to begin with. As such you’ll invariably begin seeing fewer and fewer non-commercial Christian radio stations altogether as they simply can’t be expected to absorb such costs across the board without the benefit of selling advertising or asking their supporters for more and more money to foot the bill. Inquiring minds may ask, “Well, why don’t the Christian stations just go out and compete in the marketplace for advertising revenue?” (Christian broadcasters with integrity have typically bristled at the notion of being a commercial enterprise…allowing for an ages old understanding that when you have to deal with the man with the gold, he is always under the impression that he should get to make the rules. And that has never made for smooth sailing.)
So where things stand now, Christian broadcasters are having a gun held to their heads by both Congress and the record labels. (Although theoretically Congress is looking in to this discrepancy, and the record labels – you should realize not all Christian music is produced by record labels that embrace Christian ethics – want to hold off on making any concessions to Christian stations until they see how this Performance Tax trick plays out.) It’s nothing more than a pay to play scenario that is excessively more costly for Christian radio stations than everybody else.
Overall, you are continuing to see radio broadcasters bearing the brunt of a variety of legal wrangling that is driving up their costs of producing the products they provide. The end result is that this causes a diluting in the focus of their content. This issue with Christian music is only one of the first steps in what will next be seen when conservative talk-radio will be required to present, in equal measure, contrasting viewpoints to their content all under what has been deemed “The Fairness Act” – no time to get in to that hornet’s nest right now, but this has the potential of impacting AGR. Anyway every broadcaster will be expected to find the means to absorb these increasing costs of operation if they want to keep broadcasting within the parameters of the legal domain.
I’m really concerned by the way things appear to be are going, it may very soon become tantamount to a criminal act to even call yourself a Christian. And professing the good news of Jesus Christ will become a perilous risk. Perhaps even becoming a preamble to events described in the Book of Revelation, “Then the beast was allowed to speak great blasphemies against God... slandering his name and his dwelling—that is, those who dwell in heaven. And the beast was allowed to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And he was given authority to rule over every tribe and people and language and nation. And all the people who belong to this world worshiped the beast. They are the ones whose names were not written in the Book of Life before the world was made—the Book that belongs to the Lamb who was slaughtered.
Anyone who is willing to hear should listen and understand. The people who are destined for prison will be arrested and taken away. Those who are destined for death will be killed. But do not be dismayed, for here is your opportunity to have endurance and faith.”
Revelation 13:5-10
Ever yours regardlessly,
mike
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