Re: OT: CARP passed- this sucks.

["Jonathan El-Bizri" <ssrndpty@hotmail.com>]

> So yes, I absolutely agree. if the costs go up, I need to do a better job
> of bringing up the revenues as well. I can easily see that on LD I'm not
> doing all that great of a job with that, and with a better effort I could
> be doing a lot better. I can also take my experiences running medium 
>sized
> internet sites and easily look at Live365 or other webcasters, and say
> exactly the same thing. They suck at making money off their web
properties.
> They are probably a bunch of engineers or college kids or whatever, who
are
> completely clueless about sales and marketing and business operations,
> fumbling around and trying to make it work out just like me.

I don't think this is the complete story. They probably have scads of
marketers and MBA on board.

The fact of the matter is, making money off web properties is very, very,
very hard. I would say, without a specific resource that was compeling
enough to have people qualmless to pay cash straight up, pretty much
impossible (If people would be othewise willing to pay straight up for
something, then you have the leeway to incorporate whatever monetization
scheme you wish.) The only way that these places have been able to stay
alive so long was by 'apropriating' their content.

> difference though: Broadcasting other people's music is obviously going 
>to
> cost something, and they had to know that a long time ago because it's in
> the law. Just the details weren't clear. If they didn't plan for it,
> they're idiots. So now they know how much it costs. Great, stop crying, 
>go
> plug the numbers into the business plan, figure out what you need to do 
>to
> stay afloat, and go make it work. Most likely they already have that
> figured out.
>

The big problem with all of this, from my perspective as a publishing
musician, listener, and that of the stations that I used to frequent (
monkeyradio.org , somafm.com , bassdrive.com etc, etc) is that the money
isn't staying in the system. If you stream music, you pay, and the money 
you
pay goes to the artists on the Billboard charts. If the money was coming
back to the artists who made the music in the first place, then there would
probably be some way of solving the issue. Perhaps artists could share 
their
revenues with the stations that broadcast their music, or sign off their
fees in exchange for air time. However, the way it's set up now, it's just
another mouth at the table, and bigger than all the others.

> Now if this were happening to LD, would I fight those added costs? Of
> course! Would I cynically manipulate all of you to fight on my side, even
> though it is not in your benefit? Better believe it! I would be telling
you
> that all web communities like LD will be destroyed and the internet we
know
> and love will be ruined forever, even if I knew it wasn't true? Yep! 
>Would
> you fall for my BS? Apparently so. At the same time I would be doing all
> the planning and accounting in the background to figure out what needed 
>to
> be done to make it work. Without even doing much homework, I can see
> options available to me that would allow LD to survive if a similar
royalty
> were applied here. Would I tell you about any of that while I'm engaged 
>in
> the fight? no.
>
> So when all of these webcasters are crying and moaning that these new
> royalty rates are exorbitant and oppressive, I think they are full of
crap.
> I just don't believe that story at all. They're not going out of business
> from it unless they just roll over and die without even trying. They just
> have to go figure out how to sell real advertising instead of "the museum
> of musical instruments" or whatever other pathetic ads I listen to all 
>day
> on these stations. If they can't figure that out, then they will be going
> out of business anyway.
>

I agree, they've been stealing just like everyone else. However, the 
problem
hasn't been fixed, just modified in favour of bigger fish. While it may
appear to be a step in the right direction, since fair play and the common
interest are not in the minds of anyone with cards at the table, I doubt
whether the upshot will benefit myself, either as a consumer or a producer.

>I've steadily brought things in line to where I about break even on the
>monthly operating costs. I'm still way behind on covering the capital
>expenditures, so LD is a ways away from anything like "profitability". And
>I'm nowhere close to covering all the money I've sunk into this so far. 
>All
>told, LD is still about $25,000 in the red, financed by me. Maybe I'll get
>that back someday, maybe not. As I see it, it's mainly up to me to deal
>with the reality of that. And I am dealing with it reasonably well, and I
>expect to have a self-sustaining operation out of it before too long.
>

Damn!! My hats off to you sir for your amazing efforts. That's two 
miracles,
including the EDP. You've got one to go before sainthood, though I think
many here will disagree with me.

Jonathan