SoundExchange on ``the only reason people listen to internet radio``

This was in a recent press release from SoundExchange:

"The music created by artists is the main reason why people listen to internet radio, and those artists should be fairly compensated for the value they bring to each webcaster's business," said John Simson, Executive Director of SoundExchange. "Yet, the webcasters refuse to acknowledge this common sense fact. Webcasters have a number of opportunities to maximize revenue with a captive audience attracted by music created by artists through banner ads, pop-ups, video pre-rolls, audio commercials and other avenues of revenue generation. While we want internet radio to succeed, it is only fair that artists be compensated for the value of their work which forms these services' business."

I find this statement, on its face, insulting.

The value of an internet radio music station comes from the management and music directors at the station who choose the pick the music that their audiences want to hear. Do you think anyone would listen to a radio station that just played and songs that the labels sent to us? Most of the music that's sent to us (especially from the larger labels) is crap. It is a significant job to go through all that music and sort it out, finding the gems, sorting the wheat from the chaff. Not to mention all the work of delivering the music to our listeners, and the work that goes into building the community around our stations.

It's very insulting that the record labels and members of SoundExchange's board think this. Perhaps that's why the Big 4 record labels are doing so poorly, perhaps they should be more selective about what music they release to the public! But saying that internet radio is getting rich off someone else's product is just insulting. I know that if we stopped hunting for music and just played the material the big labels are releasing now, people would tune away in droves.

People listen to Groove Salad because we expose them to all kinds of music they've never heard before. And I have letter after letter from people telling me that after finding our station, they went out and bought lots of CDs by artists they wouldn't have ever known about before hearing them on SomaFM.

We, and most other small webcasters, are extremely dedicated to our programming: that is choosing the best music, and putting it together in a way that the program flows from song to song. We present the music in a setting that makes it the most attractive to the listener. If music is the product, Radio is the packaging. When is the last time you bought something in an ugly package? And Apple and others have shown that packaging makes a product much more appealing.

It's time that our value as radio programmers is recognized. The value of internet radio is not just the value of the music that's played.