Listener Questions: Will this really affect SomaFM?

A listener writes:

The question I have though is how badly are "ambient" stations like Soma going to be hurt? The music labels that put out this kind of music are not the big boys. I think most of them would realize that this type of broadcast is their best bet for getting heard. Aren't the royalties up to them? As for playing top 40 on the internet. Who cares. Let them have it.

This law covers any and all copyright works, not just recordings owned by the big labels. The RIAA and big labels had a great influence over this law, but it applies to all copyrighted works. In order to play them without royalties, we need to get waivers from the copyright holders. So far many of the copyright holders are reluctant to grant us waivers.

So, we would have to go back and execute licenses directly with every copyright holder whose music we play. That would be a few thousand licenses we'd have to do. Many of the copyright holders won't sign these licenses without having a lawyer look at them, and many of them don't want to pay a lawyer to look it over. Some have already said they won't grant a waiver, even though they like us to play their music.

The reason the statutory law exists is so that radio stations won't have to enter into distinct legal agreements with the hundreds (or in our case thousands) or copyright owners of the material they play. We could easily keep one or more full time paralegals busy managing all the music licensing. It would also put large delays in the time from when we pick a song to play and when we're legally allowed to play it over the air.

Ironically, direct licensing works best for people playing the Top 40. You can enter into blanket direct licenses with the Big 4 labels pretty easily. But their license terms encourage you to play the music they're pushing heavily and discouraging you from playing the songs they're not pushing.

I believe that it is best for the listeners when we choose music based solely on its artistic merit, and not on any financial concerns. If we're playing a song just because it costs us less to play it than another song, isn't that the same as us taking payola to play a song?