I’ve been associated with a far number of stations over the years, between runnning my own and dj’ing on and helping to manage several others. Aside from the primary server/routers that host the main server, much of the bandwidth we used (via mirrors) was donated by various fans of the station who happened to be involved in IT on some level, either running their own server somewhere or perhaps in a higher position at a hosting company, where they have the freedom & authority to ‘give away’ bandwidth. This is just an example of the things that supporters of these stations have done to help the ’cause’ or ’support the scene’ or whatever.

These stations would have still have been around were it not for things like this, but it difinately increased the listenerbase and stability quite a bit. Now if DRM had been a requirement, not only would we have had to deal with finding licenses for whatever server side method that required (windows media server, real server etc) but each relay would also have needed to pay the ‘use tax’ to handshake the format and distribute it.

This means that aside from illegal copies of the software the cost burden would have been increased quite a bit. This is compared to a simple SAM license using Shoutcast/Oddcast/Icecast to stream and serve as relays. The main cost here is a windows hosting box and SAM, there are OSX & even Linux variants that are similarly priced or cheaper. This is easily covered out of pocket after the initial SAM purchase, and then as things scale up donations can help mitigate increased expenses for the hosting machine & bandwidth.

Some of the larger stations are run more “officially”, but imo quite a few of the shoutcast streams have similar paths of how they were started and are maintained, ie as hobbies and labors of love by fans of music and culture, rather than by someone who is looking to derive their income from it.

This really breaks profiteering business models. With someone who is intent on monetizing their station the RIAA move to make the online music streaming business ‘mature’ prematurely only means that they must scale up faster than they had otherwise intended. With someone who is doing it just for the enjoyment of the music & culture it means that the ‘maturing’ of their platform takes it beyond where they want to go, turning it into a job.

As parallel to the Soundexchange ‘blanket’ license to collect fees…I can’t see allowing someone a blanket license to collect ‘fees’ from anyone who owns a musical instrument, under the idea that ‘professional’ musicians should be able to afford it, and to heck with the amateur or hobbyist.

Sometimes i really wish some amongst our community, and by this i mean a representation of what i believe to be the norm of new and old media usage, could sit down with both the commercial dinosaurs and the law makers. We would start by showing them how this media is actually being made and distributed in the real world, and the new models of marketing emerging. Then we can take them into the twilight zone of… infringement. Both the Scene releases and the casual typical usage of mum and dad, little sister and whoever else might respond to the relentless marketing and how they actually “consume”.

It really strikes me as bizarre how there seems to really be a failure to understand where we all are in 2007. Im a late 20’s DBA who like most of my generation grew up with computers, from C64’s to the DOS era and literally, the birth of both CD’s and the internet. The average person of my generation grew up through the IRC XDCC and FSERVE days and can micro-manage torrents in their sleep. Most of us have used the likes of (certain free software) to backup our retail DVD’s and most of us have no qualms doing so, knowing full well from the birth of CD’s how sad it is to lose something tangible due to a design flaw… a scratch put my “Everything Everything” Underworld live DVD in the bin, thus throwing away easily AUD $30. What logic driven sentient being wouldn’t utilise tools to protect their assets? RIAA feel free to workshop a response on that one.

Moving on, we know how to manipulate any file format out there, and can google how to within minutes if we dont. We YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and all the cascading worlds of the new internet medium. So when it comes down to the actual points of worry from the likes of the RIAA and the points they dare offer as tangible (yet unapproachable) points of contention and reasons for demands of change and licensing… is it not almost offensive? We are by and large the generation that has invented and developed most of these technologies and have done so unfettered by the bizarre politics which sees these employees of old media giants go to such extremes of logic. We are generally GOOD PEOPLE, who BUY COOL THINGS, though unfortunately we have logic and reasoning skills and dont play by the nudge nudge wink wink self preservation rules of say, Sony. Blackhat scandal anyone?

I ramble a bit but i grow more and more tired of shouting my points into a void of logic against these media monsters. I straddle both sides of the argument but oddly enough, i sleep well at night even as an artist. I have been a part of a few albums that sold well, i see APRA royalties for radio and live performance play and get label cheques from time to time. I hope people dont pirate too much and hope they come to our gigs… and… they do! On the flipside i live a moderately comfortable life and enjoy buying digital music because i hate CD’s (too many, too much space, pointless “artwork”, fragile medium) and like the games i buy, or movies, i think there is an affordable solution in terms of price point. Lets not even start on the environmental impact of millions of CD’s each year being made, driven and flown around the world and ultimately, as far as my own use goes, getting ripped to hdd and then thrown in a cupboard.

I applaud the likes of Ableton in creative marketing to sell their software (one of the first DAW’s i bought!) and have abandoned ALL Sonic Foundry software released since Sony bought it (another topic entirely). I, like my generation, will pay for our entertainment but at the same time, we are the products of our youth and a life of being marketed to has made us able to chew through products and entertainment like never before. Higher volume publishing is here (this thing called the World Wide Web) and with every single marketing tool saying “this is AWESOME! BUY IT”, i have always been amazed at the logic of legal action over distribution reform. If I made potato soup, and heard of some kids with a cool way of pouring potato soup into each others saucepans, I’d be inclined to get that technology myself and A) see if I can take ownership of bettering it and putting a price point on it or B) find out quickly whether its time to get into making chocolate cake instead, having my own mouths to feed I’m hardly likely to enjoy riding a sinking ship. What I WOULDN’T do is send in some burly lads with truncheons to bash the kids up, and probably lose the secret of the technology at source.

Naff analogy? Yeah, that’s my style. Still, that’s the whole post-Napster thing lingering as a good point to look back upon. How many tracks has iTunes sold to date? Can we get some historical quotes from labels that actually claimed online sales would never happen whilst people are able to get for free? Torrent communities will always exist but how profitable are the likes of Beatport (my fav!) and iTunes? Still we get yearly cooked up figures about how album sales are down, meant to leverage the arguments about pirating and DRM but viewed on a macro level as PR fodder amid the other label coverage… payola scams, law suits, petulant heavy metal drummers whinging endlessly and even in Australia the disgusting abuse of “promo only” albums by APRA staff, making wish lists for free booty.

So now… internet streaming. Wow. A bizarre frontier to deploy the troops. I guess as per the above, with nothing but horrible public image being expressed its easy to continue down this insane path of attack without pause. Shock and Awe worked so well for the American military geniuses so why not use it in business. How effective is this for radio though? With countless means to set up and maintain and even effectively (freely) publicize a “pirate” radio station (and all within a few hours!) again i find myself asking the same question as the naptser era, as the whole digital thing full stop…

Why are they attacking rather then embracing?

Here’s a tip. Hold back a few lobbyist “gifts”, fire your DRM experts (we can crack whatever they come up with anyway) and use that money to hire some of my generation. Why? Lets see… realism, reality, the real world, real life.

You know, the kind that invented Google. Or… perhaps you “Yahoo”? No? What you mean all those tv ads and product placement in movies didnt work? Hmm… i’m sure we can sue someone about that.