A crazy scheme in which you pay a monthly fee and get unlimited music, huh? Imagine that.

Part of what was strange about flat fee advocate Jim Griffin’s new proposal for an ISP monthly fee for music is that subscription-based music lives already, from digital radio to music services. Amidst rumors that Apple might add subscriptions, the Zune, Rhapsody, and Napster all have flat-fee subscriptions right now, thank you very much. (I’m even told there are music players aside from iPod, though I don’t know if I believe this.)

I was a big fan of YottaMusic, a friendly Web front-end that connected to Rhapsody, and mourned its passing at the beginning of this year. But here’s good news: you can restore Yotta’s best feature, which was keeping track of music played in a Web browser for the superb Last.FM music community service.

Rhobbler

Rhapsody is clever enough not only to work in Web browsers on multiple platforms (even Linux), but generates an RSS feed of music you’ve been playing. Rhobbler hooks into that RSS feed and uploads to Last.FM. It’s a kludge, certainly — I’d love to see this built into the Rhapsody interface, along with other improvements. But it works: sign up once, and you’re done.

As some commenters noted in regards to the Griffin story, there’s a lot of music out there to keep track of — and a lot of us are listening to more than ever before. But that’s why it’s so nice to have tools like Last.FM. I also find, curiously, that subscription music for me feels like on-demand radio; instead of reducing how much music I buy outright, I just buy music I’m even more excited about.

If you’re not already a member, be sure to join our CDM group on Last.FM:

CreateDigitalMusic @ Last.FM

… and yes, promoting your own music there is encouraged! (Albums at right represent albums heard last week by CDM members. And, uh, dude … the group is all guys at the moment. I know ladies reading the site, and Last.FM has plenty of women, so join in and share your listening tastes!)

Music community Last.fm has made a big announcement today: you can now play full-length tracks and entire albums for free on the Web. Last.fm has managed to leap over restrictions on what qualifies as a “jukebox” by signing deals with labels, from indie to biggie. So far, the US, UK, and Germany are covered, but Last.fm promises other parts of the world soon. You don’t get unlimited plays for each track, but a future subscription service will unlock that ability along with other features. (Last.fm’s subscriptions are already a nice feature, so paying a bit extra for that I imagine will appeal to a lot of people.)

So, how do artists get paid? That’s the interesting bit:

• Artists (or whomever the writer / publisher is) continue to collect royalties via collection societies like ASCAP and BMI, as with other services.
• Artists and labels get an additional cut of Last.fm’s ad revenues.
• Last.fm does an excellent job of referring people to digital downloads, via band websites and services like Amazon and iTunes. Those services are increasingly DRM-free (Amazon has the largest DRM-free catalog currently). And you can even go buy a CD if you like.

Beginning to get the picture? The digital age has brought a shift in consumption, but it’s possible it can still bring big revenue opportunities for artists. Connections to live music and merchandise of course can also help, and unlike a service like iTunes, Last.fm’s collections are curated largely by the community of people listening to them — which is good news for artists trying to get discovered.

I’m looking for a catch, but I think the only real catch is seeing whether this will translate into real checks for anyone but the biggest artists. And for that, we’ll just have to see how these services evolve. But by opening the door to full-length plays on Last.fm, that service clears the path for other services to get similar deals, or to connect to Last.fm’s listener data and community for their own service. The business model continues to get better. And for listeners, it’s a dream.

Free the Music [Last.hq, the Last.fm blog]

This may stretch your definition of “good news” for webcasters, but the latest on the Internet Radio crisis runs something like this:

Webcasters don’t yet have to pay new fees for their broadcast. But they’re still accruing debt — fast. Sort of like our credit card debt.

Webcasters may get a small break on the minimum fee, one that could literally have shut down “personalized” radio services. SoundExchange explains the deal thusly:

Under the new proposal, to be implemented by remand to the CRJs, SoundExchange has offered to cap the $500 per channel minimum fee at $50,000 per year for webcasters who agree to provide more detailed reporting of the music that they play and work to stop users from engaging in “streamripping” – turning Internet radio performances into a digital music library.

Note the big attached “ifs”, which are vaguely worded in the official SoundExchange announcement, and sound all the more threatening given, according to SoundExchange, the previous rates are already in effect. Whichever side you’re on here, you have to give SoundExchange some credit for, erm, negotiating skill. “Hey, so while you’re dangled over this bridge, I wonder if we might … negotiate some small items?”

The one shred of good news: apparently Congress has applied some pressure on SoundExchange to negotiate, meaning public action has actually made some difference. Whatever the ultimate solution, it’d be nice to think some sort of public involvement might push the government to do something effective.

Wired has some good reporting on this:
Net Radio Wins Partial Reprieve as Royalties Loom

Meanwhile, I have a partial vacation to get back to. See you soon.

Several readers have observed this quite eloquently, but let’s summarize: laws around music are complicated, messy, and confusing. If they don’t seem that way to you, you’re either a lawyer or you haven’t done your homework. That said, without question, proposed changes to streaming music licensing fees would be devastating to Internet radio, because not just top 40 music requires license fees — even many indie labels are RIAA members and participate in SoundExchange. But here’s the key: they’d be devastating as proposed. And suddenly, at the eleventh hour, SoundExchange seems to be backpedaling. (Their strategy, evidently: push as hard as possible until the last conceivable moment, then find a deal that works for them — while they retain the upper hand at the bargaining table. Surprise, surprise.)

Hear that? Nothing. No, it’s not silence making a political point, as with the Internet Radio Day of Silence staged last week by web radio to protest punishing new royalty rates by showing what they could cause. This is an even more disturbing silence: as the deadline for new US rates for Net radio approaches, online radio’s supporters seem to be desperate and exhausted.

Here’s the problem: net radio supporters, concerned that new rates (and the backdated royalty rates that would be owed along with them) could kill Internet radio, haven’t exactly gotten a lot of good news lately. They’ve failed to stop the new rules in the courts: the U.S. Court of Appeals denied a “motion to stay” that could further postpone the ticking clock. And, despite overwhelming public support that jammed fax machines and stunned Members of Congress, the U.S. Congress has failed to actually bring a bill to the floor. Members were happy to co-sponsor legislation and say nice things to supporters, but not actually try to pass the legislation itself.

Barring any further action, Net radio is going to have a massive bill sitting on its desk this coming Monday. It’ll cover not only the new rates, but months and months of back-dated rates. With public broadcasting in a dire situation already, and independent music struggling to come into its own via fledgling Web outlets, that seems like really bad news.

Interestingly, one major outlet — one we’re big fans of here at CDM — disagrees. Last.fm argues that this is much ado about nothing, not because they’re a UK-based company (international broadcasters are subject to US rules — sorry, guys), but because they’ve managed to negotiate independently with the labels to get rates that work for them. That’s great — for Last.fm. But I question just how relevant this is to anyone else. Aside from the fact that not every single broadcaster can — or should have to — negotiate independently with labels, there’s also the fact that Last.fm can do its own programming around what it’s able to license. That isn’t the case for, say, a college public radio station doing a webstream of its usual programming. Given the strong material evidence presented by other broadcasters, it would seem that, despite Last.fm’s smug, broad pronouncements (ironic coming from a company owned by CBS), their situation is unique.

That means one thing: it’s time to hit the phones, Americans. (Hello, Rest of the World — while our laws may indeed wind up punishing your radio, too, I’m afraid there’s little you can do, other than call your American buddies and tell them to call.)

Call your Senators (you’ve got two of them) and your Representative (one of those). You can find the information here:

Capwiz.com Townhall Contact Info

And, as I’ve said before, there’s all the reason for independent artists to make this call. The new royalty rates in the Congressional bill aren’t perfect, but they would establish a framework for setting fair rates across media in the future. The idea is not to eliminate royalties; it’s to set it a rate that expanding media outlets can cover. More growth for listeners could ultimately mean more royalty rates. And by protecting independent online outlets, artists have an opportunity to ensure the growth of digital media as a means of promoting their work, which can funnel money into better revenue sources for us, from commissions to album sales to live music ticket sales.

For more on the indie artist perspective, see Independent Artists Fear the Demise of Internet Radio from The Baltimore Sun on (ironically) July 4.

Feel free to let us know how your Congresspeople respond here in comments. And let’s hope that this largely inactive Congress can at least bring this important debate to the floor, rather than remaining silent themselves. Wherever you stand, total inaction is the worst kind of silence of all.