Cubicle warriors across the U.S. may be participating in an unintentional moment of silence today. A coalition of internet radio stations including Yahoo! Launch, Live 365, Pandora, Soma FM and others are participating in a day of silence to protest the Copyright Royalty Board’s proposed rate hike that could effectively put most of these services out of business.
A number of terrestrial radio stations are participating as well, by cutting off their music webstreams today.
For a more complete list of participating stations, and for more information about the threat to online radio, visit Kurt Hanson’s Radio and Internet Newsletter.
Update: As TechCrunch points out, last.fm is curiously absent from the list of stations participating in the boycott.
This may or may not have something to do with the fact that the popular internet radio site was recently acquired by CBS, giving the company deeper pockets than many competing services. While last.fm would certainly take a hit under the new rates, they could probably survive, while other services can’t.
On the other hand, you could take last.fm at their word, and accept that they’ve decided a day of silence is counterproductive. Why force users to go without online radio before the new rates even take effect?
Leave a Reply