A couple of great posts about internet radio revenues in the UK, from James (late of these parts) and Kevin Coy.
While I might rail on incessently about record companies desperately trying to extend copyright periods for no good reason, I passionately believe that performers and artists deserve a fair remuneration for the broadcast of their work in whatever capacity.
Companies like Last.fm seem to just avoid paying fair dues while others stump up.
Have I told you about my great new business idea? It’s called Last.movies. Here’s how it works. You tell me which movies you like, and you can stream them direct to your PC. My clever algorithm finds other movies you might like based on people with similar movie tastes, and the service will stream those movies to you too. It’s great! All you do is log on and watch the movies you love, and movies you don’t know but will love. Now I haven’t done any deals with any Hollywood outfits, but I’m going to stream the movies anyway, and with luck my website will be so big that all the companies will keel over and do business with me at a fair rate determined by me.
What could possibly be the problem with that?
Just because my great idea is to stream movies you might like based on ones you tell me you like, it doesn’t mean that I don’t have to licence those movies