Carp Update

Streaming Media Expo

New York City 10-2-02

Kevin Shipley - Kurt Hanson - John Jeffry - Allan Wallace

I had the pleasure of meeting John Jeffry and Raghav Gupta of Live365 recently when I attended a CARP update at the Streaming Media Expo here in NYC. There was a very distinguished panel of CARP detractors, Kurt Hanson of Save Internet Radio fame, Kevin Shivley of Beethoven.com, as well as John Jeffry from Live365.   They all did an excellent job of explaining the maze of issues involved in the current CARP talks from their perspective.  It was interesting that neither artists, unions, or the RIAA were represented on the panel.  I'm not sure if this was by choice or due to a lack of response from the parties mentioned.   Allan Wallace of alanwallace.com served as moderator.

The panel was animated, and attendance was fair for a 4 PM conference. I counted 23 people in the audience and I gathered about half of the audience was familiar with the CARP royalty debate. I saw Microsoft badges and several press badges floating around. No major press coverage or animated interest level from the general public was to be seen, however.  Maybe we need a coalition of major artists from different musical genres to bring our cause to the attention of the public, and the politicians. Where's Barbara when you really need her:). But I digress, back to the CARP update.

The synopsis:

• As of the conference date, October 2nd, only 18 days  remain to past due ( four years) royalty payment date under the present ruling.
• HR 5469 (the six month royalty payment delay bill) was shelved by Congress and - 
• A small group, Kevin Shipley of Beethoven.com among them, sworn to secrecy, is gathered at a undisclosed location, to hammer out an agreement that is satisfactory to the Artists (and their union - AFL_CIO), the RIAA, and the diverse broadcasting community.  All this must happen by Friday, October 4th,  or the royalty due date stays as it is. 
  

Kevin was not optimistic about being able to work out a rate that would allow Beethoven.com to turn a profit. He represents a "for profit" station and although considered small, by our standards is a giant in the community. Hobbyists like us are in the equation only from a royalty standpoint. We may have minimal royalties, but if I understood the argument, Live collectively on our behalf, may have rates like Yahoo. As we all have rates for bandwidth here with Live, a royalty hit like that for Live, wouldn't be good for us. I sensed that as Live is not part of these secret proceedings, John was at the least concerned that Live may get played that way. The politics of the current negotiations was interesting to hear. 

The panel members were very open and the I think all of us left with a better understanding of what CARP is and what it will mean to internet radio. I was impressed with what the gentlemen on the panel have been trying to do to garner consumer and political support for a more reasonable ruling. I could tangibly feel the commitment to the cause, all of the panel members exuded. No matter how this all plays out, I think all of the internet radio community owes a debt of gratitude to these guys and many others like them.

So Friday is a big day!