Internet has been a blessing for music lovers and people wanting to broadcast but who have always been denied by the arrogance of the *professional radio makers*. The latter have probably thought a lot and have come up with a great idea :

We're back in 1900, so we need to have the government protect our business. Those pirats have to be taxed their way into unemployment.

And the US government went for the bait - a lot of money to be found here. Everyone transmitting radio via the internet now has to pay fee in order to be licensed to operate - a clever way of getting rid of most of them.

Live365 predicts that the rate increase will shut up to 80% of its stations and reduce its 260 broadcasting genres to just 10. Last year, Live365 paid SoundExchange, the group that collects and distributes sound recording royalties, $1 million on behalf of its broadcasters, who pay an average of $60 to run their online radio stations. It is estimated that the retroactive rate increase will force Live365 to owe $4.2 million.()

July 15th will be a sad day for our world. That's the day the new law becomes effective. Read more on Savenetradio.org.

Oh yeah, and many thanks to the lawmakers for no radio today - my headphones are out of a job for the day.