KCRW halts free streams - the sounds of royalty-infused silence

“There was a great disturbance in the force” ….

A lot of new artists and indie music got silenced today by the new royalties.

Hat tip to Michael J, who showed me that Los Angeles-based 89.9 KCRW’s free streaming has gone silent and General Manager Ruth Seymour has just posted the station will now have to pay fees for every listener and have stopped their free streaming, causing bar charts to go erily flat.Â

And this is not just ANY web radio station - this is KCRW, which streams 1.6 million streaming hours per month via Real Networks, AOL Radio, Shoutcast, Windows Media and iTunes. In January, 2007, nearly 1M KCRW podcasts were downloaded and 470k connections were made to its streaming audio service.Â

For more information, please visit:

- SaveTheStreams.org (created by Radio and Internet Newsletter)

- Anxious Times for Net Radio, The Wall Street Journal, March 12, 2007

- Webcasters Find Congressional Allies Over CRB Ruling at Hearing, Radio and Internet Newsletter, March 8, 2007

- Ruling Could Hit Internet Radio’s Stop Button (audio), Marketplace, March 7, 2007

- Fee Ruling May Imperil Internet Radio, The Los Angeles Times, March 7, 2007

- Webcast Royalty Rate Decision Announced, Radio and Internet Newsletter, March 2, 2007

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