Online Radio

This Washington Post article discusses the issues radio is having, the biggest of which are with online radio. According to the article, other problems include the number of women and minorities in the industry and protection of community radio. Online, there have been battles over whether the stations should pay royalties and if so, how much. There are several proposals going through Congress on royalties. Some stations say that the royalties proposed will put them and their independent artists out of business. For those stations I believe royalties should not be imposed since they’re playing small, independent artists who probably need exposure. If the artists are truly independent and have no label, then I royalties should not be imposed. I agree however that if they play mainstream music with copyrights, they need to pay some money.
I’ve never listened to online radio and I don’t see why it’s popular. The main time I listen to the radio is in the car because I don’t have a CD player or iPod compatibility. According to the textbook, the major time people listen to the radio is when commuting, so I’m not alone in this. Until cars have Internet, which I understand is happening, I don’t think it will have the same popularity as terrestrial radio. I think one plus to online radio is that now that it is free, they have the chance to expose musicians that are not popular yet. However, I don’t see the point of stations that simply play Top 40 hits like normal radio stations. It is interesting to see how radio is changing so much with the introduction of computers, Internet, and other technologies.