New York, NY (May 16, 2008) – With the decision on new royalty rates looming, indie artists and their digital broadcast counterparts could be standing on common ground when the new rates are announced later this year.
The American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) released a statement asking for patience from artists as they continue to deal with the conundrum of paying indie artists for plays while still attempting to be financially viable operations. From the PR:
… A2IM believes that independent labels and artists need to be fairly compensated for their creativity and investment, but is concerned about the economic challenges facing Pure Play webcasters. For this class of broadcasters, A2IM continues to support SoundExchange's continued effort to find a statutory licensing solution structure that allows growth and development of these nascent businesses, without devaluing an important future income source for the small- and medium-sized businesses and artists that make up the independent community.
Read the rest of the entry here.
Now, indie Internet radio isn’t exactly bringing hydrogen-powered cars to the streets, but I found another article (courtesy of The Coolfer, as well) and want to make a connection. Indie radio essentially operates to benefit you, the unsigned or underground artist. They go out of their way to seek out new talent and surface it for fans and, of course, said artist. Would you, as a working artist and financially independent person, reward a company for it’s excellence in helping you and artists like you?
The Wall Street Journal ran an interesting article the other day asking “Does Being Ethical Pay?” The majority of the responses they got said “yes.” Here’s some brief background:
…In all of our tests, consumers were willing to pay a slight premium for the ethically made goods. But they went much further in the other direction: They would buy unethically made products only at a steep discount.
What's more, consumer attitudes played a big part in shaping those results. People with high standards for corporate behavior rewarded the ethical companies with bigger premiums and punished the unethical ones with bigger discounts.
Finally, we discovered that companies don't necessarily need to go all-out with social responsibility to win over consumers. If a company invests in even a small degree of ethical production, buyers will reward it just as much as a company that goes much further in its efforts.
So if someone were looking out for you, how would you repay that debt? Would you even consider it a debt? What is your responsibility to the people around you?
