Day of Silence for Internet Radio

Most folks are not like me in some ways. For example, I eat my gardenburgers upside down. If I have any socks on at all, I walk around with only one on usually. I bounce my left leg feverishly for an hour before I notice it.

But, many folks are like me in the way of listening to internet radio, the last free medium for indy artists, multicultural music and channels to lost songs and artists that we'd never hear on commercial radio. And it's free to the listeners. No subscriptions, they survive on donations.

I personally listen to UK and French stations through the internet. I like hearing what's going on in Europe since they are far ahead of us in music trends and I like variety. I mostly like listening to ambient...or "chill" music. It's meditative and helps me be creative in my writing.

Today, I gotta pull out the CDs because internet radio channels are silent to demonstrate how the future will sound if we don't get involved with what's going on in DC these days. There's been a horrific copyright royalty charge on internet radio stations including past years that will put most internet channels out of business. That's the point. The proponents want to silence them, because they can't control them.

There's lots of talks quietly going on around the internet to make it more profitable for large companies. Being an indy filmmaker, and with filmmaking one of the last frontiers to have a voice untouched by profit margin, I tend to step up for whoever the little guy is when the big guy is trying to crush the little guy.

Hey, I grew up on Underdog. I also believe in cooperation and that there's abundance in this world. We don't need to crush and eliminate others so we can advance. Wallace D. Wattles writes about the maturity of a person in their spiritual growth is marked by embracing creativity and not lowering oneself to competition. Yep, this harkens to the philosophy that I learned all I needed to know in kindergarten. Sharing, making room for another so we can all work together balancing our strengths is what benefits us all. There's no reason to silence internet radio, besides fear and lack of control...which is fear.

So, if you appreciate internet radio like you do indy films, free speech blogs like this one and other internet beauties, I highly recommend going to saveinternetradio.com and learn more how you can simply help. The little guy is more representative of who we are as individuals, than the big guy trying to define who we are as a collective. You're needed. Help 'em out and contact your congress person telling them to rescind the enormous royalty charges. It's not that radio doesn't want to pay any, they just can't pay the rate they are being charged.

Extinction of good things can be preserved. Ball's in your court. Thanks.