Last week I mentioned how many reports had come to an agreement behind the scenes in development between the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and the RIAA for Congress requires that all portable electronic devices include an FM tuner, in exchange for radio to pay a $ 100 million a year in royalties to artists and record labels.
The pact would be a compromise between the two groups has been struggling with the exemption of long radius of having to pay rates of return under the U.S. copyright law. Radio, which has been responsible for billions of dollars in royalties, achieved a substantial reduction in exchange for support of the RIAA in expanding its scope. The RIAA, in turn, get a nice annual check for $ 100 million is urgently needed to fund continuing decline in CD sales.
After receiving much criticism, NAB executive VP Dennis Wharton is trying to “put things.” He says critics are using a tactic of “custom of Washington” to denigrate this function for the consumer “with arguments that are” long on hype, rhetoric and factual inaccuracies. ”
I think he’s trying to paint critics with the label of Washington in order to make them look outside the mainstream, but I think it’s safe to say that most average people the critics are leery about govt imposes design requirements in place on the tastes of technology companies like Apple or Motorola. If consumers really wanted an FM tuner that they look for phones that they have.
Wharton notes, “The radio audience is growing,” and that “when they are given the choice, consumers like mobile phones capable of radio”, but is it really so? It is public may be growing in power, but I doubt that more people are tuning in those days. Radio is not what it used to be. Consumers are able to make on sites like Last.fm and Pandora to stream commercial-free music till you drop! Companies like Clear Channel radio stripped to a shell of what it was boring.
It is strange cites a study conducted in Latin America and Asia which is 45% of mobile users in radio he listed as one of its three main reasons for buying a cell phone. Bearing in mind that this makes it more popular than Internet access, text messaging, and digital camera function shown by the study is useless in the U.S… Discuss the use of “Washington style” tactics.
Just because people Ecuador or Thailand radio tuners in their phones does not mean that we should require manufacturers to the largest consumer market in the world to include them.
“Subscribers of mobile phones deserve to have free access to radio,” he continues. “In a society where mobile phones and other mobile devices are increasingly ubiquitous, it makes sense to have radio-enabled chips in these devices, especially from the perspective of public safety.”
This is the thing. NAB’s main defense seems to be that including a radio tuner is essential from a perspective of emergency information. It does not seem to get people, for the most part, do not want a radio tuner on your cell phone.