Radio Advertising

Labels may not care too much about sales of sound recordings knowing that the market for them is going away. Indeed, I have read statements by executives with some of the major labels actually hinting at just that. Some are saying that their future viability will be as music promoters getting a cut of all of an artist's various revenue streams such as ticket sales, tee shirts, etc. The thing to keep in mind, however, is WHATEVER business model the RIAA labels might have in mind for themselves in the future, the ONLY way it will succeed is if the major labels are somehow able to preserve the "gatekeeper" status that they have held for decades by means of their ability to influence which recordings are brought to the public's attention by means of airplay. The need to be able to secure airplay will be just as crucial if they are pushing particular concert artists as it was when they were pushing sales of particular recordings. So one WHATEVER the RIAA's game plan is with regard to this royalty mess, there is one thing you can COUNT on: their ultimate objective above all else is to preserve and perpetuate their historical role as "gatekeeper" in determining which artists get a shot at hitting the big time and becoming famous. If the RIAA labels are not able to preserve this role for themselves - well, regardless of their future business model, they will have no special advantage over anyone else out there in the marketplace providing the same services. Indeed, they would actually be at a disadvantage because of the financial weight of their legacy business obligations and global corporate bureaucracies.
With that in mind - just for fun, I will put on my tin foil hat and throw out what I admit is a pretty wild conspiracy theory that is based on nothing more than recent news stories and my projection of the logical motives of the various players involved.
Here goes: What if the NAB is only bluffing when it says it is on the side of webcasters in this? Think about... [continues]

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