WFMT Streaming

It seems that WFMT in Chicago is once again streaming audio. The catch? You have to be willing to pay $100 USD to be a part of the club. Sorry, no freebies here in Chicago! WFMT used to offer free streaming services 3 to 4 years ago until many entities decided they should not be broadcasting this music onto the Internet. It isn't quite enough that royalties have been paid to those money-hungry fools at the RIAA (and probably those greedy folks within the American Federation of Musicians too!) to broadcast recordings into the Chicagoland market. Instead, WFMT has now succumbed to paying twice the royalties to broadcast onto the Internet. Luckily, they've created a pricing model to obtain that content, but this sets new standards of "low" for the only classical station left in Chicago.

I could probably rant about this for days, and if you've met me in person, you would have already heard about my dealings with the RIAA and MPAA during my day job. They are reversing the usefulness of the Internet by limiting access to content or pursuing end-users through legal action. Now, I write this as an artist knowing well that artists wish to make money from their performances, recordings, etc., but most of the artists, upon whose behalf the RIAA pursues those file-sharing scoundrels, rarely see any of the money returned from those legal actions. Most artists rarely see all but a small percentage of each dollar of their sales.

There's an interesting segment called Dear Air Online which was aired on National Public Radio in 2001. The case has only worsened, and we are being locked into DRM-restricted technologies that provide micro-controls of your artistic preferences. You can help change this by writing your congressmen and telling them you are not pleased with their passive stance on RIAA/MPAA enforcements, DRM, etc. Even if you prefer to buy CD's at your local music store, there are still reasons why you should be afraid of DRM.

Oh yes, I forgot! To be fair, if you're interested in the streaming service, visit the WFMT Streaming website. It wasn't my intent to bash WFMT in this posting because I have friends who work there. But I do hope more people start considering the "why" behind the costs of listening to their favorite on-air programs.