Radio Broadcasters and RIAA Have the desire to make FM Chips in Mobile phones Required By Law [Radio]

Ars is reporting that the National Association of Broadcasters and the RIAA are in talks to strike a compromise that may end in a Congressional mandate to include FM radios in phones and other portable electronics. Thanks but no thanks?

Here’s the setup: Under the current, longstanding framework, FM radio broadcasters wouldn’t have to pay artists and record labels performance rights-an important fee that satellite and web radio services must pay-once they play a song on air. A bill currently winding its way through Congress, the Performance Rights Act, would force FM radio stations to pay up, too, though they suspect that they ought to be exempt, as they’re essentially just promoting the artists first of all.

But the two groups are flirting with a compromise that may lessen radio broadcasters’ fee (to the tune of a more manageable $100 million a year) in exchange for a mandate from Congress that every one phones, PDAs, and other portable electronics must contain FM radio chips. MusicFIRST, a lobbying group of which RIAA is a member, says that this sort of mandate would give customers more music choices. Hmm? Gary Shaprio, president of the buyer Electornics Assocation, says ” to have Congress mandate broadcast radios in portable devices, including cell phones, is the height of absurdity.” Yes, that’s a chunk more adore it.

It’s clear that the music industry, as it exists currently, should change drastically. But this sort of behavior-essentially looking to stuff probably the most cutting-edge gadgets with guts for an increasingly outdated and outmoded broadcast platform-show that the lumbering recording industry giants are still thinking like lumbering giants. Maybe they’ll finally wisen up, or go extinct, next year. [Ars]

Image credit diloz

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This post is tagged: broadcasters, chips, desire, Law, Phones, radio