Internet Radio Day Of Silence

If you're visiting this site for the first time on Tuesday, there's a good chance it's because your favourite internet radio station has gone silent today. If you're not sure why so many stations decided to broadcast dead air today, you need to follow this link to learn more about the battle to save internet radio in the United States. If you don't, what you witnessed today may be the future of internet radio.


Of course, having all my major competitors go silent would be good for me in the short term, but I suspect it would be terrible news in the long term since there's nothing stopping the record companies from trying the same thing in Canada once the precedent has been set down south.

If you're Canadian, there's not much you can do about what's happening in the US, but what you can do is educate yourself on Tariff 22, which is the first step towards crippling internet radio broadcasters in Canada.


I think the folks at RantRadio who created this banner are over-reacting when they describe Tariff 22 as the "death of Canadian internet radio" but I do think the tariff is unfair since the rates are considerably higher than what satellite radio pays. Plus there's a minimum monthly fee which seems designed to create a barrier to market and squash the little guys like me.

Here's a well-written primer by Michael Geist regarding the various laws in America and Canada. Be sure to look out for the comments written by yours truly.