Soul 24-7.com goes 'live' this Friday 

 

After almost 7 months in the waiting, my favourite soul station Soul 24-7.com makes a welcomed return to the cyberspace airwaves as they go back 'live' status this Friday morning (Aug 2nd) at 10am BST - (British Standard time) 5am EST. Not known yet is the 1st show to take to the airwaves but that will announced later on this week.   

A topic being discussed on the  now infamous 'Soul Forum' is which record will be the first one played on the show (whoever's that may be). You can cast your vote by going to the forum at www.soul24-7.com. I'm extremely pleased too as I might be considered as a guest DJ on the station in the near future and if all goes well there then who knows maybe a residency spot (now that would be nice) fingers crossed eh. Shout out to my peeps in Da Soul Family'      

 

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File sharing 'self-help' is toted as 'Paranoid' 

 

Civil-liberties groups and some copyright lawyers cried foul yesterday (July 25) as Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) introduced legislation that would remove liability from copyright holders that employ "self-help" technological measures to address infringement on peer-to-peer networks, Billboard Bulletin reports.

Robin Gross, an intellectual-property lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says the legislation amounts to "vigilanteism in the extreme" and is evidence of a "paranoid" music industry that is unwilling to experiment with new business models.

The backlash came despite the fact that the bill is narrowly crafted, with built-in safeguards. According to its sponsors, the bill would allow copyright holders to employ such measures as interdiction, file-blocking, and spoofing on peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks. However, it would not allow copyright holders to "send viruses through P2P networks, destroy files, hack into the personal files of P2P users, or indiscriminately block lawful file-trading," Berman said in his introduction. It also would not allow copyright owners -- whose self-help measures would be monitored by the Department of Justice -- to damage the property of intermediaries, including Internet service providers.

Still, Peter Jaszi, a professor of copyright law at Washington, D.C.'s American University, calls the bill "violently anti-consumer." He adds: "It seems as if they will not only be allowed to enter the computers of massive file sharers, but that of my daughter. And then there's the privacy issue: If this were a hard-goods [allegation] of piracy, they'd have to go get a warrant. But here it's enough if they have reason to believe there's something beyond fair-use file-sharing to employ these technologies." .

Source - billboard.com

 

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Soulful 'Ladies' dominate nods for upcoming 'Lady of Soul' Awards.  

 

The 8th Annual Lady of Soul awards are just around the corner and it seems that the young crop soulful ladies lead the way in nominations this year with current chart topper and reigning hip hop princess Ashanti is ahead of the with 5 nods to her credit including 'R&B/Soul Album of the Year' and 'Rap Song of the Year'

The late Aaliyah comes in a close second with 4 nominations on her behalf including "Rock the Boat" --  which garnered the R&B/soul single, solo and R&B/soul song of the year, while the supporting video is nominated in the R&B/soul or rap music video category. Her self-titled Blackground/Virgin album is up in the R&B/soul album of the year and Alicia Keys comes in a strong 3rd with 3 nods.The rest of the nominees show Mary J. Blige, Destiny's Child, Exhale, and Isyss featuring Jadakiss each received two nominations. Additionally, Ashanti will receive the Aretha Franklin Entertainer of the Year Award and actress Angela Bassett will be honored with the Lena Horne Award for outstanding career achievements. 

The awards will be held at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in California and will be co-hosted by Arsenio Hall, Jill Scott, and "Soul Train" host Shemar Moore, and will be broadcast live on KTLA Los Angeles and nationally through the Tribune Broadcasting show's affiliatess.

Here is the full list of nominees   .

 

Best R&B/soul single, solo: "Rock the Boat," Aaliyah "A Woman's Worth," Alicia Keys "Foolish," Ashanti "Brown Skin," India.Arie	Best R&B/soul single, group, band or duo: "Pootie Tangin'," 702 "Emotion," Destiny's Child "Chillin' In Your Benz," Exhale "Day & Night," Isyss featuring Jada Kiss
R&B/soul album of the year, solo: "Aaliyah," Aaliyah "Songs in A Minor," Alicia Keys "Ashanti," Ashanti "No More Drama," Mary J. Blige	R&B/soul album of the year, group, band or duo: "Sunny Days," Allure "Survivor," Destiny's Child
R&B/soul or rap song of the year: "Rock the Boat," Aaliyah "Fallin'," Alicia Keys "Foolish," Ashanti "Family Affair," Mary J. Blige	Best R&B/soul or rap new artist, solo: "Foolish," Ashanti "Nothing in This World," Keke Wyatt featuring Avant "Addictive," Truth Hurts featuring Rakim "Oops (Oh My)," Tweet
Best R&B/Soul or Rap New Artist, Group, Band or Duo "Everyday's a Party," Damozel "Still Not Over You," Exhale "Night & Day," Isyss featuring Jadakiss	Best R&B/Soul or Rap Music Video "Rock the Boat," Aaliyah "Foolish," Ashanti "One Minute Man," Missy "Misdemeanor Elliott" "Told Y'All," Trina
Best gospel album: "Cece Winans," Cece Winans "My Everything," Helen Baylor "God Is Faithful," La Shun Pace "Believe," Yolanda Adams

Source - billboard.com

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KPIG the 1st to close shop as new royalty rates take effect  

 

The first commercial radio station to cybercast its over-the-air playlist is among the first to fall victim to newly imposed royalty rates for online broadcasts.

KPIG stopped streaming music online Thursday, ending a near seven-year run on the Internet. According to its own estimates, the small-scale station would have been forced to pay $24,000 in back royalties (or approximately $3,000 per month) from this year alone on an arm of the station that generates little or no revenue on its own. It was purely for the benefit of those who were interested in hearing it.

Based in Freedom, California, KPIG's 2,850-watt signal spans only a 32-mile radius, though the audience for its eclectic playlist — something of a difficult commodity to come by on the conventional radio dial — far outgrew that perimeter thanks to its Internet stream.

"KPIG's owners have decided to suspend our live webcast until a reasonable solution can be found on the issue of performance royalties," reads a message posted on the station's Web site, www.kpig.com. "The fees currently set by the U.S. Copyright Office are absolutely unworkable, given the current Internet Radio marketplace. Until a new fee structure is set, or until we are offered a workable alternative by the major record companies that control the bulk of the copyrights, we will not be able to webcast our programming ... We sincerely hope that this is just a temporary setback."

The new royalty rate that KPIG programmers say are forcing them to pull the plug on their cybercasting stems from a decision reached by the U.S. Copyright Office in June, which required stations — both conventional ones that cybercast their playlists and those that broadcast online only — pay a fee of 0.07 cents per listener per song. The contentious fee, payable to artists and labels, is part of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which dictated that copyright owners be compensated when their work is presented online, although a much-debated rate was only announced last month. As such, the royalties are retroactive to October 1998, when the DMCA passed.

Online stations, like their terrestrial counterparts, have always paid royalties to songwriters and publishers. Those rates are based on a percentage of a station's revenue, not its listenership. Conventional stations are exempt from paying a fee to artists and labels because of a congressional decision reached decades ago that defined over-the-air broadcasts as free promotion for the artists and their albums. KPIG isn't completely devoid of an Internet presence, however, as it continues to broadcast previously recorded in-studio performances and station-sponsored concerts, which aren't subject to the new royalties.

KPIG is one of about 50 stations, both conventional ones that cybercast their programming and Internet-only stations, that have ceased online operations since the U.S. Copyright Office's decision last month. Other brick-and-mortar stations that have pulled their own plug include rock stations WLUP (Chicago), WMMR (Philadelphia) and WAAF (Boston), but it's the loss of stations offering genres that aren't as readily available on the FM dial that is most upsetting to listeners.

SomaFM, an online-only station specializing in electronic music, shut things down almost immediately after the decision was handed down. Program director Rusty Hodge said he wasn't opposed to paying a fee to artists and labels, but thought the rate should be based on a percentage of his revenues. After all, if he wasn't making any money doing this — chalking it up as more of a labor of love than capitalist venture — why should the recording industry?

Source - soulnotes.cc