Yahoo, as well as Pandora, MTV, Real/Rhapsody and many others are honoring the “day of silence” today in protest of the ridiculous new royalty rates for Internet radio stations.
The big music labels have lobbied to get the U.S. government to really stick it to Internet radio stations, when terrestrial radio stations pay nothing to play songs and Satellite providers pay a greatly reduced rate.
There is little Internet radio stations can do to fight back except protest, and just about everyone is on board for a day-long shut down today, June 26, 2007.
But not Last.fm, as we previously reported.
Is this a result of their recent acquisition by a huge U.S. media conglomerate, or was it simply a decision made “long ago” not to participate? See Last.fm’s defense here, and you make the call.