I’m sitting here listening to one of LA’s classical stations (KUSC, 91.5 FM) while spending a lovely Friday night working :smack:. Only half-listening, I missed the introduction of the work that’s playing as I type this. Now I want to know what it is without waiting for it to end.
No problem, methinks, they put the playlist online. So I go to the station’s playlist page and find that the listings end with the work prior to this one.* Down at the bottom is the following explanation:
I could have sworn I’d come to this before and found future listings for these guys.
So I go to Los Angeles’ other classical station, KMZT 105.1 to see if their situation is the same. It’s not; their playlist runs about a week into the future.
Two questions, neither of which were answered by a quick Google search:[ol][li]What the hell? Why does RIAA have objection to stations posting future playlists?[]Why does KMZT do it, while KUSC apparently cannot? (If it matters, KMZT is fully commercial, while KUSC is owned by the University of Southern California)[/ol][/li] - It constantly updates, and by the time the piece was about halfway over it was reflected on that website. You get no clue what’s coming next, though.
<tin foil hat>If they posted their playlists into the future then someone could go buy a computer with a tuner card and record the song from the broadcast and then put that out on the piracy networks, and so cause the RIAA members to lose trillions of dollars in sales.</tin foil hat>
Because, trust me, no one would ever possibly think to just have it running on a buffer so they could cut out the parts they wanted to save without a heads-up as to what would be played when.
If anything it’s probably to make it difficult for people to make mix tapes from the radio (because people are still doing that… no really). As we all know, no one made mix tapes from the radio prior to the advent of the internet and future indexing of songs to be played.
<actually visits the sites>
It looks like the difference is that KMZT does not offer an internet stream and KUSC does… ergo, KUSC would be bound by the regulations the RIAA bought to quash independent internet radio stations… while KMZT would not. Or it could be a condition of the agreement between KUSC and ArkivMusic. Since Arkiv does not appear to be an RIAA member (good for them) I’d wager it stems from the webcasting… and the notice is a snarky protest.
I can’t fathom why the RIAA would care what USC does with its website, since KUSC thoughtfully provides links so listeners can purchase the music that is played.
I’m gonna shoot an e-mail to ask them directly. I don’t expect an answer before Monday, though.
Thanks, guys (sorry to be so slow returning - login-free weekend :eek: ). What you propose, 1010011010, seems to make sense, at least at first blush. I’ll be interested to hear what (if anything) Robin hears back from the RIAA.
Thanks for doing that - for some reason it didn’t occur to me.
Nothing so far, but I did talk to my radio-station adviser over the weekend about this.
He said that some stations don’t post playlists for competitive reasons. If KUSC wants to do an hour-long program and posts what it’s going to be playing, KMZT can counter-program with shorter pieces. KUSC also has an agreement with these folks to provide programming, so that might factor in. He wasn’t sure why the RIAA would care, though.
I’ll give them until this afternoon to respond before I give them a call.
I could have sworn I’d come to this before and found future listings for these guys.