Comparing Napster To The Early Days Of Radio

from the sounds-familiar dept

An interesting column that looks at the early days of radio that make it sound quite a bit like Napster. The music industry was pissed off at the idea of radio and afraid that they weren't going to get any royalties from songs broadcast over it. The radio people said it would stimulate growth for sheet music and record sales. The article even suggests that the birth of rock-n-roll was caused by radio stations refusing to pay ASCAP fees, and thus focusing on lesser known acts where they didn't have those problems. Thus, perhaps Napster will begin a new form of American music once all the plastic music clones supported by the industry have been yanked off of Napster.
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  • identicon
    Unamerican, 3 Apr 2001 @ 1:20am

    American music?

    Why should it be American music? Why not from somewhere else. Given the US capitalists' grip on
    the music industry it seems much more likely that it would come from somewhere else.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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