Radio Silence
Enjoy the silence.
No, I'm not making reference to the Depeche Mode song of the same name.... but I might as well be. Turn on a streaming radio station today, and that is likely what you'll be doing. Chances are pretty good if you use a major service like Pandora or Rhapsody or Itunes or Yahoo or Live365's streaming channels to get your whistle-while-you-work ON, that you are hearing a looped public service announcement asking you to call your member of congress or telling you to log onto an online site for more information about the national day of silent protest.
If you are reading a blog, you are probably part of the slightly more savvy net crowd, who knows what streaming radio is and what is about to happen come July 15th.
In March, new rules set forth by the Copyright Royalty Board will make it much more expensive- far too expensive say radio streamers- to stay streaming on the zeroes and ones because it will shift their fees from a percentage of revenue to a per song per listener fee. There is currently legislation attempting to overturn these changes, but congress can be well... not the most nimble at times, and we'll see if this silence is what we'll have to get used to within a few weeks.