Music business says radio plays are piracy.

Latest news from the goofballs in the music business: Apparently radio plays are piracy and have not just no value for the recorded music business, but in fact have negative value (It's stealing! It's piracy! We should be getting paid!)

Really?

Then why have so many of the labels been found repeatedly guilty of payola? Why have they all literally been breaking the law to pay ridiculous sums of money to get airplay for their music?

Would you pay someone to steal from you?

It is true that in other countries, sound recording owners are paid when music is played on the radio. I'm not opposed to that - I'm just opposed to these tactics, as well as the sudden change of heart.

USA radio stations have never paid royalties for sound recording use. Nobody really complained while the music business was riding high. The labels just kept sending the hookers and blow and cash to the radio DJs and everything was good...great, even, because the artificially high cost of getting music on the radio meant that the copyright cartel could continue controlling the airwaves and all but lock out any independent music.

Now the recorded music business continues their "brilliant" plan of suing and/or making life difficult for all of the people in their value chain (retailers, digital services, customers, etc.) in an attempt to alleviate their own financial misery.

Radio listening is already dropping among those who buy music. Adding additional financial burden to radio will result in more advertising or more cost-cutting, further lowering quality. This will drive more users away from radio and towards the Internet, at which point the industry can expect less revenue and less control.