After some deep soul searching and looking at all the options, I’ve come to the decision to continue making great radio with America’s Country.
If you were not aware, over the Holidays, the major groups that set the rates for royalties and other such fees have left small webcasters from the US in the dust. Where I was paying less than $150 a month for coverage in 2015, I would be paying more than $5,000 a month in 2016. Thus, the decision to continue broadcasting will have to include electronically blocking any listeners in the United States.
I would be happy to have a deeper, more detailed conversation with anyone who wishes, but suffice it to say, I’m not happy with this. Because I have a passion and love for entertaining and for American Country Music, I will continue in a new attitude of being an ambassador of US Country Music to the rest of the world. There is still hope that something will come about and we will get our reasonable rates restored. It’s not very likely, but I am still hoping for it and if it does happen, I will resume US broadcasting immediately.
Here’s the deal. I need money! Operating a legal and legit internet radio station costs money. Besides streaming bandwidth, we have to pay royalties and other fees to those who give us music. It’s a crappy deal, not that the artists don’t deserve it, but that traditional radio doesn’t have to pay! Regardless, I REALLY REALLY want to stay commercial free and I even more really really want to keep doing this. The solution?? You donate to us! You can make a one-time donation or setup a monthly subscription. Click the Donate feature up there, next to the Listen feature and you can proceed. I’ll be completely honest. I can’t afford this. It’s not fair to my family for me to be draining this money. I love my sweet wife and she is being “ok” with it for now. I know she’s not thrilled. I really only need about $100 a month to break even. I promise that the money will ONLY go to the operation of this station. You can also click our banner ads on our website and our stream launch page. Every little bit helps. I’m afraid this will not last much longer and it breaks my heart. Please show how much I know you love us by helping us out. Thank you.
Friends, due to political issues between our royalties and fees provider, SWCAST.net, and SoundExchange, an organization that collects fees and distributes them to performers and labels, America’s Country has to be offline. We are hoping for a quick resolution and a quick return. During this time, please watch and keep up with all this on our Facebook Page: HERE. If you want to read more information, SWCAST.net has their own Facebook Page: HERE. I encourage you to research and show your support!
I will post major updates here and on our FB page. Please continue to monitor this situation on our FB page as that is where I will be posting more info.
Friends! I have great news! For so long I’ve been held back in making KXRT a much more successful and big project. The big thing with internet radio stations is paying royalties and other fees to the Artists and their record companies. Generally, this has been prohibitively expensive and I would guess a big portion still don’t do it. We are now no longer part of that crowd!
I recently signed up for a great program that allows us smaller broadcasters pay a small monthly fee that covers these fees. The monthly charge is very small relative to doing this entirely on one’s own. The reason it works is because thousands of us pay this small fee to a central entity that negotiates special deals with the companies that levy these charges. This way, instead of us all having to pay tens of thousands of dollars a year just to play good music, we can all share the fees and save TONS of cash!
I’ve made some needed changes to this site and to the Facebook Page to become completely in line with the requirements to keep these fees low. What it means is that while I used to give you direct links to my streams, I now have to have you click through to a launch page. This page is small and simple with some key info as well as the links to several streaming options. These regulations and laws are constantly changing even now laws are being looked at and modified in Washington, DC. For now, this is the way it has to be for me to be sure I am completely covered and protected from some severe monetary punishments.
I will keep things on the up and up. You will see more and more coming around because of this change. I plan to make promotional agreements with small businesses to arrange win-win situations for KXRT and them (and you!). More info about all this will be forthcoming! I am not saying we will have commercials or tons of banner-ads on the site, but you might hear on-air mentions of business sponsoring some show or feature or see Facebook contests that involve gift cards and more! This is all very exciting news and we are very happy to announce it to you.
Thanks for your understanding and now we can really make KXRT the incredible internet resource/service I always dreamed it could be!
