It’s been a tough week, let me just say that. The two most interesting topics are still:

• Clear Channel vs. Independent artists, in which Clear Channel requests artists to waive their royalties in exchange for airplay. The Future of Music Coalition has really been fighting this, and it looks like they have asked the FCC to issue a “declaratory ruling” (although I received a very mysterious post via RSS today saying that FOM had “won” – the post seems to have disappeared…);
• SoundExchange vs. Internet radio (vs., plus, minus DiMA – Digital Media Association) in which SoundExchange managed to require Internet radio stations to pay very large broadcasting fees. You may remember that this signaled the end of Internet radio, but then it didn’t. Now they are working it all out, slowly. Wired posted an interesting overview of what’s going on right now.

But as I said, it’s been a tough week. I intend to weigh in on this as soon as I can get better sense for what’s happening.

In the meantime, this Spike Jones video is a must see. I know it seems like the two stories aren’t related to this at all, but hey, even if they aren’t, this Spike Jones video is unbelievable.  The action really starts around 1:50, so be patient.

[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jidK5X_GV3U]

Really. It’s incredible.

More later,

Rick McLaughlin