Radio Reeling at Royalties

It isn't very often when I think that the RIAA does something semi-sensible (I'm not actually sure this has ever happened), but their desire to charge terrestrial radio royalties makes sense. It makes sense in that it would lend credence to their charging royalties to other forms of radio. Whether or not any of these should have to pay royalties is another issue. Personally I think they all should, though not a very large amount. Radio's argument is that they provide a valuable service to musicians by promoting their music. This is true, they do promote musicians, but only those that they chose to. Rather, only those that they are told to promote by the people that line their pockets. The entire format that currently exists is incredibly corrupt, and the people getting screwed are the artists. Enter satellite and internet radio. Both of these pay royalty fees that do actually go to the musician (albeit not directly). In addition, they provide a wider range of artists the ability to be heard. Especially those that are simply independents.