I received a request from Internet radio provider Pandora to contact my Congressman before tomorrow's Congressional hearing concerning royalty payment schedules for web based stations. I didn't recall ever giving them my street address, but they somehow knew that unfortunately Vito Fossella is my Congressperson.

I wrote back that any requests to Vito from me would go deaf ears considering I spent most of my 2006 waking hours trying to cause him to be unemployed.

Unlike terrestrial radio, which pays fairly small fees to music copyright licensing companies such as ASCAP and BMI, Internet stations are charged ridiculously high per song rates by Sound Exchange which receives royalty payments for artists and the major record labels.

The new fee schedule will essentially kill web based music radio by making the cost of playing music prohibitive.

I rarely listen to terrestrial commercial music radio anymore because the playlists are repetitive or just outright suck.

Pandora is an interesting service. You can give them an artist or a song and they will put together a compatible playlist.

I put together a station based on the 70s Genesis song, "Supper's Ready". Tonight's Supper's Ready radio station music selections included Genesis, YES, Phish, Procol Harum and Jethro Tull.

Here is the link to the Ben Smith Interview with Chris Owens. Once again, I think race takes up too much of the dialogue, but in general I still feel that Chris Owens speaks to me and for me on all other issues. I am not as cynical about Yassky's motives as some, including Chris, are, but I agree that Yassky's endorsement of Sampson for Brooklyn DA, despite Sampson being black, was a bizarre and to date unexplained move where Yassky allied himself with the machine and endorsed the least qualified candidate.

I really wish Ben had asked a wider range of questions. He is one of the people who is milking the race controversy too much. Otherwise the interview was good, but come on. There is more to this race than, well, race. There were few questions asked about NATIONAL issues, though Chris does turn some of the questions to broader issues.

Anyway, for those handful of readers who aren't already set on who to vote for, you can hear Chris Owens speak by clicking on the link above. And for those who have already decided, let's at least avoid the same over used comments.

I still have to pack, but I could not go to Amsterdam without posting about this event.

I attended this past Saturday a New York City bloggers caucus organized by Chris Anderson of NYC.Indymedia and held during the NYC Grassroots Media Conference at The New School for Social Research.

I found two familiar faces in the gathering, Dan Jacoby, of New Democratic Majority as well as Noel Hidalgo, a fellow Drupal/CivicSpace developer. But there were people like Will James of On NY Turf who I barely got to speak with as well as others either working on activist projects or looking for information on how to start a blog.

It was a quick meeting and one in which, grok, I would have loooved to talk more about the business, networking and creative issues involving blogging. We need a whole day for that. Which is why I hope to continue nagging the people of Community Services Society and Drum Major Institute into funding a NYC blogger's conference as well as workshops for people who want to learn how to do it. Hey, I may even be able to get the good people of Eyebeam and The Guggenheim Museum to lend their labs and conference rooms for the events. So people, show me the money, the resources and the places and I'll show you a kick ass series of conferences here in NYC meant to bridge that frigging digital and netroots divide. OKAY?

Heh.