East Village Radio has just been added to the demolition list as New York City continues its transformation into a pedestrian tourist trap filled with nothing but ATMs and museums of its heyday. The independent radio station will be making its final broadcast on May 23 after 11 years of operation from a tiny storefront studio on 1st Avenue.
East Village Radio CEO and NY chef Frank Prisinzano told EV Grieve in a phone interview, “every time we get a new listener, it costs us more money with licensing fees and Internet costs. After doing some projections, we see that it is going to be very, very difficult for us to continue to break even.”
As EV Grieve had noted, popularity isn’t the problem (over a million listeners a month), it’s the Congressional Digital Music Copyright Act of 1998, which requires internet broadcasters to pay a digital performance royalty for every listener.
“We pay a higher rate for royalties and licensing than Pandora pays. We live in a world where these behemouth music-streaming services keep going in for more capital,” said Peter Ferraro, the general manager/head of programming at East Village Radio. “It’s almost like we are being penalized for our growth. It’s very difficult for an independent medium music company to survive in a world where Apple is paying $3.2 billion for Beats by Dre.”
Kids, isn’t it exciting that your generation consists of watching things die in a pool of corporate commercials?
• East Village Radio: http://www.eastvillageradio.com
