My name is Nukey Pearce, and I am representing the staff, supporters and listeners of Chronix Radio LLC. While I am not directly financially involved in the project, or running it, I would just like to explain how the death of Internet radio will be the biggest end to a technological era.

First of all I would just like to explain who I am representing. Chronix Radio runs an online streaming service split into three individual, unique channels. The service has currently been running over 5 years now, and each day tops a thousand listeners at any one given time. While this may seem low, the fact that the entire service is completely reliant on user-given donations really shows the true spectrum and meaning to the listeners of this service.

I must be the first to admit that I can not have any direct intervening within the process of rescuing what we love and put our hearts into most. Living in the UK, I can merely tell the story and support those in the areas where it means most to them. This is a good on-the-fence perspective as to who really is involved; showing that even the most obscure of operations really can make worldwide coverage, not only within the radio service in general, but music exposure, too.

As many people are aware there are petitions going around the Internet, asking for your support. The main petition shown at ipetitions.com is vital to help restore and keep the services we all love. What most people don’t realise is that the majority of these services started out from nothing: there are no big corporations involved nor governing bodies. For the majority of the services, there is simply just one, two or three people who are behind the whole thing.

Many of the operators have placed their entire livelihood into what we take advantage of today, and the fact that the Recording Industry Association of America and the DMCA are taking this away, we need to act now.

The music industry has never been as lively and profitable as it has now. Ever since the 1960s the music industry has grown and grown into what moulds into our lives today; the sheer fact that the top bodies within the RIAA and the like are asking for more money unneedingly is very unfair, not just to the operators, but to the supporters, listeners and to an extent the artists ourselves.

At Chronix we all pride ourselves on steering away from the mainstream. We all have our own tastes, likings and preferences, but deep down what we like can’t be dictated by anyone, and we feel this is what is happening. With the loss of Internet radio, we will end up with expensive, commercialised reality-TV based artists only dealing in one genre. Although this may be ideal for some, especially the more younger generation, this doesn’t appeal to everyone. The cost of music itself has also steadily risen over the past years, especially where CDs are concerned. £15 for a compact disc can be seen as quite expensive, but with online radio not only will this give more exposure to the artists (therefore increasing the revenue of the recording companies), but will also bring down the cost in CDs through demand, so it will be an all-win situation.

Internet radio has been going for many years now and up until now the royalties that are payable have been fair and square. There is only one person behind all of this who gave the go-ahead of the rising of the costs, and although I may not know who that is the decision is very unfair for everyone.

Just think of all the people who will lose their livelihoods. Communities will fall apart, friends will split and the overall interest in music will been lost. Please ask yourself one question: Do you like music? If the answer is yes then you need to act now.

From everyone at Chronix Radio we wish all of the operators and supporters the very best, and hope we can all conquer this glitch. We all need to stick together, and with your support, such as the petitions and community groups, you can really make a difference.

We wish you all the very best.