Off the Charts is somewhat like the lemonade stand. No, I'm not a child, but I also don't take any money, unlike the kids. It's a small operation done as a hobby for the enjoyment of a very small number of people. It's a time-honored tradition for friends to gather at another friend's house and listen to some tunes together. It hurts no one, including the musicians and songwriters (in our case, many of whom are dead) that created the content, often long ago.
I keep a playlist from every Monday show, and I have a rough idea of what our audience is from week to week. If it wanted to, the music industry could accommodate the really small webcaster (which is what we are). It could either decide that the royalties owed under any reasonable rate schedule are too small to mess with and let casters such as ourselves operate royalty-free. Or it could set up a system similar to the iPass for toll roads.
How would this work? The webcaster would deposit $50 or $100 dollars with the Music Industry Bank ("MIB" for short). Then each day/week/month, the caster would upload a report to the MIB, detailing each song that was played and the number of listeners. The MIB would deduct 1/10th of a cent per listener per song, transferring each micropayment into the account of the appropriate royalty recipient(s). The webcaster would add funds to his account when his balance gets too low. Lots of micropayments from lots of webcasters would eventually accumulate into worthwhile money for many of the content owners. Under such a system, everyone could be happy and the content creators would receive fair compensation for their work.
A system like this could work. Unfortunately, too many people benefit from the existence of a problem, not from the solving of it. This is probably the case here. As a result, I guess I'll continue to keep on as I have been. See you Monday night!