Important Message To Oldies Paradise Listeners – In The U.S.A.
I am sorry to have to let you know that we have had to Geo-Block the Oldies Paradise stream on our Website and other access points to block access from listeners in the United States.
We have looked into ways of getting a reduced royalties package to cover the small (but very keen!) audience for the station in the USA. Our main broadcast area is the UK, parts of mainland Europe and a number of smaller areas. These are covered by our main royalty arrangements.
But, in relation to the USA, royalty costs have jumped in recent years and having discussed the matter with SoundExchange, the organisation for music royalties in the USA, there is no way within their system to cater for being a UK based broadcaster with a small US audience. So, we have agreed with SoundExchange that we will implement GeoBlocking of our listeners in the United States on our Website stream and TuneIn etc.
Oldies Paradise is a very small setup; it has no income, no adverts and no sponsorship. It has never sought to get advertising or sponsorship income. The reason being that, although by internet radio standards we do well in terms of listeners, we never would wish to tease advertisers with ideas that half the world is listening in! Internet audiences are scattered and dotted around the world and it is a hard audience to market.
We have no wish to get involved with misleading advertisers or sponsors in an attempt to get station income.
So, we live from month to month by doing everything ourselves and putting money in to keep it going! From the website design on to all audio production and on to configuring and cutting out the middle-men in our streaming setup, we work hard and save money. Despite that, and particularly over the past year or so, running costs have increased substantially and it has got really tough. This means that savings have to be made.
Thanks to all US listeners who have followed us over the years. It has been much appreciated.
We are very sorry that this has happened but it is entirely beyond our control.
All the best
Mark Stafford
Station Manager Oldies Paradise