Consider this a little commentary by myself.
As I sometimes do I like to get out of the green old and familiar grounds of CelticRadio.net and explore around the vast cyber lands close and far. Tonight I decided to explore around to see what other Celtic radio stations are up too.
I am not going to mention names here, but I ran across an internet radio station playing Celtic music which at first look very cool. Browsing through their on-line catalog I noticed the various items of jewelry and other things for sale. Then I noted the very inflated prices along with a mandatory amount of shipping costs per item. Now I know that people need to support their radio stations, but too me it just did not seem right charging 2-3 times the normal prices for an item along with inflated shipping costs.
Then I noticed this stations proud proclamation of being in the Top 20 of a particular music directory. So I decided to explore that music directory. I thought to myself, hmmmm....this might be good to sign up Highlander Radio.....then I learned that a big feature of this music directory is the ability to record all of the music playing on the stream. So there is no need to purchase an artist's CD, their listeners can just record and save to CD the songs.
To me, this is not what an internet radio station should be promoting. Especially a Celtic radio station that promotes the active recording of copyrighted material that Celtic musicians work so hard to create and probably will never earn enough to make it a full time job. Having seen many of these hardworking folks at festivals and concerts, I could just never do this knowing that I would be taking away from their livelihood. CelticRadio.net is here to promote musicians and let listeners discover new and vibrant celtic music from all around the world.
So on the eve of our 1000 forum member, let it be known that Highlander Radio and CelticRadio.net will not promote copyright infringement and inflating our prices in our forthcoming online store. Good value, quality and ethics will drive this station.
Ok, time for me to step down from my soapbox and go back to bed!
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