AMAZON NO LONGER COLORADO FRIENDLY

I just received this news from Amazon closing my Amazon account as they have decided, without prior notice, to close my Amazon referral account because of recent legislation by the Colorado Government. FM5280 will no longer get any revenues from referral sales. I am in the process of removing all references to buy from amazon over the next few days. While we did not make a lot this further puts a burden on the viability of us maintaining a commercial free station.

I ENCOURAGE EVERYONE TO BOYCOTT AMAZON AND DO NOT RECOMMEND YOU BUY ANYTHING ONLINE FROM THEM.

From the looks of it, I get the feeling that Amazon wants to start a grass roots movement to get this legislation repealed with the carrot of re-instating the the program. However, the way they went about it with no prior notice is totally inexcusable. I've shopped CDBaby before and it looks like they will be getting all of my business.

What was Amazon thinking. This high-handed approach by business has to STOP. We as consumers have a right to vote our displeasure. There should have been prior talks with the supporters before making this decision but I get the impression that decisions had already been made and it was not worth the effort. Any time things like this happen, I ask the question of whose interests is this really serving and who is getting paid off to support it. Back in the late 30's, Will Rogers said "We Have the Best Politicians Money Can Buy". I feel this is still true even today..

I support the motion of not doing business with Amazon.

Well, I find this hard to believe but, I guess it is true!! I've bought a few CD's from them but not any more! I can and will get them someplace else!!! Cool

Um, I'm not sure why you're painting Amazon as the bad guy here. Based on their letter, they tried to keep this idiotic bill from passing, and now are in the position of being the first major retailer to tax sales on web shopping, but only in Colorado. Can you imagine the howls of protest if Amazon implemented this policy?

The real villiains here, in my opinion, are the polticians once again. In their desperation to keep their offiices, these "profiles in courage" conitinue to run from anything that smells like an income tax increase, so they work the edges with stunts like this and nickel and dime the average working stiff to death with consumption taxes.

While I agree that Amazon could have done a better job of communicating with sellers and perhaps enlisting their support, I don't believe they are the only party at fault.

I will miss the Amazon link, it certainly led me to purchase a great deal of music from them via fm5280.

Now, more than ever, this means we must all continue to support fm5280 through regular donations.

Rob, did you get anywhere with my suggestion of a "sustaining membership" level ala NPR, whereby you contribute a set amount each month and it auto renews each year?

Thanks!

Rob,

I agree, it was a crappy way for Amazon to handle this. They should have enlisted the support of the Amazon retailers to block passage of the bill.

Now that its done, however, there is still the problem of how to make up the shorfall. How about a Premium Subscription Service charging $5/month? Those listeners would get the 128k stream and others would get 96k. Just a thought.

If it comes to it, I would understand and still keep listening if you had to resort to accepting ads.

Keep up the good work!

What exactly did the state do that Amazon did not like DJ........????

Just curious....................Thanks.......!!.......... Jimster

The State of Colorado passed a law that basically requires the companies like Amazon to track and pay sales tax for online sales or in this case referrals from those web retailers that offer Amazon products through links on their web sites, Amazon Store Fronts etc. Amazon's position is the web site owners should be responsible for paying, collecting those taxes or should not be taxed at all.