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RAIN 7/2: UK's Telegraph says DAB's been a problem; Internet radio "the solution"
·1 day ago SOMAFM, LIVE365 AMONG WEBCASTERS “LEADING THE INTERNET REVOLUTION”The UK’s Telegraph muses that with the nation’s government promising broadband for all by 2012, “couldn’t internet radio be the solution everyone has been looking for,” instead of the possibly tricky DAB radio transition scheduled for 2015? According to a recent study by Rajar, 16.9 million adults in Britain say they listen to Internet radio, while 4 million are using jukebox services like Last.fm and Spotify. The publication then goes on to list over a dozen webcasts and music services “leading the Internet revolution.”
Among Telegraph’s picks are Yahoo! Music LaunchCast, Spotify and Live365 TELEGRAPH PICKS 5 BEST WI-FI RADIOSTelegraph sorted through the UK’s wide and diverse selection of tabletop Wi-Fi radios to find 5 best bets. Included are radios from familiar names Logitech (pictured) and Tivoli, as well as some unfamiliar: Blik and NaimUniti. Find the full list, and read Telegraph’s thoughts on each, here.
STREAMING MEDIA BUSINESSES PROJECTED TO GENERATE $78B OVER 6 YEARSInsight Research’s new industry study predicts that streaming audio and video “will be a major source of revenue through 2014,” generating over $78 billion over the next 6 years. The study pegs streaming media businesses to grow at a rate of 27% per year through 2014. “Over the past seven years as we’ve tracked the developments in streaming it has evolved from an esoteric niche to a mainstream market,” said Insight Research president Robert Rosenberg. “What we predicted way back when is coming to fruition.” For more, check out RBR’s coverage here.EMI REJECTS NEW PRS ROYALTY RATESThe UK’s royalty collection agency PRS for Music recently lowered its minimum stream rates (RAIN coverage here), but EMI Publishing’s having none of it. The music label believes the new rates — cut from 0.22p to 0.085p — are too low, and has withdrawn its mechanical rights from PRS. This “doesn’t mean the catalogue will be unavailable, it just means that it’ll have to administer its own royalty collections at the old 0.22p price,” explains Pocket Lint (here). They also note that Universal Music Publishing and Sony/ATV are unhappy about the new rates too. “If they follow EMI, then PRS may be forced into an embarrassing climbdown.” The PRS streaming rates only cover songwriting/publishing copyrights in the UK.
SONOS’ NEW TOUCH-SCREEN REMOTE UNVEILEDJust yesterday, RAIN covered Sony’s new music stereo system (here), which one observer said “puts the Sonos [remote’s] click wheel to shame!“ They may want to take a look at Sonos’ new remote control, featuring touch-screen capabilities. This enables an on-screen QWERTY keyboard, letting users search for artists, albums, or song titles in their libraries. Sonos’ multi-room home media streaming systems accesses Internet radio stations, including Pandora and Last.fm. Last week, Logitech announced that their Squeezebox home media streamer would also be getting a touch-screen (RAIN coverage here). Find out more about the new Sonos remote from Engadget here.Full story (and reader comments):  RAIN 7/2: UK's Telegraph says DAB's been a problem; Internet radio "the solution"More RAIN
RAIN 7/1: Obama approves Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009
·2 days ago LAW GIVES WEBCASTERS AND SX 30 DAYS TO REACH ROYALTY AGREEMENTSPresident Obama signed the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009 into law yesterday, giving the weight of law to any royalty agreements reached by SoundExchange and webcasters within the next 30 days. GovTrack notes however (here) that the legislation, H.R. 2344, “will become law once administrative actions are complete.”
The bill was sponsored by Representatives Jay Inslee (D-WA), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Frederick Boucher (D-VA), John Conyers (D-MI) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) in the House, and Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sam Brownback (R-KS) in the Senate. RAIN thanks and congratulates these members of Congress for their efforts in passing the Settlement Act. As previously reported in RAIN (here), the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009 amends the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2008, which was passed last year under the Bush Administration (RAIN coverage here). The original bill gave Congressional approval to any royalty deal reached before February 15, 2009. However, SoundExchange was not able to reach deals with all webcasters by that date, including “pureplay” webcasters, small commercial webcasters, and religious broadcasters. The updated bill, just enacted by President Obama, will give these groups additional time to agree on royalty deals. PANDORA’S WESTERGREN RESPONDS TO CRITICISM OVER NEW MUSIC SUBMISSION POLICYPandora recently announced they would now only accept music submissions from artists selling their work as physical CDs on Amazon (RAIN coverage here). The change sparked some criticism, which prompted Pandora’s founder Tim Westergren to explain the move. “Just to be clear, it’s not about making money from Amazon…There are really three principal reasons – user experience, improving the meta data, and managing submissions.”
He explains that it’s important to Pandora, and to users, to have reliable links to Amazon where listeners can purchase music. Additionally, requiring Amazon-listed music helps keep metadata and album art clean and ensures that only serious, dedicated musicians are considered for airplay. “All we’re asking of artists is to make great music, and have it available for easy purchase for Pandora’s audience,” he writes. Read Westergren’s full response here. SOMAFM UPDATES MOBILE WEB “APP” TO INCLUDE AAC+ STREAMINGWebcaster SomaFM offers both a downloadable application for iPhone and iPod Touch devices and a “webapp,” that is, a webpage specifically tailored to those devices’ browsers. SomaFM recently updated this webapp to support AAC+ streaming. iPhone users can use the “webapp” by navigating their Safari web browsers to somafm.com. The webcaster’s downloadable iPhone app is available from Apple’s App Store for $4.SONY MUSIC SYSTEM REMOTELY PLAYS NET RADIO, iPOD CONTENTSony’s new Wi-Fi music system and iPod dock, the NAS-7200iR, features a sleek remote to control playback from Net radio, a connected iPod, AM/FM radio, CDs or other connected media. The rechargeable remote features an LCD display and iPod-like controls, leading the ElectricPig to proclaim that it “puts the Sonos click wheel to shame!” The NAS-7200iR will land in the UK in September, and should be arriving in the US soon. No word yet on pricing or date of availability. Find out more from ElectricPig here.
iPHONE APP DEVELOPMENT ATTRACTED $100M OF VC INVESTMENTAs the mobile platform becomes ever more important to the future of radio, new data compiled by the Chubbybrain blog reveals that venture capitalists invested $100 million in startups developing applications for the iPhone over the past 2 years. That figure leaves out funding for companies that create applications for multiple smartphone platforms (Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Android, etc.) or “for whom iPhone app development is small and/or incidental — like media companies who create an app to extend their reach,” notes Wired (here). Investments range from $15,000 to $15 million. With over 40 million iPhones and iPod Touch devices in the market, and an additional 1 million new iPhone 3GS models sold earlier this month, Wired asks, “is this only the beginning?”Full story (and reader comments): RAIN 7/1: Obama approves Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009
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News Flash: President signs Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009
·3 days ago LAW GIVES SOUNDEX, WEBCASTERS 30 DAYS MORE TO NEGOTIATE ROYALTY RATERAIN has learned that President Obama today signed the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009. As we’ve reported, SoundExchange has meted out royalty agreements for the use of sound recordings outside the Copyright Royalty Board determination with some groups of webcasters (CPB, NAB, hobbyist webcasters). However, “pureplay” webcasters, small commercial webcasters, and religious broadcasters say they are still without royalty deals that will allow them to survive. The sides now have an additional 30 days to reach settlements. Look for more details tomorrow in RAIN.Full story (and reader comments): News Flash: President signs Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009
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RAIN 6/30: New York Times picks 7 stand-out mobile radio apps, including FlyCast and Sirius XM
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·3 days ago The New York Times sorted through the increasingly long list of radio and music mobile applications to find What are your favorite mobile radio applications? Tell us, and the world, by clicking on the issue headline and submitting a comment! PANDORA NOW REQUIRES THAT ARTISTS’ MUSIC BE AVAILABLE ON AMAZONFor many Internet radio stations — and for Pandora, up until recently — all that was needed from an artist to be eligible for airplay was a CD or mp3 file. Now, however, Pandora is requiring that artists have their music for sale as a physical CD on Amazon before their music is considered for airplay. The CD must also have a valid UPC code. These new requirements come “in part because of a deal to display album cover art via Amazon’s servers,” reports HypeBot (here).
Selling CDs on Amazon will set artists back $30 a year — the cost of membership with Amazon’s Advantage Program — in addition to packaging and other costs. Understandably, there are some critics of this move. However, $30 probably shouldn’t be too much of an obstacle for most artists. WOXY LAUNCHES iPHONE APP Leading alternative and indie music webcaster WOXY has released an iPhone application. The free app from the formerly over-the-air, Cincinnati-market station tunes in to both WOXY’s main station and their vintage music stream. For more, check out WOXY’s announcement on their Futurist blog here.
PANDORA DEVELOPING APP FOR ANDROID DEVICESPandora currently has mobile applications for iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Palm Pre devices, but support for Google’s Android operating system was notably absent. Pandora CTO Tom Conrad recently announced that the company is developing an application for Android devices. Conrad cites the Android community’s healthy development and the prospect of “extremely compelling” phones coming in the near future as reasons for Pandora’s interest in an Android app. For more, read Conrad’s announcement in his blog here.Full story (and reader comments): RAIN 6/30: New York Times picks 7 stand-out mobile radio apps, including FlyCast and Sirius XM
RAIN 7/2: UK's Telegraph says DAB's been a problem; Internet radio "the solution" RAIN 7/1: Obama approves Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009 News Flash: President signs Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009 RAIN 6/30: New York Times picks 7 stand-out mobile radio apps, including FlyCast and Sirius XM RAIN 6/29: Autonet selling in-car Wi-Fi directly to consumers RAIN 6/26: Nielsen study shows radio down, but not out, among teens  |
Kurt Hanson's blog
"Free Air Conditioning!"·11 days ago As one explores the urban environment nowadays (and, actually, I would assume this is true in the suburbs and in small towns, too), one sees a lot of coffeehouses, independent bookstores, restaurants, and other establishments with a “Free WiFi“ sign in the window. Every time I see one, the image that comes to mind is a 1950s-era motel sign offering “Free Color TV!” or “Free Air Conditioning!” What I mean, of course, is that technological advancements like this that are worth promoting at one point in For a venue to offer free WiFi to its customers costs them virtually nothing, since they probably have an Internet connection and a wireless router already. (All they need to do is choose to not set up password protection.) And when they offer free WiFi to their customers, that means that any customer with an appropriate device (e.g., laptop or WiFi-enabled smartphone (a/k/a iPhone or iPod Touch)) can enjoy Internet radio to their heart’s content while visiting the establishment. It’s a nice win-win-win (for the consumer, the establishment, and the Internet radio industry). Every “Free WiFi” sign you see? In my opinion, a canary in a coal mine. Full story (and reader comments):"Free Air Conditioning!"
Latest CRB royalty news
Obama signs Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009
·3 days ago RAIN has learned that President Obama today signed the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009. As we’ve reported, SoundExchange has meted out royalty agreements for the use of sound recordings outside the Copyright Royalty Board determination with some groups of webcasters (CPB, NAB, hobbyist webcasters). However, “pureplay” webcasters, small commercial webcasters, and religious broadcasters say they are still without royalty deals that will allow them to survive. The sides now have an additional 30 days to reach settlements. Look for more details tomorrow in RAIN. Full story (and reader comments):Obama signs Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009
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(“one of the most comprehensive internet radio directories available”). Birdsong Radio — a station playing a looping track of birds singing to half a million daily listeners — and New Jersey’s 
7 gems “worth buying headphones for.” Included is Sirius XM’s recently released iPhone application, though noting that “the company has drawn fire” over what content isn’t included in the app (
history are typically standard operating procedure not too long afterwards.
