 2007: The Year in RAIN (Part 1) ·Dec 20, 12:11 PM Tallying votes for the biggest story of the last 12 months would be fairly meaningless — the Copyright Royalty Board’s webcast royalty rate decision would top any poll we could possibly conduct. Although most folks would have preferred to be reading press accounts of the the industry’s strong growth instead of its threatened demise, the royalty rate decision still gave public awareness of Internet radio a huge boost. Below is a list of our top stories from the first part of 2007. The links follow through to the full articles. Stay tuned to this space for coverage of the rest of the year’s news over the coming days. As always, thanks for reading and for your feedback to our publication. Pandora opens next chapter by introducing audio ads to streams “Pandora is starting to insert advertisements into its audio stream, something that came as a bit of a shock to Pandora long time Pandora listeners and fans. “We spoke with Pandora’s CTO Tom Conrad… about the move, and he reassured us that the Pandora most of us know and love isn’t going to change overnight.” JP Morgan analyst issues positive report on Internet radio “Internet radio audiences are growing rapidly and revenues associated to that growth are following suit, according to a new report from JP Morgan. “Analyst John Blackledge says in the report that Internet radio audience grew 33% from January 2005 to January 2006, jumping from 20 million to 30 million listeners per week over that 12 month period.” Webcast royalty rate decision announced
“RAIN has learned the rates that the Board has decided on, effective retroactively through the beginning of 2006…” Major push to mobilize listeners launched by Webcasters, fans “Webcasters across the country have begun an organized effort to mobilize listeners in the fight to keep their operations online. “Faced with last week’s Copyright Royalty Board decision, which threatens to shutter the huge majority of Internet radio operations in the U.S., webcast audiences are rushing to respond, signing online petitions and calling the attention of their elected officials to the Webcasters’ struggle.” CRB rates would make SoundEx a ’2.3 billion per year business’ “Using new facts presented to us by several sources, especially Eric Ronning, managing partner of online radio advertising firm Ronning Lipset Radio, BetaNews can project with some confidence that the SoundExchange group would become a $2.3 billion dollar per year business should the rates the CRB accepted last week finally become ratified. “For our research, we wanted to compare what streaming radio providers would be charged by SoundExchange against the fees that broadcast radio stations today pay to the three major performance royalty organizations (PRO) – ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC.” Hanson on Copyright: Copyright law and the CRB — What went wrong? “Given the ruinous rates and terms laid down by the Copyright Royalty Board last week, many RAIN readers have been asking, what are the options available to webcasters? They include negotiating, appealing to the courts, asking for legislative relief, and, perhaps in combination with some or all of those efforts, asking for help from listeners. “But before that process begins, I think it might be useful to take a few steps backward and look at how we arrived at this potentially fatal situation.” SoundEx director Simson defends support of CRB in interview [Part 2] “Here are some highlights from an interview in this month’s RoyaltyWeek conducted by Brian Zisk, Co-founder and Technologies Director of the Future of Music Coalition, with John Simson, Executive Director of SoundExchange.” Internet Radio Equality Act introduced in House “The Internet Radio Equality Act has just been introduced (in mid-afternoon) by Representative Jay Inslee (D-WA, pictured right) and eight cosponsors, with more cosponsors on the bill expected shortly. “The bill has five major provisions…” Webcasters converging today on Washington for “Hill Walk” “On Monday (4/30), a large group of webcasters, artists, and independent record label executives will converge on Washington D.C. to prepare to petition members of Congress on Tuesday in support of the Internet Radio Equality Act (H.R. 2060). “Participants in Tuesday’s “Hill walk,” organized by the SaveNetRadio coalition, will visit dozens of House and Senate offices to deliver webcasters’ message. They will explain to Congressmen and their staffers why Internet radio is at risk of folding on May 15th if there is not Congressional action to reverse the flawed royalty process established by Congress in the 1998 Digitial Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA).” share: del.icio.us.  Reddit  Digg  Yahoo  Wink  Windows  Google  Newsvine 
Comment Other stories RAIN 09/05: DiMA's Potter disputes SoundEx's "lack of webcaster monetization" argument RAIN 09/04: "Mission accomplished" for HD Radio Alliance RAIN 09/03: Brian Parsons joins Triton Media RAIN 9/2: Broadcasters should be on "as many wireless devices as possible," says Greater Media VP RAIN 08/29: BBC PLANS MASSIVE MUSIC STREAMING SERVICE RAIN 8/28: RIAA lobbying for radio royalties at political conventions RAIN 8/27: Analyst warns investors away from "long-term loser" music industry RAIN 8/26: In heavyweight online radio battle, CC readies "I Heart Music" to take on CBS RAIN 8/25: Chrysler's in-car Internet launches RAIN 8/22: Pandora's fight is radio's fight, says industry research expert |
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