ONE YEAR AFTER CRB, CHECKING WEBCASTERS’ VITALS With webcasters’ royalty mess far from resolved, the Boston Globe has turned its attention back to the issue with a look at operators who have been forced to silence their streams in the wake of the CRB decision. The article focuses on former Mobile Beat Radio operator Barry Cedergren, but also quotes Pandora founder Tim Westergren and Live365 GM Johnie Floater on their respective business’ struggle to pay reasonable royalties. The article also speaks to the royalty disparity between platforms, quoting DiMA chief Jonathan Potter, who says “If Pandora can’t make it, if Live365 can’t make it, then… CBS, Clear Channel, and Entercom are going to take over Internet radio.” Read the whole article here.

BDS FOUNDERS’ MUSIC SERVICE COULD WELL BE A “RADIO KILLER” The cofounders of BDS are developing a digital music service designed to “one-up” the iPod — but when looked at differently — has the potential to replace radio by recreating the musical breadth previously only available through broadcast. Hal Oppenheimer and Robert Uhlmann cofounded Broadcast Data Systems, which monitors song plays on thousands of radio stations across the country. Paul Resnikoff in Digital Music News has reported on their new project, called PushButtonMusic. Based on his data from monitoring airplay, file-sharing, sales, etc., Oppenheimer says 98% of the (presumably U.S.) music market can be covered with roughly 30,000 songs. Their plan: pre-load that music collection onto a device (they’re to launch in July with a 30GB Creative Zen, which will actually limit the collection to about 7,000 songs) before it reaches the consumer. The article also suggests a $20/month subscription fee. Resnikoff writes that “consumers (will) handpick their collections online and have their pre-loaded devices shipped to them,” but consider this: Couldn’t I purchase the “30,000 most played songs in the Chicago radio market” as my collection? Then, I’d carry around with me nearly every song played on every radio station, served up randomly, with no commercials, available anywhere and any time I want. Naturally, the cost factor would be a big obstacle — at least as far as its potential as a “radio killer” goes. Read more from Digital Music News here.

WiMAX HAS LANDED, SPRINT PREDICTING “BILLIONS” It’s no secret that Sprint is betting big on its WiMax roll-out plans. The company’s EVP sales Sean Maloney says that by 2010, 650 million people worldwide will be in range of a WiMax network. WiMaxDay writes that one of the reasons Sprint’s numbers might come through is the tech’s economic strengths. “New products powered by a strong line-up of processors will lead the growth of WiMAX in the short term, but the underlying strength of WiMAX development is largely attributed to its cost advantages.” Using Sprint’s numbers, the article also says that new spectrum availability could create as much as $15 billion in new WiMax investment this year. “Along with network and equipment investments, this will result in estimated WiMAX subscriber revenues of $16 billion by 2012.” Read more here.

BEBO BUY’S IMPACT ON AOL MUSIC? The dust has barely begun to settle on the AOL purchase of social networking site Bebo for $850 million. The effect of the deal on AOL’s music offerings, though, will likely be notable. According to an article in Digital Music News, the Bebo network has a reported 700,000 artist profiles. While that doesn’t quite approach MySpace’s 8 million artist pages, the fact that Bebo is coming at the growing online music market from an different angle than the more traditional AOL music-related offerings could boost the company’s audience. Read more here.

MOBILE PLATFORM “NOT READY” AS AN ENTERTAINMENT OR AD MEDIUM Wireless industry and advertising executives on a conference panel agreed that the mobile platform is not yet ready to be a viable entertainment or advertising platform — and though that day is coming, 2008 will not be the “breakout” year. MediaPost reports on the discussion at the “Mobile Platform 2.0” panel at the Media Summit conference here. “Neither the quality or quantity of content or the business models are in place yet to generate the audience growth necessary to make mobile media viable,” reports MediaPost. Joshua Spanier of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners said, “American consumers aren’t prepared to pay for anything. They want it all free… From a marketing perspective, we are not yet able to make really interesting or engaging mobile experiences on mobile devices. We’re still several years away from that.”

Comment

1. I admit to being pretty confused after reading the Boston Globe article. It stated that streaming radio stations are not required to pay the SoundExchange royalties like online-only Webcasters do. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe Sound Exchange expects payment from all of us – radio stations streaming on line as well. Now, how many are currently paying is another story…

   — Mark · Mar 14, 12:56 PM · #

2. RAIN NEWS FOR 3/14: CHECKING UP ON NET RADIO A YEAR AFTER CRB
   ·Mar 14, 11:50 AM
   Posted by: Paul Maloney

   ONE YEAR AFTER CRB, CHECKING WEBCASTERS’ VITALS With webcasters’ royalty mess far from resolved, the Boston Globe has turned its attention back to the issue with a look at operators who have been forced to silence their streams in the wake of the CRB decision. The article focuses on former Mobile Beat Radio operator Barry Cedergren, but also quotes Pandora founder Tim Westergren and Live365 GM Johnie Floater on their respective business’ struggle to pay reasonable royalties. The article also speaks to the royalty disparity between platforms, quoting DiMA chief Jonathan Potter, who says “If Pandora can’t make it, if Live365 can’t make it, then… CBS, Clear Channel, and Entercom are going to take over Internet radio.” Read the whole article here.

   BDS FOUNDERS’ MUSIC SERVICE COULD WELL BE A “RADIO KILLER” The cofounders of BDS are developing a digital music service designed to “one-up” the iPod — but when looked at differently — has the potential to replace radio by recreating the musical breadth previously only available through broadcast. Hal Oppenheimer and Robert Uhlmann cofounded Broadcast Data Systems, which monitors song plays on thousands of radio stations across the country. Paul Resnikoff in Digital Music News has reported on their new project, called PushButtonMusic. Based on his data from monitoring airplay, file-sharing, sales, etc., Oppenheimer says 98% of the (presumably U.S.) music market can be covered with roughly 30,000 songs. Their plan: pre-load that music collection onto a device (they’re to launch in July with a 30GB Creative Zen, which will actually limit the collection to about 7,000 songs) before it reaches the consumer. The article also suggests a $20/month subscription fee. Resnikoff writes that “consumers (will) handpick their collections online and have their pre-loaded devices shipped to them,” but consider this: Couldn’t I purchase the “30,000 most played songs in the Chicago radio market” as my collection? Then, I’d carry around with me nearly every song played on every radio station, served up randomly, with no commercials, available anywhere and any time I want. Naturally, the cost factor would be a big obstacle — at least as far as its potential as a “radio killer” goes. Read more from Digital Music News here.

   WiMAX HAS LANDED, SPRINT PREDICTING “BILLIONS” It’s no secret that Sprint is betting big on its WiMax roll-out plans. The company’s EVP sales Sean Maloney says that by 2010, 650 million people worldwide will be in range of a WiMax network. WiMaxDay writes that one of the reasons Sprint’s numbers might come through is the tech’s economic strengths. “New products powered by a strong line-up of processors will lead the growth of WiMAX in the short term, but the underlying strength of WiMAX development is largely attributed to its cost advantages.” Using Sprint’s numbers, the article also says that new spectrum availability could create as much as $15 billion in new WiMax investment this year. “Along with network and equipment investments, this will result in estimated WiMAX subscriber revenues of $16 billion by 2012.” Read more here.

   BEBO BUY’S IMPACT ON AOL MUSIC? The dust has barely begun to settle on the AOL purchase of social networking site Bebo for $850 million. The effect of the deal on AOL’s music offerings, though, will likely be notable. According to an article in Digital Music News, the Bebo network has a reported 700,000 artist profiles. While that doesn’t quite approach MySpace’s 8 million artist pages, the fact that Bebo is coming at the growing online music market from an different angle than the more traditional AOL music-related offerings could boost the company’s audience. Read more here.

   MOBILE PLATFORM “NOT READY” AS AN ENTERTAINMENT OR AD MEDIUM Wireless industry and advertising executives on a conference panel agreed that the mobile platform is not yet ready to be a viable entertainment or advertising platform — and though that day is coming, 2008 will not be the “breakout” year. MediaPost reports on the discussion at the “Mobile Platform 2.0” panel at the Media Summit conference here. “Neither the quality or quantity of content or the business models are in place yet to generate the audience growth necessary to make mobile media viable,” reports MediaPost. Joshua Spanier of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners said, “American consumers aren’t prepared to pay for anything. They want it all free… From a marketing perspective, we are not yet able to make really interesting or engaging mobile experiences on mobile devices. We’re still several years away from that.”

   — Terrence · Mar 26, 08:30 PM · #

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