VC SAYS ON-DEMAND STREAMING WILL BE “THE NEW RADIO”: A New York-based venture capitalist named Fred Wilson says the “new radio” isn’t satellite, HD, or even Internet radio, but rather the on-demand streaming music services. He writes in his blog: “Companies like last.fm and imeem and others… stream pretty much any song they want to listeners over the Internet. They can do this ‘on-demand’… They can also stream music in various forms of smart playlists, either the tracks you have marked as your favorites, or the tracks your friends have suggested to you, or the tracks that people who like the same music as you like… The number of people actively listening to music streamed over the Internet is rising quickly. It’s becoming a mainstream activity, particularly among the younger set. I think of these web services as the new radio stations. Everyone of my generation has had their favorite radio stations. Everyone of my kid’s generation will have their favorite web music services. There will be hundreds of them. All supported by advertising, just like traditional radio stations… And because these services will be free to anyone who wants to listen, they will be very popular.” Mark Ramsey, in his Hear 2.0 blog, has some excellent commentary on this. He writes, “In the long run, pleasing most of the people most of the time via music radio is a fool’s errand. The ‘lowest common denominator’ of music radio will sing its swan song as it ages with its core fans, just as the print version of the newspaper is doing.”

RAIN LAS VEGAS SUMMIT VIDEO NOW AVAILABLE: Video of select panels from last week’s RAIN Las Vegas Summit are available from TVWorldwide here (scroll down to the section called “Highlighted Sessions”). There are six videos offered, including Jeff Vidler’s presentation of the “RadioNext” study and the “CDN Showdown” (read more about both in RAIN here), and David Oxenford’s webcast royalty summary and “The New and the Cool, Part 1” (read more about both here).

“PROMOTION” SUBSCRIBERS FAR LESS LOYAL TO SATELLITE RADIO: Jacobs Media surveyed approximately 3,500 satellite radio subscribers and found (perhaps not surprisingly) that those who added the service “after-market” are far more likely to keep their subscriptions than those who received it via the purchase or lease of a car (often as part of a sales promotion). 66% of after-market subscribers (those who actively sought to subscribe to XM or Sirius) told Jacobs they plan to keep the service through year’s end, while just 40% of “car installed” subscribers plan to. Read more from Jacobs here.

RADIO DISNEY LAUNCHES MOBILE SITE: Radio Disney has launched a new mobile Web site and text messaging service for the “tween” market. The project is a joint effort of Radio Disney and Disney’s Internet Group’s mDisney mobile content division. Users can stream Radio Disney, see the last ten songs played, request songs, participate in polls, and find local Radio Disney stations. According to Disney, about 40% of tweens in the U.S. have mobile phones.

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