 RAIN 09/05: DiMA's Potter disputes SoundEx's "lack of webcaster monetization" argument ·Sep 5, 10:58 AM POTTER: SOUNDEX WRONG INSISTING NET RADIO A MATURE AD MARKET: “The advertising market hasn’t caught up to the Internet radio audience size,” said the Digital Media Association’s executive director Jon Potter, responding to AMAZON LAUNCHES MUSIC WIKI: Amazon, with subsidiary movie and television database IMDb, has launched NEW PEW DATA SHOWS PODCASTING HAS “YET TO BECOME A FIXTURE”: The Pew Internet and RAMSEY BEMOANS “NON-INTERACTIVITY” OF SATELLITE RADIO: In an open letter to Sirius XM, media analyst Mark Ramsey questions the service’s lack of interactivity — especially when it comes to advertisements. “You have 20 million subscribers, and you have the name, address, and email for all of us. How come you have never asked me what I listen to? … How come you have never emailed me an offer from an advertiser I’ve actually told you I’m interested in? … I’ve given you permission to ask about me, but you haven’t.” Read his full letter at Ramsey’s Hear 2.0 blog here. share: del.icio.us.  Reddit  Digg  Yahoo  Wink  Windows  Google  Newsvine 
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SoundExchange’s claim that webcasters aren’t doing enough to monetize their businesses, and should be generating far more revenue. If they were, SoundExhcange’s reasoning goes, they’d have no problem affording royalties. “If you look at cable television and their first five years of existence, they weren’t selling major national campaigns to Proctor & Gamble. There needs to be some time before the business takes off.” Potter goes on to confirm that the threat Internet radio faces from royalties is very real: “There’s been substantial impact. At Live365, their streaming hours are down a third. If you talk to the folks at Pandora, they’re going to close their doors. 
music wiki site 
American Life Project has released new data on podcast popularity, finding that only 3 percent of Americans download a podcast on a typical day. This supports Kurt Hanson’s suggestion (in his blog, found 
I think John Potter misses at least some of the point. He actually concedes Simson’s argument, that webcasters could be generating enough revenue to pay the current rates, by suggesting they simply need time to ramp up their sales efforts.
This is false on two levels. First, the market sets rates, not royalty collection agencies. John Simson and the RIAA don’t have the ability to override market forces of supply and demand.
Second, perhaps more alarming is the suggestion that an entire industry is drastically under-performing. The idea that if webcasters would just apply the insight from some music industry hacks they’d be rolling in dough and easily able to pay those royalties is insulting, and flawed to the point of being fatuous.
Ironically, if there’s a sector that’s deliberately under-performing it’s the music industry, who unlike webcasters, are leaving potentially huge sums of money on the table by refusing to embrace digital distribution in a meaningful way.
— Bob Bellin · Sep 5, 03:29 PM · #
So does this means John Potter is ready to grab the big bucks as DOS of the internet radio alliance?
Commission sales, of course!
Just asking…
— Dan Kelley · Sep 5, 04:56 PM · #
It’s so reassuring to know that SoundExchange is looking out for us webcasters. Thanks, but no-thanks, for the crap advice. Coming from large labels I’m sure it’s, oh, so valuable.
The problem is, you meat-heads, that people are holding off on appropriate investments into their sales teams until the label numb-sculls knock off the bullsh-t. Your arbitrary license fees have ruptured the metrics of the segment. Oh, but you know that.
I am just waiting for Google to start a major label, and show these guys how little time they ‘really’ have left. Hey! Steve Jobs! Just pay the Beatles their shakedown and jump into the label game! Enough with this crap. The music business is now an internet business. Let internet people take it from here.
Bill Wilkins, CEO
Melted Metal Web Radio
http://www.meltedmetal.com/
— Melted Metal Web Radio · Sep 5, 09:48 PM · #
Im basically in agreement with Bill Wilkins Comment 3 However I will add that net radio plays a great deal of independent music, and some open commons music. The major labels want a return to the days when they were the only players in the ball park something that has gone forever. I heard an interesting interview from the 1970s strange how this argument is still on going from then, of course net radio was noteven thought of but the basics were the same.
— mike allen · Sep 10, 03:44 PM · #