 RAIN 9/19: Westergren defends monetization efforts of Internet radio ·Sep 19, 12:00 PM WESTERGREN ANSWERS SX CRITICS WHO SAY PANDORA DOESN’T MONETIZE: “One of the fallacies that is Westergren defended Pandora’s business model, which has come under attack from SoundExchange lately, stating that Pandora and other webcasters can’t afford the royalty because the rates are simply too high. “At the current pace if we did our projected $23-$24 million this year we would be paying $17 million in royalty fees,” said Westergren. “That’s 70 percent of our revenue. Someone explain to me how that is fair when satellite radio is charged only about 7.5 percent for its music. It’s really ridiculous.” In response to such complaints, SoundExchange has argued that webcasters, “have done too little to make money from playing their songs.” Additionally, SoundExchange spokesman Richard Ades recently stated, “Pandora’s failure to monetize their business is why they can’t afford the rates.” (RAIN coverage here and here). Read the full article at ZDNet here. NAB NEW MEDIA SESSION: NOTHING BUT OPPORTUNITIES FOR RADIO ONLINE: A gathering of “new media” radio execs at The NAB Radio Show’s New Media Executives Super Session agreed that there’s lots of revenue opportunities for radio online. LAPORTE AT JACOBS SUMMIT: BUILD A WEB COMMUNITY: Author, television host, RCA DESKTOP NET RADIO PLAYER PACKS BONUS FEATURES IN $100 PACKAGE: The RCA Infinite share: del.icio.us.  Reddit  Digg  Yahoo  Wink  Windows  Google  Newsvine 
CommentCommenting is closed for this article.  Other stories RAIN has upgraded (and moved)! RAIN 9/13: RAIN Summit Chicago takes place today! RAIN 9/12: First Summit in RAIN's hometown takes place tomorrow RAIN 9/9: Summer holidays, "doldrums" impact July Webcast Metrics, but audience up over last year RAIN 9/8: Clear Channel launches new customizable iHeartRadio beta; RAIN goes hands-on RAIN 9/7: Meet more speakers you'll hear at RAIN Summit Chicago in less than a week RAIN 9/6: Clear Channel taps The Echo Nest to take on Pandora RAIN 9/2: RAIN reviews Spotify's radio-like product Artist Radio RAIN 9/1: UK online radio aggregator Radioplayer campaigns b'dcasters to create "all radio" ratings RAIN 8/31: Execs from Merlin, Triton Digital, jacAPPS and more to appear at RAIN Summit Chicago |
floating around is that Internet radio is poorly monetized,” said Pandora founder Tim Westergren in an interview with 
Panelists saw radio’s 2.1 percent share of the local online ad market as a chance to grab much more of the pie from TV and newspaper sites. Moving forward, 
radio talk show host and Web guru Leo Laporte spoke at the Jacobs Media Summit on Thursday, dishing out advice on how broadcasters should tackle the Internet. “We’re faced with a very changed world…It’s a conversation, not a monologue. The Internet is giving us a lot of tools to do this better and better.” By building a community online, Laporte says broadcasters would be engaging audience members and attracting new ones. And of course, “Advertisers are willing to pay a premium dollar for it.” For more on Laporte’s address, read R&R’s coverage 
Radio RIR200 not only tunes in to thousands of Internet radio stations through a Wi-Fi connection, but also accesses Slacker web radio — all for just under $100. Other features include weather forecasts from WeatherBug, AM/FM radio, and MP3/WMA/RealAudio compatibility through a 
Of course Tim is right. Pandora is probably billing more than a typical radio station with their audience size.
Exactly whom at SoundExchange has ever run a media business and could know what is and isn’t reasonable revenue at this stage of the game?
Why SX isn’t spending more time distributing the $ they’re collecting and less time as a music industry lobbyist?
Maybe when they’ve distributed every dollar they’ve collected they might be justified being paid to flack for the RIAA. And maybe not even then.
— Bob Bellin · Sep 19, 12:38 PM · #
Lets face the Royalty rate is a tax aimed at killing net radio. How any smaller station can afford the rate is beyond me. BTW this is not a knock at Pandora However would it not be better described as a internet juke box as it plays only music no DJ. or information shows?
— mike allen · Sep 19, 01:00 PM · #