 RAIN 9/30: Mortgage bail-out meltdown presumably distracts Congress from webcast bill ·Sep 30, 02:04 PM NO NEWS OUT OF D.C. REGARDING WEBCAST BILLOn Saturday, when the U.S. House of Representatives quickly and unanimously passed H.R.7084, the Webcaster Settlement Act, the bill appeared ready to make an equally quick and successful run through the Senate. Webcasters and content owners alike supported the bill, and the NAB, which had been lobbying against it earlier on Saturday, announced it would remove all opposition in both Houses after lobbyists met with bill cosponsor Rep. Howard Berman (read more in RAIN here). But after yesterday’s collapse of the economic “bail-out” bill in the House, Congress is presumably occupied with weightier matters, as there’s been no word of the bill’s progress in the Senate. RAIN will continue to monitor the situation, and we’ll immediately report any news we receive. SPINNER.COM RETURNSAOL Music has officially relaunched its pioneer webcasting service, Spinner.com. MediaPost reports “the relaunch features a new look, easier search functionality and a new tool bar that will allow users to listen to Spinner’s MP3 of the day (as well as access past MP3s of the day) while browsing the site.”
Spinner (which had previously been known as TheDJ.com) was one of the Internet’s first massively multi-channel webcast services. It was owned by Nullsoft (WinAmp creator and founder of Shoutcast) when both were acquired by AOL in 1999. Spinner evolved into the first iteration of AOL Radio, which combined earlier this year with CBS Radio’s webcast service. The new Spinner, which offers news, videos, free MP3s, artist interviews, songs, live performances, and editorial features, will also launch internationally. Read more in MediaPost here. HOUSE BILL WOULD REQUIRE HD ON SATELLITE RADIO DECKSA bill moving through House committees would require HD radio receivers on satellite radio devices. H.R. 7157 was introduced by Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-MA, pictured) and is backed by a bipartisan group of members of the Energy and Commerce Committee. Markey said he introduced the bill to add competition to the monopolistic satellite radio market. The NAB, not surprisingly, fully supports the bill. For more, read Radio Ink’s coverage here.
BIA CHIEF SAYS TIME FOR RADIO INNOVATION IS NOW“I think the opportunity for innovation in the radio industry right now is better than it’s ever been,” said Tom Buono, founder and CEO of BIA Financial Network despite complaining that the ad market is the worst he’s seen. “In terms of the advertising picture, it’s as bleak as it has been…Instead of just selling spots, we need to be making offers for a whole range of services,” he said, and goes on to suggest a few ideas including video. “I think that’s the future.” For more, read RBR’s coverage here.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 |
