 RAIN 02/20: Still no royalty deal in sight; Mobile Internet becoming a "necessity" ·Feb 20, 11:04 AM ANOTHER DAY, STILL NO ROYALTY SETTLEMENTS FOR MANY WEBCASTERSFive days have passed since the February 15 deadline for royalty deals between Internet radio and SoundExchange, and still no agreements have been announced for many webcasters. While negotiations are reportedly continuing (RAIN coverage here), SoundExchange and DiMA are stuck on how to calculate revenue for a percentage-based royalty payment system. Tom Taylor mentioned today in his Radio-Info newsletter that DiMA might approach Congress for aid, “but Pandora, MTV and RealNetworks probably have their best friends on Capitol Hill among the 20-something and 30-something staffers of the actual House and Senate members,” he notes. As always, we’ll have coverage of any future updates here in RAIN.
MOBILE INTERNET BECOMING A “NECESSITY” SAYS NEW STUDYThe results from a new Nielsen Company study show that mobile Internet is becoming a “necessity” for consumers, not just a luxury. According to the study, 71% of U.S. consumers plan to use some sort of mobile data service daily, while 55% planned to increase their usage of mobile data services in the next two years. Consumers tend to use mobile Internet for “utilitarian” reasons — favoring email over entertainment — which means mobile Internet expansion will perhaps resist current economic pressures. Said vice president of mobile media for Nielsen Jeff Herrmann, “Entertainment falls under ‘discretionary income.’ Convenience and utility are necessities.” However, the same mobile data plans that allow access to email can also pull down Internet radio streams and other entertainment services. For more, read MediaPost’s coverage here.
RADIO TOWERS WILL BE USED AS A “MARKETING TOOL FOR ONLINE, NOT VICE VERSA” PREDICTS RAMSEY Media industry insider and author Mark Ramsey made 10 predictions for the next 5 years of the radio industry earlier this month, including the rising importance of digital strategies as stations’ “bread and butter…The tower will become the marketing tool for the digital strategies, not vice versa,” he writes (here). “Digital dollars will exceed over-the-air dollars in part because there will no longer be such a thing as dollars which are only ‘over-the-air.’“ His other predictions include a migration away from Arbitron in favor of services that offer “accountability and results,” and the simulcast of TV content on radio.
WUNDER RADIO LAUNCHES ON WINDOWS MOBILEPopular iPhone application Wunder Radio has launched on Windows Mobile phones. The webcast aggregator pulls down over 36,000 radio stations, and is available for download for $9.99. The application has done well on the iPhone, seeing over 100,000 downloads and receiving the honor of best iPhone radio application (terrestrial division) at the recent MacWorld Expo. However, Wunder Radio brings some new features to Windows Mobile, including a “Now Playing” plug-in for users’ home screens and background play capabilities. Wunder Radio is developed by Weather Underground and uses RadioTime’s net radio directory. For more, read the official press release here.
FIND CONCERTS ON DEMAND FROM CBC RADIOWhether you’re in the mood for a live performance from Peter Oundjian or some jazz from Jeff Johnston, CBC Radio has you covered. Their concerts on-demand service (found here) features over a dozen genres and hundreds of performers. The database is easily searched by genre or keyword and most concerts are conveniently broken into track-listings — so you don’t have to listen through an hour of music before getting to your favorite Bobby Watt tune.share: del.icio.us.  Reddit  Digg  Yahoo  Wink  Windows  Google  Newsvine 
Comment Other stories RAIN 9/2: Apple makes iTunes experience more social, more "radio-like" RAIN 9/1: FilterMusic.net excels at helping you discover new streams RAIN 8/31: Pandora's Les Hollander to speak at RAIN Summit East RAIN 8/30: Former Forrester analyst to deliver second keynote of RAIN Summit East RAIN 8/27: Radio vet Bill Gamble to consult AccuRadio's country stations RAIN 8/26: Clear Channel's digital chief Evan Harrison to leave at end of year RAIN 8/25: Pandora spotlights improved "genre-based" listening options RAIN 8/24: NAB presents details of proposed royalty settlement to members RAIN 8/23: Mobile media growth will even outpace Internet, predicts Nielsen RAIN 8/20: New deadline for Internet Radio Awards is August 31 |
