 RAIN 3/6: Motley Fool debates wireless Net radio's threat to Sirius XM ·Mar 6, 11:05 AM On Wednesday, Motley Fool columnist Motley Fool’s Rick Aristotle Munarriz disagrees. “I’m confident that broader broadband won’t kill satellite radio. It’ll just thin out the moat,” he argues (here). Why? Munarriz says Internet radio’s high royalty rates will bring in more undesirable ads. Also, assuming there’s free universally-accessible Wi-Fi, people will be saving money on What do you think? Will the already struggling Sirius XM succumb to wide-spread Internet radio? Share your thoughts and discuss with other RAIN readers in the comment section below. RIAA FALLACY THAT ONLINE MUSIC “SUBSTITUTES” FOR MUSIC SALES RESURFACES IN ARTICLEThere’s a new Business Week article getting some attention in the radio and media press today which makes the dubious argument that legal, licensed online music services like Pandora and Last.fm do not enhance, but rather “substitute for,” music sales. However, the author offers no credible evidence for what he supposes, and offers no rebuttal to the baseless claims made by the record industry.
In the article “The Music Industry’s New Internet Problem,” columnist Douglas MacMillan parrots the cry of record labels, namely, that since consumers can listen to music online for free, they’re buying less of it. It’s an idea echoing the complaints of entrenched industries that’s as old as recorded media itself. Recorded music on the radio was supposed to kill both live music and record sales; cassettes and digital audio tape were also supposed to destroy record sales, television was to decimate both radio and Hollywood — and what was left of the movie industry would surely fall victim to cable television, the VCR, and the DVD. The record industry unearthed the argument as a driving force behind the passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. “Of course we should squeeze digital music services like Internet radio for high royalties and restrict their programming,” lobbyists convinced sympathetic lawmakers. “If people can listen to free music online, who’ll buy it?“ MacMillan opens the article with an anecdotal example of a young, NY-based music fan who says he no longer spends $100 a month on music, because he listens to iMeem and Last.fm. He equates legal, licensed online music services with illegal file-sharing. Getting to the crux of his argument, he cites no documented This tragedy ends with a bit of (unintentional) comic relief: MacMillan revisits the guy in New York who doesn’t buy music anymore, to find him buying music, made by an artist he heard online. How does the author make sense of this illogical behavior? “It’s the charity that even the most freeloading fans feel toward music that they’re passionate about,” he concludes. Bottom line: Legal, licensed online music services, like Internet radio, are one of the few positive developments of the last decade for the record industry. These services actually help the artists and labels connect music-purchasing fans with music. The RIAA argument (and MacMillan’s) is fallacy. — PM GODIN TO COUNTRY RADIO: “DATE” YOUR LISTENERS, CREATE RITUALS Seth Godin challenged both radio and the music industry in his seminar at this year’s Country Radio Seminar to “date” listeners and create “rituals” for your “tribe.” He recommends creating relationships with fans, persuading them to become a part of your tribe. By offering them “a secret hand-shake,” or special rituals, they’ll feel included. Once they’re “converted,” they’ll bring more followers. KMPS’s Tony Thomas has more notes from Godin’s presentation at Mark Ramsey’s Hear 2.0 blog here.
NPR, PITCHFORK.TV PARTNER FOR LIVE CONTENT NPR Music and Pitchfork.tv, the video branch of the popular Internet music publication, have partnered to deliver live music content. Pitchfork.tv will broadcast video, while NPR will stream through Internet radio and podcasts. The first performance is from an Antony & the Johnsons show at Washington, D.C. For more, read Pitchfork’s coverage here.
KERR JOINS TRITON DIGITALTriton Digital Media has hired Jim Kerr as vice president of strategy. Kerr was most recently VP/Digital Development at Pollack Media Group. For more, read Radio Ink’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 |
Tim Beyers proclaimed the coming of universally-available wirelessly-accessed Internet radio would make Sirius XM “irrelevant.” And it’s coming soon, he says, pointing to the $7.2 billion for broadband expansion in the most recent stimulus package. “That stinks for Sirius XM. Surely content is a key advantage of Sirius XM, but so is its omnipresent service,” he writes (
Internet subscriptions and even home phone service—maybe Sirius XM’s subscription fees won’t seem so high anymore. He also points to car manufacturers’ inclusion of satellite radio receivers and all the big-name talent will “always” bring in “tens of millions of subscribers. That is huge, because terrestrial radio will be pretty much toast when Internet radio levels the playing field.”
independent studies and names no third-party experts; only “researchers and industry consultants” (really? which industry?) who “say online music sites are being used by a growing number of listeners as a substitute for purchasing music, rather than serving as a catalyst for more purchases.” He does get a quote from National Music Publisher Association lawyer Jay Rosenthal (who debated 
Sirius XM’s decimation of its own content is a bigger threat to its appeal than Internet radio. Our ROOTSofROCK.US channel has attracted a siginificant number of defectors from 50s on 5 following the Sirius-XM channel consolidation. Lack of compelling content used to be only a detraction of HD Radio but now it is Satellite’s as well. We are witnessing living proof that “content is king.” As stations continue to slash programming budgets and lay off their top talent, Terrestrial/HD/Satellite radio is becoming more and more irrelevant to the listener—folks are turning to Internet radio as that’s where they are finding what they are seeking.
— Harold Levine · Mar 6, 02:05 PM · #
A big advantage that Sirius/XM and terrestrial radio have is how they distribute the content. You don’t have to be connected to a “network”, they send a signal direct to you. It does not matter if there are 5 or millions, everyone receives the same signal with no loss.
Election Day was a perfect example – anyone watching the coverage on broadcast TV was able to do so in full HD, yet CNN.com had to put people into a “queue” to handle the load on the Internet.
I’ve listened to online stations, but one day I was trying to hear a story on NPR – the station kept re-buffering. As it turns out, I had to replace my router. Another time the host station was overloaded and yet another, my ISP was having trouble.
I can carry my Sirius/XM unit walking the dog, in the house, in the office or anywhere I want and get a full Sirius/XM signal. I don’t have to worry about drop-outs, too many connections on the host, my wireless router or the dreaded letter from my ISP telling me I used too much bandwidth this month.
While I do believe the technology will eventually be there, right now it’s not. Radio, including Sirius/XM is still the most efficient way to reach listeners.
Remember – it was ham radio and broadcast radio that was used during Katrina, not Twitter.
— Scott Parks · Mar 7, 09:37 AM · #