 RAIN 7/22: Billboard enters race as a consumer destination music portal ·Jul 22, 01:31 PM SITE REVAMP INCLUDES ON-DEMAND AND PLAYLIST STREAMS, OPEN ACCESS TO HISTORICAL MUSIC CHARTSBillboard has joined Yahoo! and AOL in the battle for music consumers online with a completely redesigned site unveiled today. Among other updates, the site now includes streaming playlists and on-demand audio. Billboard’s weekly sales lists from the past 51 years — previously only available to subscribers — have been opened to the public as part of the redesign. Users can stream every track from these charts, as well as “plug in any date” and listen to the music from that list, said Billboard publisher Howard Appelbaum. Each song can be listened to for free once, but 10 cents gets you unlimited plays.
Additionally, each artist on Billboard’s charts will have their own page with songs, videos, tour dates and bios. Users can comment on artists, buy their music and purchase tickets for live performances. Appelbaum also revealed that Billboard applications for the iPhone and Facebook are in development. For more, check out USA Today‘s coverage here. BELLIN: PUREPLAY WEBCASTER AGREEMENT A “BAD DEAL SHROUDED IN PR SPRAY”The pureplay webcaster royalty deal with SoundExchange announced in early July only “slow[s] down the death march” for Internet radio, says industry expert Bob Bellin (pictured left). In a guest post for Radio-Info.com, Bellin argues (here) that the deal still takes away any hope of profitability for large webcasters: A webcaster with $10 million in revenues and a 25% profit margin (similar to the stats turned in by the radio industry last year) would pay double their profits in royalties, writes Bellin.
Bellin sees the rates for small webcasters — those making less than $1.25 million a year in revenues — allowing some room for profit. In a sense then, he writes, Internet radio has been limited to a $1.25 million revenue cap. “That’s less than my local hardware store brings in…It’s pretty obvious that if no individual business in an industry can bill more than a hardware store, there isn’t much future for that industry.” Furthermore, by agreeing to rates slightly more reasonable than those handed down by the Copyright Royalty Board, webcasters will look like they’re “crying wolf” if they try to renegotiate these terms. This will make any future negotiation with the music industry more difficult. In the long run, Bellin says the deal will do nothing but hurt all parties involved: “Both sides are saying they won when in fact both sides are worse off because of this agreement. I can’t help but see this as another nail in the record industry’s coffin disguised as a victory – a bad deal shrouded in PR spray.” RAIN publisher Kurt Hanson has published a blog post in response to Bellin’s article. Find it here. NET RADIO DRAWING ADVERTISERS, WRITES HEINE, BUT STRUGGLING WITH LOCAL MARKETS, DEMOGRAPHICSAdvertising on Internet radio has been an “unlikely success story,” writes Paul Heine at MediaWeek, with companies from Esurance to Orbitz to Walmart now buying time with streaming services. Heine’s writes that there are two reasons for this success: Internet radio’s “momentum” in popularity — thanks to at-work listening and mobile applications for devices like the iPhone — and very precise ad tracking that can deliver advertisers click-through rates and other stats instantly. However, advertising on Internet radio isn’t without its disadvantages that need to be worked out as the industry evolves, says Heine.
For example, “webcasters have yet to make significant inroads into the lucrative local marketplace.” If Internet radio is to “come into its own and reach its full marketing potential,” it must offer advertisers local options. Webcasters are also still struggling with discovering how many ads listeners are willing to sit through, while “advertisers universally complain about a dearth of reliable, comprehensive demographic data…Still,” writes Heine (here), “with marketers expecting more from their ad dollars—improved accountability and measurement, ROI and integration of old and new—Internet radio’s proponents say that its inherent advantages give it a bright future.” Heine is also now posting analysis on media and radio at his blog here.
250M WIRELESS BROADBAND USERS PROJECTED FOR END OF 2009More and more people have access to the Internet on the go, with 225 million wireless broadband users worldwide recorded in March. Some reports predict there could be 250 million subscribers by the end of the year, and by 2013 there could be as many as 4.5 billion potential wireless subscribers with access to high-speed Internet on their mobile devices. For more, check out GigaOM’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 |
