 RAIN 10/12: Playdar plugin leverages the fact that listening to music you already own is free ·Oct 12, 10:33 AM PLUG-IN DESIGNED TO REDUCE ROYALTIES BY USING MUSIC ON LISTENERS’ HARD DRIVESOpen-source playlist software Playdar, developed by Last.fm co-founder Richard Jones, could save webcasters licensing and bandwidth costs by tapping into the music listeners already own. The software uses XSPF, shareable playlist files based on XML, to automatically find music stored on users’ computers. This means, said Jones, that a service like Pandora could play a user’s locally-stored music file rather than stream songs the user already owns, thus saving Pandora a per-performance royalty fee.
Customizable streaming services like Pandora, Last.fm and Slacker could especially save money by incorporating Playdar, because users commonly set up stations “around the same artists they have in their music collections,” Wired’s Eliot Van Buskirk points out (here). “Playdar technology can enable interactive radio services to shrink their licensing and bandwidth costs. And in a slim-margin Explained Jones (pictured left), “It’s criminal that companies like Last.fm, Pandora, Spotify, and Rhapsody are paying to stream content to people when they already have that song locally.” iHEARTRADIO ADDS ON-DEMAND VIDEO Clear Channel’s mobile iHeartRadio platform can now access on-demand videos of studio performances, artist interviews and other content. That includes Clear Channel’s “stripped” performances from artists like Coldplay, Silversun Pickups and Mariah Carey. For more, check out All Access’ coverage here.
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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 |
business like online music, every bit (in both senses of the word) counts.”
