 Best RAIN Summit ever? Maybe! Thanks to everyone ·Sep 25, 05:53 AM Somehow, everything that we’ve been writing about in RAIN for the past nine-and-a-half years is finally coming together — the audience has achieved a critical mass, sales forces are getting established and advertisers are getting enthusiastic, we’ve all agreed on one ratings platform, our medium is making its way into cars (via the smartphone), the royalty situation is at least temporarily resolved… and you could feel the positive energy yesterday at our first every RAIN Summit East in Philadelphia! Over 150 of the best and brightest in the radio and webcasting industries gathered together at the Hard Rock Cafe for 2-1/2 hours of great sessions, panels, and It was congenial (Jerry Del Colliano didn’t use any harsh nicknames for anyone!), it was cooperative (webcasters and SoundExchange, working together!), and it was cutting-edge (with killer presentations of innovative new products and services). So, thank you to everyone involved! Thanks to Jennifer Lane for helping organize the event, to Dan Halyburton and Jim Kerr for moderating panels, to Jerry Del Colliano for keynoting, to John Simson, Bryan Calhoun, Patrick Reynolds, Matt Sunshine, Mike McVay, Les Hollander, and Mike Dougherty for speaking, to J.R. Russ for working the sound board, and to everyone else for their questions, comments, presence, and participation! The only problem we had was an overflow capacity — not just standing room only, but even the standing room was overfilled. Next year, to allude to a line from “Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace,” we’ll find a bigger room. And thanks of course to our great set of sponsors — Ando Media, Pandora, Triton Digital, SoundExchange, RadioTime, AccuRadio and Slipstream Radio (us), and Radiolicious. We couldn’t have done it without you. I’m now headed over to the NAB Radio Show. Will write more next week! share: del.icio.us.  Reddit  Digg  Yahoo  Wink  Windows  Google  Newsvine 
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keynote speakers followed by an absolutely fantastic cocktail party. 
Other than Pandora I’m not hearing anyone talking about making profits. The question is how long will investors keep betting that internet radio will ever get into the black.
And, remember SX and the RIAA will always be waiting in the wings to demand that Congress no longer give concessions to protect small webcasters should more than a few start operating without red ink.
Reading about the recent Rain Summit East … it appears that Kurt Hanson is getting very cozy with the folks at SX. Has the farmer (RAIN) started letting the fox (Simson) inside the chicken coop to dine sumptuously at the Hard Rock Café? Have we forgotten so soon that Simson is the man who sat in the Congressional hearings distorting the “case” about Internet Radio?
Noting Kurt’s description of the Summit
“it was cooperative (webcasters and SoundExchange, working together)”
Does that imply that we’re all sleeping with the enemy now? Surely we need to disabuse ourselves of any notion that the RIAA and their lackey, SX, actually is protecting the performing artists, which is an unmitigated fraud. I felt better when there was an adversarial “we against them” relationship. I suspect when I see RAIN start promoting Keynoter, John Simson, “Man of the Year” that I can know it’s time to stop reading Kurt’s Blog and RAIN
— Loran Partigianoni · Dec 6, 04:28 PM · #