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THE STANDARD'S
B E A T S H E E T
The Latest Digital Music News - and It's Free
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For more on digital music, visit
The Standard's Media & Marketing page:
http://www.thestandard.com/subject/marketing
Tuesday, April 24, 2001
TOP STORY:
* Streaming Hits a Snag
NET NOISE:
* Killpopradio.com
BEATS:
* Napster and Relatable Join Hands, Sing 'Kumbaya'
DOT DOT DOT:
* Kickworks Hooks Up With RIAA ... LoudEnergy Buys Riffage Assets ...
Is Alanis Bailing on Maverick?
SOUND OFF:
* This week's question: Do you listen to radio online? Was the station
you listen to among those that pulled their live Web feed offline
earlier this month?
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TOP STORY
~~~~~~~~~
Streaming Hits a Snag
Conflicts over Net-ad royalty payments have prompted radio's big
players to pull the plug on their live Web feeds. Web ad-insertion
companies could end up as the winners in this scenario - and so might
the stations themselves.
By Julene Snyder
If you believe Kurt Hanson's take, the big radio conglomerates'
decision earlier this month to pull their live Web feeds to avoid
paying Net ad royalties is an indication of an industry in a crisis.
Web radio listeners were undoubtedly disappointed in mid-April when
hundreds of radio stations yanked their broadcast content offline,
citing the fees the American Federation of Television and Radio
Artists requires them to pay ad agencies to compensate union actors
for the use of on-air ads online. MeasureCast, a company that tracks
streaming radio audience size and demographics, says the total number
of hours of online radio broadcasts declined by 6 percent last week.
But according to Hanson, a radio market researcher and consultant who
runs a daily Web publication covering the industry, the radio stations
didn't necessarily have to pull their live broadcasts from the Web -
they could have found another way to broadcast ads online without
paying fees.
After pulling the Web feeds, Kevin Mayer, CEO of Clear Channel
Internet Group, said in a brief statement that his company - the
largest radio station owner in the U.S. - will bring back its Internet
radio streams "when it makes legal and financial sense." One way to do
this, Hanson suggests, is for the stations to sign up with
ad-insertion companies that can replace the on-air ads with spots
designed specifically to be broadcast on the Internet. AFTRA spokesman
Matthis Dunn says the union has no problem with radio stations
entirely replacing terrestrial commercials with Internet-only ads on
their Webcasts. Clear Channel is reportedly in the process of
selecting and deploying ad-insertion technology.
These technologies could open up another revenue stream for radio
stations that broadcast live online. Ad-insertion companies like
Everstream, Lightningcast and iBeam Broadcasting charge Webcasters a
fee of as little as $300 a month, or a percentage of the station's
revenue. Once the service is set up, all a DJ has to do is flip a
switch to send each type of ad to either terrestrial airwaves or the
Net.
While ad-insertion companies may have hit pay dirt, the radio stations
themselves might benefit as well. "They've been looking for a way to
charge their advertisers extra to be included on a Webcast," Hanson
says. "Now they're free to charge those extra fees."
Online-only radio stations like Spinner Networks, Launch.com and
SonicNet aren't affected by any of the brouhaha, since ads created and
streamed strictly for an online audience are exempted from the
additional royalty fees. Last week, Webcaster Digital Club Network
announced a plan to deliver live concert broadcasts to radio
broadcasters; because the company owns all the copyrights to its live
music content, it can license those streams with impunity.
For now, Hanson is predicting that at least some stations will hook up
with an ad-insertion vendor and start streaming online again within
the next few months. In the meantime, online radio aficionados
listening in their offices can seek out Internet-only stations or just
lean over and turn on their actual terrestrial radio. That is, of
course, if they can pick up the signal from inside layers of corporate
walls.
Read more at http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,23671,00.html
NET NOISE
~~~~~~~~~
Killpopradio.com
The name of this radio-directory site is catchy enough, but with the
time it takes for it to load and serve pop-up ad windows, it's hard
not to ruminate on whether it shouldn't be subtitled
"killpopupads.com." No less than two unwanted windows intrude on
visitors' browsers right off the bat. Once those annoyances are
clicked away, there's lots of good info for radio fans, both online
and offline. The content is helpfully broken down by category, ranging
from college to new age to punk, and you'll find buttons that let you
listen now, see a schedule or request a tune via e-mail. (Argh! Those
pop-up windows, on the other hand, have a tendency to shove their way
to the front of your desktop, exhibiting the subtlety and finesse of a
jackhammer outside a prenatal yoga class.) Well, it seemed like a good
site, really it did, but the windows that keep inviting me to meet my
true love at Match.com made me change my opinion. My revised advice:
Drop by Killpopradio.com, look around to see if you can find any cool
radio stations and leave as quickly as possible before you're
bludgeoned with a seemingly endless stream of ads for stuff you don't
want, can't use and wouldn't buy anyway.
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BEATS
~~~~~
Napster and Relatable Join Hands, Sing 'Kumbaya'
Does one ever grow weary of chronicling Napster and its endless
permutations? Why yes, as a matter of fact, one does. But one realizes
that in times such as these, one does whatever one must to keep one's
job. Which somewhat inelegantly brings us to this week's Napster
chapter: The file-swapping service has been busily hooking up with a
variety of companies to more effectively filter copyrighted material.
As you may recall, just the other week it hired the online music
database Gracenote.com to help filter recordings and bought assets
from the music-recommendation service Gigabeat. Last Friday, it
announced a licensing deal with digital-fingerprinting firm Relatable
to use that company's technology, which creates a unique fingerprint
for individual recordings that it compares with a database, so it can
block files on the basis of tunes and content, rather than solely on
text names. Given the huge amount of files that Napster handles, it's
not entirely certain that the technical challenges can be
circumvented, and what with the possibility of reverse-engineering
algorithms, it's not exactly clear if it will work in the long term.
And whether the latest effort will appease the major labels - which
have repeatedly expressed skepticism at Napster's attempts to block
copyrighted material - remains to be seen. But you can rest easy:
Whatever happens will be reported ad nauseum from intrepid reporters
who won't let go of this story until it reaches some sort of a
conclusion.
Read more at http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,23870,00.html
DOT DOT DOT
~~~~~~~~~~~
Kickworks Hooks Up With RIAA ... LoudEnergy Buys Riffage Assets ... Is
Alanis Bailing on Maverick?
Last week, the Recording Industry Association of America announced it
will license its music for San Francisco-based Kickworks to use when
it launches its free, ad-based Internet radio model later this year.
The deal will reportedly allow consumers to use RIAA artists' music in
online radio broadcasts - for which it would charge a licensing fee -
while Kickworks will pay royalties to the copyright holders and
musicians. The RIAA has signed similar deals with companies such as
Yahoo and Web radio service Musicmusicmusic. ... "Global music
community" LoudEnergy has acquired the assets of online music company
Riffage.com last week; as you may recall, Riffage closed its doors in
December after it was unable to hook up with a merger partner. The
deal does not include the San Francisco concert venue Great American
Music Hall or record label 1500 Records, which Riffage had purchased
in a move to diversify into offline ventures. ... The New York Daily
News reported last week that Alanis Morissette - who recently
testified before Congress about artists' rights - is threatening to
leave Madonna's Maverick Records, which is part of AOL Time Warner's
Warner Music Group. Unnamed sources told the News that "Morissette
might follow the lead of singer Courtney Love, who is battling in
court with her record label, Universal Music Group." The singer is
nearing the end of a seven-year stint with Maverick and is said to be
stalling in delivery of her next album.
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SOUND OFF
~~~~~~~~~
This week's question: Do you listen to radio online? Was the station
you listen to among those that pulled their live Web feed offline
earlier this month?
E-mail your opinions to julene@well.com with "sound off" in the
subject line, and we'll print a selection of the responses in next
week's newsletter. Letters may be edited for clarity and length, so
keep them short and include your name and affiliation, if any.
Last week's question: Which aspects of the current digital-music
scenario do the media tend to overlook?
The new global technology has allowed an unprecedented level of local
exposure and attention for local bands. In Austin, for instance, no
less than a dozen Web sites offer wide samplings of local releases,
listings of shows, and information about local artists. Five years
ago, an Austinite would have had zero access to that information, but
now it's as close at hand as the nearest computer. Nifty!
- Brent Lyles
DJ for "Sounds Like Austin," Live365.com
Media coverage has done very little to discuss the actual payment
processes being worked out to get artists their money. Copyright
ownership is the end-all, be-all, according to the articles covering
payment processes for downloads. There was a piece in The Standard
last week ("Just Compensation," by Lawrence Lessig) that touched on
the subject but didn't offer any solutions or methodology. Most of us
want free downloads, obviously, and are very wary of giving them up
when it seems the labels will benefit from the pay models, and an even
smaller trickle of revenue will reach the people who made the music. A
subscription model will allot only a pittance of revenue per track;
how many times can those pennies be carved? Article after article
relates the raw deal that so many artists receive concerning royalties
in the "traditional" label deals. The forecast on any deal struck for
digital downloads looks like the deal done got worse for the
musicians. Is there a way to guarantee some cash for artists?
- Chris Mooney
Affiliate manager of business development
Ugo.com
I think it tends to overlook the fact that the nature of the Napster
lawsuit has suddenly changed after Bertelsmann stepped in - from
trying to put the copyright genie back in the bottle to trying to shut
down a future competitor. In addition to that, I think the regulatory
efforts of Congress, as well as the recent legislative initiatives of
the EU, are not awarded enough place in the media.
- T. Schwarz
U.K./Germany
Personally, I'd just as soon see the media focus on any and all of the
file-sharing programs - well, all the good ones (for now that would
be: BearShare, Limewire, Gnutella, Spotlight, WinMX, FileNavigator,
AudioGalaxy Satellite, iMesh, Napigator and, of course, Napster) - so
that more files will be available to everyone online. There's no way
to stop all of these programs. If one file sharing program gets shut
down, five more will pop up. The anonymity factor built into how
Gnutella and FreeNet (a Gnutella-like engine) work, also makes it that
much more impossible to shut down. The more one uses these programs,
the easier it is to switch to a new one if need be, too.
Online radio and Webcasts are also an exciting realm of online music
and media. These streams - whether it be from an online radio station
or from a video Webcast - can be easily captured as MP3s and saved on
your hard drive, which can then be listened to any time you want from
your computer, or burned to a CD. There are thousands of live and
archived Web casts and radio stations online, and you can find out all
sorts of information about a song or band - as you're listening to it.
- Michael White
Co-author of "MP3 Underground"
STAFF
~~~~~
Written by Julene Snyder (julene@well.com).
Editor: Michele Keller (mkeller@thestandard.com).
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