BY PAUL MALONEY
Faithful RAIN readers are probably well aware of the existence of a handful of Internet radio "appliances;" devices created to make finding and listening to streaming audio as simple, intuitive, and convenient as traditional radio.

Throughout the past year, we've described a few of these products, most prominently Akoo's Kima (RAIN story here), iM Networks' (formerly Sonicbox) IM Remote Tuner (here), and 3Com's Kerbango (here).

There do exist other, somewhat lower-profile products that perform similar functions, and we thought RAIN readers would be interested to know about them.

Over a year ago, Mike Calvo and his Miami-based company Inhouse Radio Networks introduced the Radio Webcaster. It's similar to the IM Remote Tuner in that users can remotely tune to a station chosen from preselected group of streams, organized by genre. And, like other products, the signal from the user's computer soundcard can be "broadcast" to radio tuners anywhere in the house.

But Calvo's big push these days is his latest product: the Freedom Box. It's a system designed to allow visually-impaired users full access to the Internet -- including streaming audio. Using voice synthesis- and recognition-technologies, the system turns links on web pages into voice commands. The user hears his or her choices, and then literally "tells" the browser where to go. There's an on-site demo that shows how easy it is to tune to an Internet radio station using only your voice.

The device is available as a stand-alone unit (basically, a PC with the appliance built in) or as an add-on module -- both of which require Internet access and a subscription to the service.

If the Radio Webcaster reminds you of the IM tuner, the next two products should be reminiscent of the Kima. The first is from Jensen Wireless, called the Matrix Internet Audio Transmitter. We haven't been able to find out too much about the Matrix, other than it works along a model we've seen before: one box connects to your PC's soundcard and transmits a 900 MHz signal throughout a 150 foot range. The second box picks up the signal and connects to your stereo. This system, however, requires an input on your stereo (so it probably won't work on, say, a clock radio). It retails for about $100.

Among the new devices demonstrated at the recent CES in Las Vegas is AudioRamp's new iRAD-T product line: "tethered" (that is, not wireless) appliances that play both Internet radio and downloadable audio (MP3, WMA formats) stored on the PC, which can deliver the signal to a stereo anywhere in the home or office via an ethernet or "Home PNA" connection. (RAIN's report on other AudioRamp products is here.)

Available as an add-on component or stand-alone "shelf model," the iRAD adds the functions of a music-management system. The new system uses the company's "Intelligent Audio" technology: it (according to the site) "dynamically monitors your listening behavior, reconciles those actions against your preferences and then dynamically builds relationships against a proprietary database of audio and music content...including radio, streaming, music, news, events, merchandise, and promotions." In other words, it figures out what you like, and gets you more -- combining the functions of listening/tuning appliance and a recommendation service (see RAIN's story on music recommendation here).

Another interesting approach is the still unavailable Linux-based Penguin Radio. Linux is the open-source operating system preferred by many over Windows and Macintosh for its reliability and stability. ("Open-source," by the way, means that the system's code is not kept a trade secret, but rather made available in the interest of encouraging others to participate in its innovation and advancement. The penguin is the symbol of Linux.) See RAIN's report on the announcement of this product here.

The company's also put together a small guide to streaming stations, and features artist profiles and MP3s.

There's not a lot of information available about the product yet, but it appears to be a design along the lines of Kerbango, in that it's a stand-alone device (no PC needed). The company claims users can not only tune in streaming audio, but download MP3s as well. There's no mention of what streaming formats are supported, but if it's any indication, their radio guide features Windows Media, Real, and streaming MP3 stations.

The Penguin Radio will have both a modem and an ethernet connection, so both dial-up and broadband users can use it. According to the site, the makers are aiming for a Summer or Fall 2001 release. In fact, it was recently announced that Penguin Radio has commissioned JB Design, a British company, to develop the appliance for mass production. The price, at this point, looks like it'll be about $200 to $250.

As mentioned, these products are decidedly low-profile, in an industry which itself is below radar for many consumers. Perhaps it'll be the popularity, ease of use, or effective marketing of an appliance (as opposed to a content supplier) that will increase the visibility of the new medium.

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From CNet News: "EMusic, a Web site that sells direct digital downloads of music, said Friday it would lay off more than a third of its staff (66 employees) as part of a new round of restructuring.

"This is the second round of layoffs for the company within the last year. Close to 20 percent of the staff was cut last June.

"EMusic has been hard hit by twin market forces undermining two of its core revenues streams. A decline in Net advertising has withered revenues at its RollingStone.com site in recent months, executives said. At the same time, actual sales of music have been hurt by the widespread availability of free music online through file-swapping services such as Napster and Gnutella...

"As a part of the restructuring, the company said it will focus its resources more heavily on the EMusic.com download site and the RollingStone.com site. That could be bad news for its other brands, which include DownBeat.com and the Internet Underground Music Archive (IUMA), one of the first sites to provide downloadable music online as far back as the early 1990s."

Read the article here.

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From MacCentral.com: "Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced iTunes, music jukebox software that is 'how it ought to work,' during his keynote at Macworld San Francisco. He said that iTunes is Apple's second product (following iMovie) designed for the 'Age of the Digital Lifestyle...'

"iTunes lets Mac users import songs from their favorite CDs; compress them into the popular MP3 format and store them on their computer's hard drive; organize their music using powerful searching, browsing and playlist features; watch stunning visualizations on their computer screen; and burn their own audio CDs -- all in one integrated application.

"Exclusively for Mac users, iTunes is available as a free download from Apple...'iTunes is miles ahead of every other jukebox application, and we hope its dramatically simpler user interface will bring even more people into the digital music revolution,' said Jobs."

Read the story here.



The MeasureCast "Top 25" Ranking is out, and the company claims that online listening of the top station is up 46 percent. Click here, or anytime under the "Metrics" heading on the left-hand menu of RAIN.

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This is regards to Jim Tszarek's guest essay in RAIN December 19 here.

"Traditional radio should embrace (web guys)..."

Jim Tszarek writes of the advantages of established Radio companies over Internet startups. Indeed, Radio companies are tightly focused on counting beans; so focused that they cannot create and experiment with new business models but must copy models that have been proven by others.

Rather than knocking the web guys for taking risks, traditional Radio should embrace them. Seek those guys out. Show them respect. Goliath could have learned a lot from David.

-- Mike Marks Capecod.net

This is in regards to Bob Bellin's satire piece in RAIN December 20 here.

"Way to keep us on our toes..."

Fantastic piece on "mylife.com." I just skimmed the headline indicating that it was satire and continued to read on in disbelief! Way to keep us on our toes.

-- "Deep background" only

This is in regards to RAIN's "Most Important Stories of 2000," January 2-4 here, here, and here.

"You gotta have a website that matters before anything else..."

Hasn't there been anything significant happen, in your opinion, in the field of the Web Service Providers? For example, what about the thinning out of the playing field, with the disappearances of several companies (and of course the continued growth of...[clear my throat]..others).

I honestly find it odd that you seem to deal only with streaming, ad insertion, streaming ratings, and companies being bought or going out of business ...you gotta have a Website that matters before anything else matters.

I think this was the year we as an industry started focusing on building our databases and cultivating listener loyalty through permission marketing.

--Tyler Hartley Innuity Media Services, Inc.

These next three refer to the StreamAudio coverage, RAIN January 9 here.

"As with everything else, you get what you pay for..."

I think that the era of proprietary players has come and gone. With all the flexibility in the Real and Microsoft players, if you can't figure out how to stream your audio without requiring listeners to download yet another player, there's something seriously wrong.

The lesson for radio broadcasters is that if they want to have control over their own destiny on the Internet, they have to take back responsibility for their audio streams, and forget about these "free" services. As with everything else, you get what you pay for.

-- Len Feldman Equipoint Corp.

"You have better control with a paid service..."

Replying to your question about pay versus free streaming. I manage nine stations, five of which stream. I have used pay and free services. It is my opinion that you have better control with a paid service than a free service.

I am currently using a free service and find that we get more complaints from the listeners. This service, which will go unnamed, requires you to download a browser (biggest complaint) and inserts commercials over ours (mostly psa's which repeat far too often.) Although the actual stream itself is excellent quality.

-- Rick Musselman VP Nassau Broadcasting

"I'll give StreamAudio until June..."

This company is doomed to fail...I think if you look at the usage of its clients (Top streamer is about 65,000 streams a month...wait until they get to a couple of hundred thousand a month and see if they can afford to give the bandwith away.)

I wish companies would just learn that this business model doesn't work...so some type of standard and reasonable cost structure can be established. I'll give Streamaudio until June until they go under.

-- "Deep background" only

February 1-4, 2001	RAB 2001, Dallas, TX
February 21-25, 2001	The Gavin Seminar 2001, Miami, FL
February 26-28, 2001	Broadcasters Website Sales Conf. 2.0, Tempe, AZ