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If you're attending the NAB in Las Vegas, we'd like
to invite you to a special open discussion on the crisis
facing webcasting. We're tentatively planning on meeting
at Gordon
Biersch for delicious Marzen beer and garlic fries.
The restaurant is just 1/2-mile from the Convention Center,
at3987 Paradise Road, just north of East Flamingo Road
(map here).
For details and confirmation, please call Kurt Hanson
at 773-354-KURT.
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From Yahoo: "The recording industry scored a win with
the U.S. copyright office this week, which has ruled
that
radio broadcasters are not exempt
from licensing royalties when they simulcast their
programs on the Internet.
"The decision, which was announced Friday, was also
cheered by digital media companies, or Webcasters, who sided with
the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) as part of
their crusade to clarify what they say are gray areas of copyright
law, which are impeding their efforts to provide entertainment
on the Web...
"The Copyright Office on Friday also issued another
ruling relating to a dispute in the marketplace between
Webcasters and record companies about whether some types of personalized
radio falls under the category of interactive services.
"Earlier this year, DiMA petitioned the U.S. Copyright
Office to initiate a rulemaking on the licensing status of consumer-influenced
music programming over the Internet. In its petition, DiMA sought
a declaration that 'consumer-influenced'' Webcasts qualify for
statutory compulsory licenses rather than individual licenses.
The Copyright Office declined to initiate a rulemaking proceeding."
Read the entire story
here.
BY PAUL MALONEY
The industry's focus on ad-insertion companies these past
weeks has served to intensify the friction
between two of the field's competitors.
Through press releases and statements to industry news
sources like Radio Business Report
and Radio Ink, Lightningcast
Chairman and CTO Tom Des Jardins and Hiwire CEO Warren Schlichting
have questioned the veracity of each other's statements about
their company's success, technology, and business practices.
Last week, Lightningcast
announced (read the press release here)
that they, along with streaming aggregator iMNetworks,
were "creating a de facto standard for ad-insertion."
Des Jardins referred to his company as "the established market
leader."
Hiwire immediately responded. A spokesperson from Hiwire
was quoted in Radio Ink (here)
as "They're not even close...Tom (Des Jardins) has repeatedly
said that Lightningcast will have around 4 million aggregate tuning
hours..." Hiwire claims that with their recently announced
deal with MusicMatch,
their
aggregate tuning tops 9 million hours. Hiwire has repeatedly challenged
Lightningcast to prove their reach by revealing their list of
station affiliates, which Lightningcast has so far been unwilling
to do.
Des Jardins came back with both guns firing. He backed
his firm's claims in last Thursday's RBR, saying "Lightningcast
really does have huge market penetration and we’ve stopped releasing
that information because every time we release our customer list,
Hiwire goes and beats them up and we just don’t think that’s the
way to treat our customers." He blamed Hiwire for affiliate
DiscJockey.com's problems, and challenged Hiwire to join in establishing
a standard: "If Hiwire truly believes that they want to benefit
the industry, then show some ***** and let’s do this."
Schlichting has since once again challenged Des Jardins
to reveal his company's affiliates.
Hiwire and Lightningcast have repeatedly clashed on technology
issues as well. The two firms have challenged each other in the
past to show that their respective technologies can work with
different streaming formats, are functional with different browsers,
and the true "targetability" of inserted ads on "client-side"
versus "server-side" systems.
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an opinion on this article? Share it! Simply click
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From the press release: "In a pioneering approach to
new media concepts, Kickworks and the Recording 
Industry
Association of America (RIAA) announced the signing of an agreement
that will enable Kickworks to create a legal digital music library
to be delivered online via Kickworks
Broadcast Radio Network...
"Under the terms of the agreement, Kickworks has the
rights to the recordings of all RIAA members, which account for
more than 90 percent of all legitimate recordings in the United
States. In turn, Kickworks
DJs, who can be anyone, anywhere, will be able to use these recordings
in broadcasts consistent with the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act (DMCA) statutory license.
"The rights of the agreement extend beyond consumers
to users creating and accessing stations through Kickworks' other
distribution channels, such as affinity group sites and corporate
sites."
Read the press release here.
...
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...
What exactly does this all mean? Is this really something
revolutionary? There are other companies that claim to be
fully RIAA-licensed. Is it like Live365? As far as I know,
Live365 DJs are allowed to play RIAA music as long as it follows
DMCA. The site www.kickworks.com is not accessible and therefore
offers no further clues. --PM
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"Broadcasters...are
under-utilizing the Internet..."
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Broadcasters
looking to insert commercials into their existing "terra" streams
continue to miss the mark and are under utilizing the Internet.
What they should be focused on is creating a wider offering
of sub stations promoted via the terra signal, and creating new
inventory within new programming. The aggregation of new listeners
from competing formats on the "terra" side will yield far greater
rewards than the audience duplication created from a single signal.
This
is in response to RAIN Reader Feedback (from SuperRadioFan,
here)
on the discussion of ad-insertion services...
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"Over
60% of those listening online are local..."
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Time and time again we see that over 60% on those
listening online are local! One of our streaming
stations, an AM in San Francisco, continually sees nearly 70% of
its online listener base from within the market.
Remember that a large percentage of webcast listening is
still done "At Work" where a portable radio may not be available
or the signal cannot reach. Those that listen online during this
very important day part traditionally are the stations P1's -- a
key segment of the stations' audience advertisers are trying reach.
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George T. Bundy
BRS Media Inc.
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This feedback is in response to RAIN'
s exclusive
interview with ABC Radio EVP/New Media Geoff Rich (here)...
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"That's
just a new 'side' station..."
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ABC's system "sophisticated" system? But if it's
a studio-level solution and not a station-level solution, then all
of the content (including Internet-only ads, etc.) have been pre-set
before the stream leaves the radio station. And if that's true...
well, it sounds to me like that's just a new "side" station put
together just for the Internet. Not so sophisticated.
This is feedback from streaming radio listeners who've been
"stranded" and unable to hear their usual Internet stream...
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"I
may not make it back..."
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"I'm not sure what all is happening here, all I know
is that I see neat things being delayed and diminished by arguments
over protection and who gets what slice of which revenue. This ultimately
serves (IMHO) to hurt the format and frustrate the consumer. I appreciate
attempts to generate & distribute revenue in appropriate ways, but
it's useless if you drive the customer away in the process..."
"Some hours of the day the only way I get good radio
in Dallas is to listen to Denver stations..."
"Now we have another greedy union preventing webcasting
of radio programs. Tell it like it is. Unions have to go..."
"Is there any way you could continue to stream your
broadcasts until you have the solutions to your problem worked out
- then quickly make the change?..."
"You're really screwing with my day here. The only way
I get WBAP is on the Internet and I count on it for traffic, weather
and news... if I spend 60-90 days without it, I will have to develop
alternatives and I may not make it back..."
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Various streaming radio listeners
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Reprinted from Friday...
Yesterday, as a service to our readers who have pulled down
their broadcast stream in wake of the AFTRA
broadcast
commercial controversy, we featured a quick guide to the major companies
offering ad-insertion services. We hope you found the guide helpful.
We're still working on filling in the remaining details.
You can still access the guide by clicking
here,
or on the screenshot.
Again, if you represent an ad-insertion firm who we haven't
profiled (or we've posted something erroneous), please let us know
via e-mail
here.
Likewise, if you're a broadcaster who's used one of these services
and would like to add something informative, please use the same
e-mail link.
