BY PAUL MALONEY
In regards to the dispute between AFTRA and radio broadcasters
trying to stream their programming on the
Internet,
International
Webcasting Association chairperson Peggy Miles says her
organization sees "resolution of these issues in the next
six months."
That's according to a press release from the IWA, who presented
a panel called "Media on the Net from Small Streams to a Sea of
Revenue" at the NAB convention yesterday.
Miles also said, "The current disputes will be of
short duration until new contracts are signed and new agreements
reached...We believe that both AFTRA and all Internet broadcasters
want to work out this situation so both parties profit equally..."
The IWA, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting
webcasting, made no prediction as to when the dispute between
webcasters and the RIAA over performance copyright fees for streaming
might be resolved.
Peggy Miles is president of Intervox
Communications, a digital broadcasting business development firm.
BY
SCOTT STAFFORD
FOR RAIN: RADIO AND INTERNET NEWSLETTER
The major record companies are forming alliances. When the
dust settles, the big winner could be Internet radio.
Recently AOL Time Warner, Bertelsmann and EMI formed an alliance
with Internet media company RealNetworks as part owners in a new
online music subscription service called MusicNet. Three days later
a similar agreement between the remaining two of the "big five"
labels
(Universal and Sony) and Yahoo was announced.
Universal and Sony have been building their own subscription
service called Duet, which will now incorporate Yahoo to help distribute
the music. On the heels of this news comes reports that Universal
will acquire the beleaguered Emusic.com and its online library of
independent music.
And somewhere in the middle of all of this, MTVi Group agreed
with all five major record labels to sell 10,000
songs through its Radio MTV and VH1atWork services by the end of
the month. MTV announced plans to sell individual songs for 99 cents
to $1.99 per song, while whole albums will sell for $10.98 to $18.98.
MusicNet and Duet, however, have not announced how they plan to
charge, but may be leaning toward a monthly subscription rate for
each site's respective catalogs.
But consider this: what if MusicNet were to license their
technology to other online services, like Napster? This plan would
have Napster, in essence, collecting a toll when a subscriber downloads
a song from the MusicNet catalogue - like a commission or finders
fee.
Music sells, labels keep control, and Napster becomes…profitable!
Why would record companies want to share with Napster? Well,
they wouldn't have to go and reinvent
the wheel. There are plenty of people already familiar and comfortable
with the Napster interface. And there wouldn't be a whole new service
to market. Could the necessary players all be smart enough to capitalize
on this?
Considering the competition between MusicNet and Duet for subscribers
- especially if neither is able to assemble product from all five
major labels, Internet radio sites could benefit by becoming "affiliates"
as well. This would give Internet radio another much needed angle
to bring in revenue. Then, streaming audio sites like Spinner.com,
NetRadio, and so forth, could collect a "toll" for songs that are
downloaded through that particular site.
Most e-commerce sites have some sort of affiliate or associate
program. Say an e-commerce site pays an
affiliate between 5 and 10% of the total purchase price of a product
if the purchase is made from a link on the affiliate's site. Any
webcaster will tell you that this model has not been a big money
maker. But it's not because people don't buy CDs! Think about it,
it's inconvenient for a listener to stop what they're doing, click
to another screen, fiddle with their credit card, type in all of
their information, choose shipping methods, and so on.
Most listeners probably mentally jot-down the album they
want and later go directly to Amazon or CDnow to make their purchase,
or (more likely) to their local record store.
With the advent of a system that would allow a listener to
simply click a button to download that song, or the entire album
(or better yet, the entire artist's catalogue!), Internet radio
could play a large role in the distribution of songs for MusicNet
and Duet. Internet radio could turn listeners into subscribers for
online music services. In the legal climate of webcasters, the RIAA,
and existing services like Napster, it seems far-fetched that ANY
plan that would require this much cooperation could come together.
But wouldn't that be a REAL revolution?
Scott Stafford is founder and former program director of
AlphaRadio.
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From the AP: "
Universal
Music Group is acquiring the 50 percent interest that it
doesn't already own in
GetMusic, an online
music site, from its partner Bertelsmann, the German media conglomerate.
"Universal will combine the site with a separate online
music venture called
Farmclub.
Andy Nibley, the head of GetMusic, will become head of the new venture,
which will keep the GetMusic name...
"Farmclub will stop producing a weekly TV show for the
USA cable network, and other operations will also be eliminated.
Farmclub will continue to review music from unsigned bands that
people post on its Web site, Farmclub.com...
About 60 people will lose their jobs as a result of the deal.
Read the entire story
here.
