From Streamingmedia.com: "When it comes to radio programming,
News and Talk is perhaps the one format
that allows for truly fresh and unique content. Listeners can
count on an alternative rock station to play the new Radiohead
song, mixed in with all those other 'alternative' hits, but no
one really knows what’s going to come out of
Rush
Limbaugh’s or
Howard Stern’s
mouth next.
"And though audience numbers for Internet radio still
pale in comparison to those of terrestrial radio, the news and
talk format has begun to carve out a positive presence on the
Web. Either by streaming nationally known mouthpieces like Limbaugh
or by pushing the content envelope with edgy, uncensored Web-only
programs, talk radio programming is hitting the niches, and holds
real potential to make money online...
"According to Bill Rose, general manager and vice president
of Arbitron Internet Services, branding is the biggest challenge
facing Internet talk radio sites.
In
addition, Rose says online talk radio faces the same hurdles to
widespread acceptance as all streaming media content: clunky end-user
experiences and limited broadband connections. Perhaps one of
the most telling signs of the nascent state of Internet talk radio
is the fact that The Howard Stern Show still does not stream...
"However, Internet radio can reach into office buildings
when AM signals often cannot, and entertains while allowing for
the freedom to perform mundane chores such as balancing a checkbook.
In the end, though, Internet radio needs to wiggle its way into
the daily behavior patterns of listeners to become as viable a
medium as terrestrial radio. Unless, of course, wireless distribution
sets Internet radio free. According to Rose, however, that is
not likely to occur until 2004 or 2005."
Read this article
here.
BY PAUL MALONEY
The online music delivery industry has taken another step
towards the long-awaited "celestial jukebox," in the
form of MusicMatch's newly-released Jukebox 6.1 and the Radio
MX feature. In fact, according to MusicMatch chief executive
Dennis Mudd, in a statement to the press, the aim of the service
is to "push the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as close
to its boundaries" as possible without actually breaking
the law."
The concept of a true "on-demand" music service has
been around for a long time. But concerns over licensing, security,
a lack of technological standards, and various legal entanglements
have kept the idea on the drawing board and off the Internet.
All of the major labels, AOL, MSN, and Real; alone or working
in various combinations, all have on-demand music subscription
services in the works. But MusicMatch, as a step towards their
own promised "fully on-demand" service (which they say
will launch this summer when requisite licenses are obtained from
record companies and music publishers), have introduced Radio
MX.
For a monthly, quarterly, or annual fee (with a 14-day
free trial), users can sign up for the service and set up
personalized streaming channels according to favorite artists,
genres, or eras. We set up a couple "artist" stations
(including a nod to MulletsGalore.com called "
Butt
Rock"), and an "era" station (the musically
vibrant years of 1968-1977).
The system isn't true "on-demand" because the
user isn't able to select the exact song and artist to which to
listen at a particular time. The system tailors a stream built
along the selected artists, along with similar artists. The sound
quality was really good (we selected CD-quality sound on the bandwidth
slide, though without headphones or analysis equipment we can't
be sure if "CD-quality" is meant literally or as an
"acceptable approximation."). And the programming seemed
accurate when choosing music from artists other than the user-selected
choices. The adjustable "tempo" control also worked
very well.
Observation: anyone who is going to pay to listen to Internet
radio and design a station according to their
favorite artists will most likely be a pretty serious music fan.
When we selected 25 artists for our personalized station, they
were artists with whom we're very familiar, and much of whose
work we own. Yet the stream consisted mostly of "greatest
hits," the most tried and true selections. This seems to
work all right for the "era" stations, mostly because
the system draws from various genres of music. But understanding
that the artists around which a station is created are probably
the user's favorites, the MusicMatch system should dig a little
deeper for choice material.
It's tough to say whether many people will be willing to
pay money on a regular basis for a service like this. The "argument
against" has become redundant, but ir remains true: consumers
won't pay for something that up until now (radio, and even music,
in the "Napster sense") has been free. But the Radio
MX system works exactly as promised, with well-programmed music
and great sound quality. And with the 14-day free trial, we recommend
giving it a spin.
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From the press release: "Representatives for
Radio
Express, the world's first and largest, international
syndicator of radio programming, and
Multicast
Technologies, the first technology company to create a
scaleable online broadcast network, joined forces to create a
one-stop traditional and Internet radio syndication powerhouse
for multinational advertisers.
"The partnership will allow marketers to take advantage
of traditional radio programming content which advertisers can
sponsor and will provide them with the creation and development
of sponsor-specific, online radio stations.
"The partnership between these two companies will
enable marketers to create their own online/offline
radio programs and provide the most technologically advanced online
radio stations available in the marketplace today...
With Multicast Technologies' patented technology, advertisers
will also benefit from having their own branded, online radio
stations with CD quality music worldwide and the most cost effective
method of broadcasting over the Internet that is available today."
Read the press release
here.
