RAIN Publisher and president Kurt Hanson (pictured right) will moderate one of two panels dealing with radio and the Internet at this week's R&R Convention in Los Angeles.

The panel, called "To Stream or Not to Stream" will deal with challenges facing webcasters and broadcasters in their efforts to stream on the Internet. This of course includes DMCA-related issues, concerns over RIAA royalty demands, and the recent controversy involving webcasting and AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists).

Featured speakers include Matthis L. Dunn Jr. from AFTRA; David Helfant of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer, and Feld; Clear Channel Interactive president Kevin Mayer, Edison Media Research president Larry Rosin, and John Simson representing the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and SoundExchange. The panel is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon from 3:30-5PM.

Preceding this panel tomorrow (scheduled from 1:30-3PM) will be "Using Your Website to Create Listener Loyalty," hosted by David Lawrence (pictured left), host of "Net Music Countdown" and "Online Tonight with David Lawrence."

Clear Channel Interactive's John Duncan, LMiV CEO Jack Swarbrick, DMR's Tripp Eldredge, and Courtney Holt of Interscope Records are the scheduled panelists for this session.

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If you're planning on attending this week's R&R Convention, please join us for the RAIN Reader Cocktail Party, in conjunction with the Strategic Media Research Pizza Party. We'll be on the outdoor patio of Harper's Bar & Grill, directly across the street from the Century Plaza Hotel, on Friday afternoon from 4-6PM! We've flown in lots of complimentary deep-dish Chicago-style pizza and will have a nice spread of other excellent appetizers too. (Albeit a cash bar.) Please join us and bring your friends!

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BY PAUL MALONEY
RAIN has learned from an inside source that the latest LMiV-powered website is now available on the web, and several more are ready to launch.

According to an Emmis Broadcasting memo sent out yesterday, as of Monday night, the new Q101 (Alternative WKQX-FM/Chicago) website is operational. The "soft-launch" beta version of the site is available here.

According to the memo, Emmis has pointed the 50,000 listeners in their database to the site, and will officially launch with an on-air promotion on or around June 21. Further, the brief mentioned that LMiV has also launched a site for Corus Toronto station "Energy FM" (here), and will soon unveil new web fronts for Entercom's KNRK/Portland (here) and Jefferson Pilot's WSTR/Atlanta (here) -- with more on the way ("WIBC, HOT97 and Power 106" were mentioned).

The Local Media Internet Venture (LMiV) is a joint effort by several broadcasting companies to establish an industry-owned network with large scale resources to provide content, technology, and marketing to local member station websites. Participating broadcasters include Emmis, Bonneville, Greater Media, Jefferson-Pilot, Corus. The CEO is Jack Swarbrick. In April, the LMiV launched their first site at Bonneville's WTOP-AM/Washington (here).

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Reprinted from today's early edition...

BY PAUL MALONEY
Listen.com has agreed to remove certain functions from their Internet radio service in order to avoid legal action from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), according to an article in TheStandard.com.

In yesterday's RAIN, we brought up the question of how Listen.com can be eligible for a "statutory license" under the DMCA (which the company now is, following an announced agreement with the RIAA) and still retain the "interactivity" for which similar services are still facing legal fire.

Listen.com president and CEO Sean Ryan told RAIN that over the next several weeks, the "Skip" and "Rate" functions will be removed from the service. "We still maintain that the DMCA is unclear," Ryan said. "But we chose not to fight this battle at this time. We'd rather focus on our new on-demand service and new radio service for this fall."

Ryan did say though, that should the legal issues fall in favor of the webcasters, his company would consider reinstalling the "personalization" features.

As of this morning, the functions in question remained in operation.

UPDATE: Here at the RAIN office we received an e-mail notification (sent to registered Listen.com users) saying "some aspects of Internet radio services are being questioned in the courts. We want to stay focused on bringing you a top quality and legal listening experience. Therefore, we need to temporarily modify your player." The memo included instructions for downloading the updated player.

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From Technology Review: "Threatened by the growing success of competing audio formats like Microsoft's Windows Media, Thomson Multimedia will debut MP3Pro on June 14 and detail its long-awaited plan to charge royalties for streaming MP3.

"MP3 is a system of audio encoding and decoding that has become a de facto standard for music transmission on the Internet. MP3Pro is an enhanced version promising greater efficiency and higher performance that will 'position MP3 much better for the streaming market,' says Henri Linde, who manages MP3 licensing for Thomson...

"Last year, Thomson notified MP3 users that royalties for MP3 streaming, or MP3 broadcasting, would not be charged 'until the end of the year 2000,' while it gauged 'where this new market is going...'

"This week, Linde revealed Thomson's licensing policy for streaming or broadcasting 'pure MP3.' The royalty rate is two percent of revenues related to streaming, with a minimum fee of $2,000 per year.

"'If MP3 is used for free distribution on the Internet, we will not charge royalties,' he says. But 'if people monetize, the inventors should have their fair share,' he adds. For MP3Pro, Thomson will also offer a license based on 'revenues related to streaming,' such as advertising, Linde says. The royalty rate for MP3Pro will be three percent of revenue, with a minimum fee of $3,000 per year."

Read the entire piece here. Live365.com and Shoutcast.com are two companies that make extensive use of streaming MP3.

June 14-16, 2001	R&R Convention 2001: Los Angeles, CA
June 20-22, 2001	Streaming Media West 2001: Long Beach, CA
July 19-22, 2001	The Conclave Learning Conference: Minneapolis
Aug. 15-18, 2001	Gavin Summit IX: Boulder, CO
Sept. 5-7, 2001	XStream: Broadcasting on the Internet at the NAB Radio Show: New Orleans, LA