RAIN: Radio And Internet Newsletter

From Digital Coast Daily: "Three and a half weeks after it took down its LaunchCAST service in response to a lawsuit from four of the five major music labels, Launch Media has put the online radio service back up. Only this time, it's without the songs from the record companies with which it is currently negotiating.

"Last month, BMG, EMI, Sony and Universal Music sued Launch, alleging that the interactive capabilities of LaunchCAST violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Then, in late May, Launch joined with its allies in the Digital Media Association, including San Diego-based MusicMatch, to sue the labels' trade group, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), seeking a clarification of the DMCA.

Personalized stations on LaunchCAST no longer run music from the four labels suing Launch. Preprogrammed stations, however, do include a full library of music, as they don't have any of the interactive features that the labels claim are illegal."

Read this article here.

Note in the screenshot above that both the "Rating" and "Skip" features remain in the service. These features were points of contention between the RIAA and webcasters, as the record industry deemed them to be "interactive" and thus cause for ineligibility for a compulsory license.

Also note the current artist in the player is the Red Hot Chili Peppers, a WEA artist. During our test, we heard plenty of other WEA artists like Eric Clapton, R.E.M., and Led Zeppelin. Launch already has an agreement with Warner Music, thus they were the only of the "Big Five" not to sure the webcaster.

We'll send you a brief daily summary of each day's stories with a clickable link to the RAIN home page.

First name:

Last name:

Station & market (or company or school):

E-mail address:

Note: Fields marked by "*" are required.

From the press release: "Innuity Media Services announced today that it has formalized an agreement with Flextech Holdings Ltd., of Singapore, to merge with its media asset, First Internet Asia, to form an international broadcast-focused media convergence company, First MediaWorks...

"The resulting entity, First MediaWorks, marries the dominant position Innuity Media Services holds as the leading provider of integrated Internet marketing products and services in the United States, with the powerful position First Internet Asia holds as the leader in the radio and Internet space in Asia."

...

...
This is good news, as the background story is that of another set of entrepreneurs getting back control of the company they founded:

Chad Meisinger and Larry Austin founded San Clemente-based First

Internet Media Corporation (FIMC) in 1998 with funding provided by Singaporeans (Flextech Holdings, Inc.). Flextech reserved intellectual property rights for Asia as part of the deal and, in 1999, founded a successful sister firm named First Internet Asia (whose clients now include the massive, multi-format broadcaster MediaCorp Radio of Singapore.

In 1999, Meisinger and Austin sold FIMC to Minnesota-based Innuity,

Inc., which has designed and built hundreds of thousands of small-business websites for clients of firms like IBM, Micron, and CBS Switchboard, and which rebranded FIMC as Innuity Media Services. Meisinger and Austin stayed in management, joined by COO Norman Feuer.

This deal reflects a management buyout, with funding again provided by Meisinger and Austin's former Singaporean partners, accompanied by a merger of the two radio-oriented firms -- Innuity Media Services and First Internet Asia -- into the international firm to be named First MediaWorks, with Meisinger, Feuer, and Austin at the helm, accompanied by President of Asian Operations Fabian Benjamin.

Look for a follow-up report on Singapore, the most-wired city-state on the planet, with Kurt Hanson reporting daily from Singapore, later this summer in RAIN (hopefully).
...

Have an opinion on this story? Drop us a note! (Or, to use your own e-mail software, click here.)


Your e-mail address:
Your name (if not obvious from your e-mail address):
Kurt, this is deep background -- don't quote me!

Thanks!

This feedback deals with the Hiwire/Clear Channel ad-insertion agreement...

"Clear Channel is the fast food restaurant chain..."

I'm not sure how much of a great deal it is for consumers. Will they be getting anything new out of having

all these Clear Channel stations to stream at the touch of a mouse click?

To speak frankly, Clear Channel is the fast food restaurant chain of American radio. You get the same product whether you are in New York or New Mexico.

Having all these similar Clear Channel stations available will not add in any way to a user's overall experience, especially if that user is looking for something different, that they can't necessarily hear on their stereo. To be sure, commercials were the only features that gave most of these otherwise homogenous stations any local flavor, and uniqueness, and now, even that glimmer of originality is about to be extinguished.

Radio-Locator.com

"Why would Clear Channel want to share its ad revenue?..."

Why would Clear Channel want to share its ad revenue with another rep. firm for a 50/50 or even a 80/20 split?

Clear Channel would never give away 20-50% of the ad revenue to another sales organization when it has a good sales organization itself; and the technology is too cheap not to buy or create.

Deep background only

"This is a huge step for ad-insertion..."

Okay...I have to ask...if Hiwire paid or didn't pay, or Clear Channel gets the lion's share...DOES IT MATTER?

Hiwire has laid off people and burnt cash --but they now have Clear Channel...the one all ad-insertions companies wanted.

They are ripe for VC funding or leverage now, and have a tremendous audience once CC starts all of their stations (or the ones they will pick) streaming. It doesn't matter how the deal was structured. I am sure there are a few other 'Net media players that have coughed up cash or equity in deals.

This is a huge step for ad-insertion. I hope Hiwire actually now has a system that works and can do what they claim they can do.

Have an opinion on this article? Share it! Simply click the headline at left to bring up a convenient "Submit" form.


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