TEN SCOOPS IN TEN DAYS! We've got a LOT of excellent, exclusive material in the queue. Look for original reporting on brand-new stories involving radio and the Internet virtually every day for two straight weeks in RAIN!

BY PAUL MALONEY
Tomorrow on his nationally-syndicated radio show "Internet Insider," host David Radin will air an exclusive interview with the man behind the apparent preview of the upcoming "Star Wars" film "Episode II," Radin told RAIN this morning.

The trailer, which certainly looks authentic, has already racked up 1.3 million downloads from fans hungry for a glimpse of the latest installment.

The trailer is available for viewing here, from the fan site TheForce.net. (If you're a "Star Wars" fan, RAIN suggests that you view the trailer now, before you continue reading.)

Radin's "Internet Insider" is a nationally-syndicated radio show, airing Saturday mornings 11am-noon ET in most markets. (A list of affiliated stations and a link to listen online are available here.)

Radin told RAIN in an exclusive interview that the creator of the trailer, who calls himself "Anonymous Director," is a young Hollywood industry insider, and a huge fan of the George Lucas-created saga.

Okay -- have you seen the trailer yet? This is your last chance before we continue.

To visit Radin's "Internet Insider" website, click here. All right. Now, the rest of the story:

Yeah, we thought it was real too. But it's actually an elaborate "interpretation" of what scenes from the new movie, shooting in Australia now and slated for a Spring 2002 release, might look like -- starring actors who might be in it.

The trailer, which uses no actual scenes from the new "Star Wars" installment, was assembled with unauthorized-use footage from other films like "Dune," "Elizabeth," and "Braveheart." It is for this reason that Radin's interview guest has chosen to hold his identity secret. (For a shot-by-shot guide to how it was done, click here.)

Radin's interview will feature how Anonymous Director used state-of-the-art digital editing to put together the trailer.

According to Radin, representatives of LucasFilm have indicated that they have no problems with the trailer as long as it's not used for profit. Anonymous Director hasn't yet heard from the legal representation of the creators of the films from which he "borrowed."




Episodes 1 through 7 of CampChaos's animated parody pitting "The Sopranos" against Napster -- which was pulled from creator CampChaos' site at the behest of Warner Brothers Records -- have been posted (probably illicitly) by at least two other sites.

As of this writing, both the Club Gonzo and Slycer sites have the first seven episodes of the animated series available for download and/or viewing.

You can read yesterday's RAIN story if you scroll down to the third news story here. (Pictured above: Phil Q and Howie Klein talking (split-screen) with Tony Soprano.)


Reprinted from today's morning edition:

According to a report in yesterday's Chicago Tribune, "WCKG-FM 105.9 afternoon personality Steve Dahl appears to be serious in his attempt to persuade Infinity Broadcasting Corp. brass to consider testing a new Internet streaming audio system for his show.

"If successful," media columnist Jim Kirk (no relation) wrote, "Dahl would be the first Infinity personality to break through the company's hard-line -- and seemingly shortsighted -- stance against live audio streaming of its programming. Infinity has told managers that until they find a way to make money from live audio streaming, no stations can do it."

Read Jim Kirk's full "Media Talk" column in Chicago Tribune here.

Visit Steve's own impressive website, Dahl.com, here.

...

... Okay, Infinity -- here's how you can make money from live audio streaming: (1) Find a streaming provider that will provide the streaming for a reasonable price. (I believe that $.05 per listener-hour is a reasonable going rate. Or, if that's too rich, find a streaming provider that will provide free streaming in exchange for banner ads on the audio player. Since you currently don't have such ads to sell -- and won't until you start streaming -- that's not giving up much.) (2) Find a ad sales rep firm and/or ad insertion company that can sell audio ads on Dahl's show. At, say, a $25 CPM ($.025 per listener-spot) and ten spots an hour, that would be $.25 per listener-hour. (Maybe net that down significantly to reflect a sales commission. A 40% commission would still net you $.15 per listener-hour.) (3) Since $.15 is more than $.05, you will be making money for every listener-hour you get! ...

From Mercury Center's Silicon Valley News: "While the big dogs of the online music world haggle with the recording industry over fees for songs, upstart Soundbreak.com broke from the pack and cut a deal.

"At issue is how much online radio and musical entertainment sites like West Hollywood-based Soundbreak have to pay for the music they play over the Web. The Recording Industry Association of America -- the record labels' trade association -- has demanded 15 percent of online revenues for the rights to play copyrighted songs, drawing stiff protests from the music sites.

"The dispute is slated to go to arbitration before federal copyright officials, a process that could take a year or more to complete. Rather than waiting for the results, Soundbreak CEO Lisa Crane said Wednesday that her company has struck a deal with the RIAA that will pay the labels an undisclosed amount for their tunes.

"The deal makes Soundbreak the first major consumer-oriented music site on the Web to obtain a license from the RIAA, Crane said. By contrast, MTV Networks, America Online Inc., RealNetworks Inc. and other top online music providers are taking their case to a copyright arbitration panel, which will set a price for the rights to play songs.

"The agreement means that Soundbreak will be paying more than conventional radio stations do for music, and potentially more than its online competitors. But Crane said the law was on the labels' side, so it made sense for her company to get the matter settled.

"'I want to go forward and build a business. I want to get past this,' she said. 'I just don't want to spend five hours a week talking about it.'...

"The company eventually hopes to let listeners download the songs being played, along with providing links to concert tickets and other items related to the music. To get such projects off the ground, though, the company had to make peace with the record labels, Crane said...

"The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 extended the record labels' copyrights to cover digital performances, such as when a song is broadcast over the Web. They have no such rights when their songs are played over the air by U.S. radio stations, although they can collect from European broadcasters...

Read the entire piece from Mercury Center's Silicon Valley News here.

Contribute your opinions -- or pose new questions. Simply click the headline at left to bring up a convenient pop-up form!

Part Two of a two-part series (read Part One here)
BY RALPH SLEDGE, RAIN journalism intern
There is a technology on the horizon that may looks well-poised to address the issues that plague Internet radio -- e.g., slow Internet access, being tied to a phone line,and overall general complexity...

Enter the Internet appliance
Before I go any further, I feel I should try to clarify what I mean by "Internet appliance" (or "IA"). That isn't an easy thing to do, because, so far as most people are concerned, they don't exist yet.

An Internet appliance is essentially a streamlined computer which operates only while connected to the Internet The idea is that the device will be a simpler and more reliable way to do common tasks such as web browsing, e-mail, and even word processing.

It looks as if most of these devices are aimed, at least initially, at people who don't really want to deal with -- or are afraid of -- full-blown computers.

One of the very few such devices currently available is the i-opener from a company called Netpliance (see photo above left). Netpliance claims in excess of 44,000 users at the moment, which isn't bad for a technology that's essentially in its infancy.

The companies behind them
Netpliance isn't the only company working on Internet Appliances -- not by a long shot. One of the most looked-at companies in recent months has been Transmeta, which has among its employees Linus Torvalds, the inventor of the much-vaunted Linux operating system.

Transmeta makes the Crusoe, which is a processor designed specifically for portable devices. The Crusoe uses a fraction of the power of a typical portable-Pentium processor, and can be upgraded via download to work with various operating systems. This upgradeability is important, as no operating system has dominance in the portable industry yet.

The launch of the Crusoe processor was webcast over ZDTV, and and boasts the largest audience of a ZDNet webcast to date. To me, this signals something very important. Torvalds is an exceedingly technologically-savvy guy who has helped develop a technology that just might make all of this computer-mangling entirely unnecessary for those who didn't want anything to do with it. Torvalds thinks there's a future in this kind of thing, and that's probably saying a lot.

Qubit is one of the companies that actually develops the hardware, and they have in the works various devices which range from i-opener look-alikes to web pads which fit in your refrigerator. No kidding -- an Internet appliance in an appliance. This might seem strange, but it shows that IAs might taken any form, and that's important.

Several larger companies have shown interest in IAs as well.

Compaq has recently introduced a line of what are called iPaq devices. Gateway Computers, along with AOL, plan to introduce a line of IAs by Christmas. Microsoft already makes a version of Windows for portable devices, and a recent Slashdot article is saying that Microsoft is planning to manufacture chips for certain IAs.

IAs and Internet radio
Internet appliances will benefit from the growth of the same technologies that Internet radio requires.

The simpler devices will appeal to a wider audience -- and that audience might use them. (Consider this: Just because millions of people have computers in their homes at the moment doesn't mean millions of people know how to confidently and extensively use them.) The faster networking will make streaming audio tolerable to use and open up their potential. And making them wireless will be the final key.

In conclusion...
There's no reason to think that people won't want these things. There has been some hesitancy about them in the past, based on the fact that more tech-savvy people tend to distrust IAs because they seem to be "dumbed-down" computers.

But outside the U.S., wireless Internet-enabled cell phones are already popular in Europe and in Japan, where wireless telecommunication is fast and getting faster. Like personal computers, IAs are likely to become more and more popular as they become more powerful and more capable... capable of doing things like playing audio and video acceptably.

The technologies needed to bring IAs into the spotlight are the same ones needed to bring streaming radio into larger acceptance. They're tied together, and I think that when the Internet appliances come, Internet radio will be right alongside it.


Reprinted from yesterday's late-afternoon edition:

Frequent RAIN contributor Bob Bellin wrote in with some comments on Wednesday's piece (here) by Katz Interactive's Gerry Boehme.

(E-mail us your opinions by clicking here.)

Other reader feedback below refers to Wednesday's news article (here) about WWW.com's apparent plans to launch a pay radio service...

"I applaud what Katz is doing...but their clients aren't doing their part..."

"Does Gerry see agencies changing their methodology of buying media based upon CPM?"

Interesting points that Gerry made, but he gave absolutely no insight as to Katz's compensation or pricing solution when placing Internet-based buys. How does Gerry and Katz compensate the site that has only 27 or 339 listeners at one time when an audio, video or banner ad is delivered?

Also, it seems that Katz still sells the spots on a CPM to advertisers regardless of the method or reach of delivery. Does Gerry see agencies changing their methodology of buying media based upon CPM? Has Katz also developed a pay schedule based upon a per-user basis for specific ad insertion and feed to a user in a unicast model -- i.e. ad insertion via Engage or iBeam's new individual ad insertion technology? What type of metric is Katz using that will compensate a site adequately for a per ad delivered or minimal audience when a spot runs?

Inquiring minds want to know!

"True, there is a value -- but..."

I do not agree with Gerry on reporting audience size of net listenership.

True, there is a value -- but 150 AQH Persons at a $20 CPM is only $3.00 per Webcasting spot!

Keep up the good work!

Several readers also wrote in regarding Wednesday's piece on WWW.com's plans to begin offering pay radio subscriptions (here)...

"Every time they try to serve an audio ad it dumps me..."

I tried listening to WWW.com while at work and found it a very frustrating experience. Every time they try to serve an audio ad it dumps me. This is a frequent occurrence and I am now a faithful listener of Sonicnet. Now, that's a hip site!!

"Bad programming is rampant on the Internet..."

Programming is the issue. As we continually point out on our site; The difference between other Internet Radio stations and us is programming and audio quality. How else would you explain a site with no hype doing over 1.5 million users per month and only 47 channels [as opposed to our competitors with channels up the ying yang]?

It's the programming and there's no substitution for it - PERIOD.

Most in this field have hired bad wedding DJs or PDs and MDs who may have been the big cheese in their P2's and P3's but like many of them (even in the big swamps) they've never once worked with PEOPLE who listen to radio nor are they LISTENERS of radio [in all of its formats].

Bad programming is rampant on the Internet. Format integrity is always an important part of our philosophy and our traffic shows it. I shudder to think if we had 200 channels. My God, we'd be at over 4 million users per month! Hmmmm,

"We will ALL be watching..."

Kurt: We will ALL be watching the first Internet-only subscription model.

With regard to your pet-peeve on the song ripping -- I agree. We do EVERY cut by hand in real time - only way to keep it sounding hot and be accurate with the original intentions of the labels... Thanks!

September 12-14	Digital Coast 2000, Los Angeles, featuring a panel on Internet radio moderated by RAIN's Kurt Hanson
September 20-22	Gavin.com: Music on the Net, San Francisco
September 20-23	NAB Radio Show, San Francisco
Sept. 29-Oct. 1	MOBE/Internet & Technology, Chicago
October 5-7	Billboard/Airplay Monitor Seminar, New York
October 9-12	QuickTime Live! Conference, Beverly Hills
November 5-7	NAB European Radio Conference, Berlin
Nov. 28-Dec. 1	Radio Ink Internet Conference, Santa Clara, CA

 

xxx

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