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From Inside: "Even as Napster and the major record labels
await word from a federal appeals court in San Francisco on
whether
the file-swapping service can legally operate, a possible resolution
is emerging which might end the protracted standoff and, significantly,
leave all parties standing.
"At least two large Internet service providers have
been engaged, separately, in months-long, on-again-off-again
negotiations
to purchase the embattled music-swapping company, which has quietly
put out word that it is for sale. 'A deal with us could be something
close to win-win for everybody,' says an official from one of the
ISPs involved, who, like others contacted for this article, agreed
to provide a detailed outline of a potential deal...
"With the notable exception of America Online, large
ISPs are finding it harder and harder to bring in new members. Most
of the easily reached U.S. audience is already online. In addition,
AOL has formidable competitive advantages...
"Thus, the other ISPs need some compelling inducement
to draw in new customers. Enter Napster. If an ISP bought the company
,
only its subscribers would be able to swap music on Napster..."
Read the full article in Inside.com
here.
From CNET News: "While the world waits for a panel of
appellate judges to decide Napster's fate, dedicated music
lovers and file traders already have their eyes on other swapping
technologies. Programs such as Gnutella, Freenet and OpenNap are
already attracting thousands of people, helping spur the evolution
of peer-to-peer technology, or systems that allow people to search
for and retrieve files from individual computers around the world.
"Many of these have been touted by file-swapping advocates
as potential safe havens for Napster's millions
of
music traders if the popular service is shut down in the courts.
But for all the burgeoning optimism that surrounds these programs,
experts say
the other options may prove
to be poor alternatives for Napster's millions of members
if that company's business is deemed illegal..."
Read the full story in
CNET News here.
...
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...
The experts quoted in this story are saying,
essentially, that Gnutella and Freenet are hard for the average
consumer to use. But they're ignoring the fact that the next
generation of these programs would be better than the
current one (e.g., easier to use) and the next generation
of that would be better yet!
In other words, it seems to me that they're not
thinking ahead a step.
-- KH
... |
From The Internet Standard: "About 75 percent of companies
advertising on the Internet are dot-coms. So it would 
seem
that online ad revenues would be hit hard by Net business failures
and shrinking marketing budgets. But Net ad numbers are fairly rosy,
leaving offline dot-com advertising
to feel the cuts.
"Internet retailers increased online spending to 59
percent of the total of their average marketing budget – up 10 percent
from the first quarter, according to Shop.org
and the Boston Consulting Group...
"Internet
ads are expected to make up almost 10
percent of all U.S. advertising spending by 2004, according
to advertising industry analyst Veronis
Suhler. That's a big step up from the 4 percent of ad
spending for the Net anticipated this year."
Read the full Industry Standard
article here.
From PRNewswire:
"GlobalMedia.com...(has)
announced 
that industry veteran Mike McHenry
has joined the company as executive vice-president, sales and marketing.
Reporting to president and CEO Jeff Mandelbaum,
Mr. McHenry will be a key member of the GlobalMedia executive team
and lead the growth and development of a world-class sales and marketing
organization...
"Most recently, McHenry filled senior management roles
at Loudeye Technologies, a Seattle-based
new media firm. As vice-president of international operations and
vice-president of world wide sales, Mr.McHenry grew revenues by
2,000% in the last fiscal year and helped the company through a
successful IPO."
Sirius-2 in-orbit testing completed
From
R&R Online: "The second of three birds was launched
in early September, and Sirius now says that payload and signal
testing shows all systems are performing to specification. In layman’s
terms, that means it will beam down sound. Sirius-3 is to be launched
in late November, and broadcasting is expected to begin in January.
Meanwhile, Sirius says it expects to have a delivery date for Sirius-4,
its ground spare, later this month. Satellite manufacturer Loral
dropped and damaged the $200 million bird in July during construction,
causing a delay in delivery."
Read
more of R&R Online here.
RIAA to treat Napster users as
customers
From
All Access: "The RIAA says it will treat Napster users
as potential customers, not copyright violators. RIAA President
Hilary Rosen (pictured) told the press after Tuesday's hearings
on the industry's copyright suit against the file-sharing program
that the suit is not about 'punishing users,' but is meant to hold
Napster liable for the activity of its users."
Read
more of All Access here
(registration required).
From John
Dvorak's column in this week's Forbes: "It's
hard to say how many people listen to streaming radio. I've heard
estimates that claim up to
45 million people are equipped to listen to streaming radio and
might have heard a broadcast. The numbers are unclear and hard
to prove.
"Whatever the case, I have listened to radio over
the Internet myself, but I noticed that I
have not made a habit of it. As this is written, I
probably have not listened to an Internet radio broadcast for
two or three months. I myself wonder
why...
"My
experience with specialized players is
that, with no exceptions, they have interfered
with the performance of my computer...
"It remains to be seen whether anyone can make money
with any of this. It's starting to look like the emergence of
a new popular hobby, not a new business opportunity. Take a listen
and see what you think."
You can read the entire column here.
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...
If you click the link above, you'll see that Dvorak
writes primarily about the 18,000 "hobbyist" radio
stations on Live365.com
and the appeal of listening to air traffic control scanners.
In this particular column, notice that Dvorak doesn't
really spend any time examining
whether Internet radio is a good new business opportunity
or not. (He simply notes that he doesn't listen himself).
-- KH
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Reprinted from yesterday's issue:
The following is regarding RAIN's piece Tuesday (here)
on Infinity's long stopsets on Howard Stern's program.
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"Not
only is the listener being hosed, but the sponsor is too..."
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On those
interminable Stern stop-sets: Not only is the listener being
hosed but the sponsor is too.
Can you imagine paying five hundred dollars for a spot that is
buried deep inside the pungent bowels one of these nasty "breaks?"
In point of fact, most Stern listeners bail out at the
first indication of a spot and return ten or fifteen minutes later
when the clog is passed into the porcelain bowl of the airwaves.
This is "money-lust" programming at its most flagrant.
Stern can expect to continue to slide in the ratings with these
fatty blockages.
...
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"The
GM (would) want to run six 10-second spots instead of one
:60..."
|
In general, station management is responsible for determining
the length of stop sets and units per break so, if they're losing
audience, it's their own fault. I worked for a news
station
in a major market that strictly enforced a two-unit break rule while
our competitor (who happened to be owned by the same broadcast group)
would run as many spots as their sales people could sell... and
in any length.
The result? We consistently beat them in the ratings and
in billing. Allegedly, our competitor has since had a problem hanging
on to their PD's because they would inevitably get frustrated about
having the GM yank programming time from them and want to run six
10-second spots instead of one :60.
However, Howard presents a slightly different "challenge"
because, it's been my observation that Howard does not appear to
make much of an effort to stop his show for commercial breaks...
Stations running his show are pretty much forced to go to commercial
breaks whenever Howard decides to go to a break. As a result, they've
got to squeeze in all of their the commercials when they can. Heaven
help a station like WCKG with long breaks AND Howard...
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