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BY PAUL MALONEY
Rand being, you may know, the currency of South Africa -- and
5fm is giving
away a million of 'em for their
Christmas
promotion (just to be "parade rainers," we tell you that
on Thursday, December 14th, the Rand was exchanging for only about
$0.13 US. But instead of a dead president, the hundred-note features
a cool wildebeest or water buffalo or something, probably also dead).
Nationally broadcast 5fm targets older teens and young adults
with an interesting combination of rock, rhythmic pop, and some
pretty darn edgy alternative music (it would be reasonable to assume
that dayparting had an effect on the mix, especially the heavier
stuff, as 4pm CST is midnight in "Jo'burg"). The playlist
shows strong play
on Christina Aguilera, Collective Soul, Ricky Martin, Lenny Kravitz
-- mixed with national acts like Mandoza, Saron Gas, Just Jinger,
and Sugardrive.
In fact, the station actively encourages South African musicians
to send in their music, on the air and on the site. We even heard
a particular artist singled out and scolded over the air for not
sending a copy of his new cd -- by a dj who apparently tried to
buy it in a store. This same dj encouraged his Christmas shopping
listeners "if you're buying music as a gift, buy South African
music."
As different as some of the music sounds to Western ears,
a lot of what's going on over the air sounds very familiar. The
contests, the attitudes of the air personalities, 
and
music and station positioners like "there's no alternative,"
"the Night Zoo," and "if it's too loud, you're too
old."
The station's stream (WindowsMedia) plays through your browser.
If you've never seen this, look at the graphic here. We haven't
decided if this is cool or not. It's certainly one less window to
be in the way on your desktop -- but then the station is losing
another place to put their logo, or a place for "stream related"
info (what's playing, "click here to buy now" links).
The stream's sound quality was acceptable, but not great. Probably
28kbps.
There's a section for "promos and compos" (meaning
"competitions," what American radio calls "contests"),
a chat function, a rumor board (apparently taken down because of
"constant abuse"), and a "photo album"
section that displays the more than 100 snaps from station events
one-at-a-time (though I suppose if you're looking for yourself,
that could increase "time spent on the site!").
Want to know what 5fm has "under the hood?" Here's
something we've not seen before: a laundry list of the station's
broadcast and computer equipment. We have no idea who outside of
the industry would be interested in this (aside from thieves and
5fm's insurance company), but why not? Maybe they're bragging! They
even mention that Selector is responsible for building the station
music logs! Though if you're like us, you'll be relieved to know
that "The station manager also has a Intel Pentium II 400 in
his office where he can monitor exactly what is going out on air
at any time." Whew!
But who's minding all the Rand?
From Webnoize: "Virgin Megastores said today it will limit
its ecommerce effort, because the music retail
chain operator has yet to see sufficient sales to justify online
spending.
"'We need to use our assets across all channels to drive
sales in the quickest and most profitable ways,' said Dave Alder,
senior vice president of product and merchandising for Virgin Megastores.
Beginning early next year, the music retail chain operator will
use its web site primarily to drive foot traffic to its brick-and-mortar
stores...
"Part of Richard Branson's Virgin Entertainment Group,
the retailer will require shoppers at Virginmega.com to order via
phone or email, rather than by adding items to an online shopping
cart. Alder said Virginmega.com could return to a full service ecommerce
operation by the end of June 2001."
Read the entire story
here
(subscription required).
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From InfoWorld.com: "Apple Computer, Cisco Systems, Kasenna,
Philips Electronics, and Sun Microsystems
announced
the founding of the Internet Streaming Media Alliance (ISMA). The
five companies said they were joining forces to promote open standards
for developing end-to-end media-streaming solutions over IP.
"The founders believe their collaboration will accelerate
adoption of open standards and interoperability while encouraging
the development of competitive streaming media software...
"The cost of deploying streaming media services to support
current disparate formats has
prohibited many service providers and other adopters from taking
full advantage of existing market opportunities, according to ISMA.
The alliance plans to adopt elements of standards that already exist
for the deployment of streaming media over IP and contribute to
those still in development...
"(Vice president of Cisco's Technology Center Michael)
Frendo said RealNetworks, whose streaming software leads the market,
has been invited to join the ISMA."
Read the article
here.
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"Imagine
if Sony couldn't license their music to a company they
created..."
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There are parts of the digital copyright act (
The
Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings Act of 1995, or
DPRA) (the part of the law the DMCA didn't change) that put
all kinds of restrictions on how copyright owners can offer their
content.
For instance, if you offer your content exclusively to
a company, you can't do it for more than 12 months. If you
give more than 85 percent of your catalog to a company, you have
to do that with at least 5 companies.
No one is calling the labels on this. Things like Jimmy
and Doug's
Farmclub,
companies like Sony and BMG that create separate companies to
do interactive downloads
are third parties.
Imagine if Sony couldn't license their music to a company they
created after 12 months. That's what the law says.
You should have one of the lawyers writing the last 2 days
(
Barry Skidelsky here;
David Oxenford here)
dig this stuff up and write about it. It could be interesting,
and hopefully we can nail some labels.
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"Critical
info that will make me dig deeper, or move on..."
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I have been working with email newsletters for 4
years now, and I think yours falls short in only one area.
I find the personalized subject field completely useless. When I'm
scanning my email to see what I need to know, if I don't see
true subjects, I move on.
For example, I would have loved to read in the subject line,
"
RAIN features Arbitron and Edison, OnAir.com and more..."
This way I have a consistent keyword at the beginning, but
critical info that will make
me dig deeper, or move on and appreciate the medium for helping
me quickly make that choice. Anyway, just a thought!
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--
Peter Cowley, Director of Media Development MJI Interactive
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RAIN responds: Pretty good advice, don't you think? If
you subscribe to RAIN's daily e-mail reminders (which you
can do by filling out the form on this page), you may have noticed
that we've been following Mr. Cowley's recommendation for a few
days now -- and we think it makes a lot of sense. Thanks Peter!
| xxx |
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