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RealNetworks debuted
a new capability
this morning that allows broadcasters to offer two sets of inventory
-- one set aimed at its broadcast audience, plus a different set
aimed at its Web listeners, and introduced the technology earlier
today on ABC Radio Networks' "Tom Joyner Morning Show."
According to Radio Ink, the new technology "will enable
radio broadcasters to replace traditional radio advertising with
ads targeted at the Internet audience and insert them directly into
the live RealAudio stream, thereby doubling the ad inventory of
those programs."
 Click
here for Joyner's
website, on the graphic at left to go to Real.com, or here
to read the full story on the Radio Ink website.
From Media Central: "Salem Communications
has acquired ICRN.com from the Domain Group, the companies
announced Thursday. Financial terms were not disclosed.
"Salem Communications plans to combine
the website with its Christian portal OnePlace.com and create
a distributor of online streaming audio for religious ministries
that will expand OnePlace's streaming broadcast ministries to 120
from 60, the company said..."
Clearly, Salem is one broadcaster who's serious about locking
up the portal position in its niche. (What they're doing in this
niche, you may be able to do in a different niche.) To read the
full news story, click
here.
BY
KURT HANSON
Net music company eMusic, which agreed to purchase Chicago-based
Tunes.com earlier this week for $144 million in stock, has
a promotional offer available this weekend that seems crazy. And,
given the wild financial plays going on in the Internet space, this
offer may in fact be crazy!
 Here's
the offer: Buy $50 worth of downloadable music from the site and
they say they'll give you the latest version of RealJukeboxPlus
(worth $29.95) and an 32 meg RaveMP portable MP3 player,
with free shipping. (The newer 64 meg version of the player, pictured
below, is currently selling on Amazon.com for $229 and is getting
good consumer reviews. And unlike other MP3 devices, you can use
the RaveMP for note-taking, too, thanks to its built-in microphone.)
 The
only hitch I can see is that the offer is available to the first
5,000 takers and they don't tell you whether they're already up
to # 4,995 or not. (Theoretically, by the time you complete your
purchases, the
offer might be over.) However, I remember reading that eMusic had
astonishingly low Q2 revenues (especially considering that the company
has a market value of a half-billion dollars), so maybe 5,000
customers will be a stretch for them.
And, actually, there might be a second hitch: eMusic sells material
licensed from a bunch of indie labels -- so it may be largely artists
you've never heard of. At typical prices of $.99 per song and/or
$8.99 per album, you might have trouble coming up with $50 worth
of material you want to buy. (But maybe it's worth buying a random
$50 worth of MP3s just to get the promotional items.)
So why are they giving away about $200 worth of merchandise for
$50 in purchases? My guess is they're trying to show an upswing
in revenues and this is what it's going to take to do it. (Do the
math: 5,000 people at $50 is $250K. If my memory's right and their
Q3 revenues were $180K -- again, note that this company is supposedly
worth a half-billion dollars! -- this promotion might allow them
to say that they've doubled their revenues.)
Click the logo above to go to the eMusic home page, or here
to go directly to the offer. And there is a glowing review of the
64 meg version of the Rave MP3 player here.
(Not clear on the entire concept of MP3 music? Watch this
newsletter for an explanation later this week.)
There's
a nice promo on Spinner.com --
"White Christmas" comprised of about two bars each of
two dozen different versions. Very professionally done. Very stylish.
It concludes, "Whether its white, red, green, or blue, you'll
find Chirstmas in all its colors on our [traditional, urban, country,
twisted, world music, and jazz] holiday channels... Spinner.com,
where the holiday spirit lives online."
(If you're not familiar with it, Spinner.com
is a set of several dozen Internet-only radio stations that was
purchased by AOL last June. Most of the genres are almost but
not quite DJ and commercial-free. Click screenshot of Spinner
player below to go to their site.)
 Other
notes: A spot break on Spinner.com usually consists of a single
:30 unit, usually a straight read, in an mellow tone of voice, by
one of Spinner's primary station voices, and accompanied by an animated
banner that links to the site being advertised. They typically come
out of the spot with a voice of the opposite sex (of the voice in
the spot) saying "Thanks for listening to Spinner.com...where
music lives online" and go into the next tune.
There's no need for frontsells or backsells on Spinner, since both
tasks are accomplished visually on the Spinner player -- the next
two artists are front-promoted, and current artist/album/title information
is always displayed.
To me, somehow, Spinner's brief liners and occasional spots and
recorded promos make the station far more listenable than
the CD-jukebox-like sound of, say, a cable music service like DMX.
They add some stationality, I guess. It's subtle, but it's there.
Another nice feature on Spinner, which I noticed for the first time
today, is a button that takes you to a Web page that shows you the
songs that are currently playing on your 21 preset channels -- and
allows you to click to the channel you want to listen to.
Spinner
specifially attacks
radio in promo:
"In
the last century, humans ruled the planet. In the next century,
pigs will rule. In the last century, we cooked with the microwave.
In the next century, we'll program our meals on our cell phones.
In the last century, we watched our TVs. In the next century,
we'll enter them. In the last century, we listened to the
radio... Until Spinner.com came along. No matter what happens
next century..." [something about
how their experts have picked the best music of the past century...]
"You'll find the top tunes of the last 100 years on Spinner's
Y1K channels -- rock, pop, dance, country, jazz, and urban.
Check out the Y1K channels on Spinner.com, where
the best music of all time lives online." |
AOL bought Spinner last June; click here
for a news story on the subject from Mercury Center.
From
The Industry Standard, a profile
of AOL's Bob Pittman is here.
FROM FRIDAY'S ISSUE:
What
are the most important design principles for the most important
page of your website?
Find out here: Click here
to read Kurt Hanson's new essay
on website design. (Your comments are welcome, too.)
 We've
finally finished writing up our first "Site of the Week."
(We were previewing it in rough form last week.) The complete article,
illustrated with numerous screenshots, is now available here.
Want to read more? News Archives are here.
We're working
18 hours a day, seven days a week on this website and we'd really
like to know what you think of it. Click here
to jump to a quick, easy-to-fill-out feedback form. Thanks!
...
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