From yesterday's New York Post: "United Press International, the venerable but battered news service, is said to be on the brink of a deal to sell itself to an undisclosed, cash-rich Internet company... 'Negotiations are ongoing," said DeBorchgrave, who confirmed the interest to sell to an Internet company. "It's clicks rather than bricks -- you're right about that,' he said...

"Excite has been one of UPI's main U.S. customers and has been rumored to be interested in buying it. 'We don't comment on market rumors,' said an Excite spokeswoman.

"Once seen as a prominent rival to the Associated Press, UPI today is down to 110 full-time employees, primarily in Washington D.C... It is still bleeding red ink. UPI is currently controlled by a consortium of six Saudi Arabian businessmen, who picked it up out of bankruptcy in 1992 for $3.9 million."

Read the full story in the New York Post here.


BY KURT HANSON
If you're reading this paragraph, it means that I'm successfully writing and uploading this newsletter from the road. Either this weekend or Monday, I'll report on a first-hand look at the Kerbango radio, new website features available from First Internet Media Corporation, some exclusive statistics on the behavior Hiwire tuner listeners, a new exec promotion at MTVi, a new site called LuxuriaMusic.com debuting next week from L.A.-based Enigma Digital, details on the upcoming Gavin convention, and more.

But first, here's today's report from genuinely cold and rainy Southern California:



Irvine, CA-based WWW.com, which bills itself as "the world's largest Internet broadcast network," announced yesterday that it has signed an agreement with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) regarding royalties on performances of their copyrighted music.

The company's press release says that "WWW.com's business model ensures that creators and copyright holders will share revenues from music streamed via the Internet. With today's news, WWW.COM becomes the largest online music broadcaster to have a license to webcast millions of songs produced by top-tier recording artists."

It continues, "WWW.com is the Internet's leading Business-to-Business music Webcasting company and the largest provider of turnkey solutions for websites worldwide. The company broadcasts originally programmed stations, supported by a digitized music collection of nearly 300,000 songs and more than 200 music stations. Launched in July 1999, the company's mission is to be the dominant provider of music and entertainment on the Internet."

More next week on this topic and how it related to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and the liabilities of all broadcasters who are streaming music on the Internet.




L.A.-based Internet startup Hiwire (see original RAIN article here and reader feedback here) has just replaced the beta version of its CODEC-independent streaming audio tuner/player with a final, "gold" version of its product, company CEO Jim Pavilack told me yesterday.

The new version features a dynamic listing of radio station streams from around the world, organized by country, city, or format. The "dynamic" nature means that the listings are updated constantly based on information provided by stations and research by Hiwire on the availability of streams.

CODEC-independence currently means the Hiwire tuner can play streams that are encoded in either Real Audio or Windows Media formats; Hiwire co-founder Jim Lambert told me that QuickTime and Emblaze support is likely to be added in the near future.

Future Hiwire capabilities will include the ability to cover selected local radio spots with spots appropriate for the Hiwire listener. In other words, if you're a Hiwire affiliate and you have people in New York, L.A., Wauwatosa, and London listening to your station's stream, Hiwire can cover a local waterbed spot with a different spot appropriate for each listener.

This feature might finally be the factor that makes streamed Webcasts profitable for radio stations.

The new version of the tuner is available as a free download on the Hiwire website here.

Next week, RAIN will have some recommendations on how to improve your station's audience size among the tens of thousands of listeners currently using Hiwire tuner/players.



Next week's RAB 2000 conference in Denver will feature two days of wall-to-wall Internet sessions -- generally with both a beginner's and an advanced session occuring concurrently.

In addition, Thursday's luncheon keynote speaker is former radio exec and current AOL exec Charles Warner.

Session topics scheduled include:

The event will occur February 16-19 in Denver. The registration fee is $595 for RAB members and $595 and for non-members, although a 50% discount is available for GMs who accompany their GSMs.

(Note: Barring technical difficulties, I'm planning to attend to report on these Internet-oriented sessions for RAIN. Want to get together for a cup of coffee? E-mail me here.)

Feedback from RAIN reader re:

From yesterday's RAIN (here): "Microsoft today announced an addition to its Windows Media Player that enables pay-per-view and pay-per-download digital content..." And I commented: "There is real potential here! Imagine if 'micropayments' became standard for small Internet transactions and you could conveniently charge listeners a small amount -- perhaps $.50 -- if they wanted to listen to an archived copy of last Sunday morning's oldies show. The possibilites are mind-boggling! Got even better ideas than mine? Contribute them here." And one RAIN reader did:

Howard Stern live. Send this to Mel.

The big problem is implementation. This runs with Site Server Commerce Edition. That's how it personalizes the delivery. (MSN.com and bn.com are Site Server Commerce Edition users.) Microsoft has not announced a price for the product as yet. It probably won't be free. Site Server Commerce 3, they do charge for.

Payment: This is thorny also. You could use Cybercash to process, but they may not make it thru 2Q. The back-end payment vendor will be the biggest problem.

Department of Viral Marketing: If you have friends or colleagues that you believe might enjoy reading this newsletter, please click here and we'll help you them about us. Thanks!

Lots of Internet sessions planned for RAB 2000 later this month
Follow-up story on the Hiwire audio tuner/player

Also, more on this story.

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