Welcome to RAIN -- a daily compilation of news stories, essays, and other resources to help you keep on top of issues involving the Internet and its potential impact on radio. This week, RAIN is coming to you live from Japan for a series of special reports.

BY KURT HANSON
As Business Week pointed out recently, Japan is leading the world in terms of wireless Internet access. Millions of Japanese consumers of all ages now own cell phones with one-button Internet access.

Last weekend, I purchased one of the latest models of DoCoMo cell phones and signed up for the "iMode" Internet access service. And here's what I've learned so far about it:

The phone is so lightweight that you don't even notice it in your shirt pocket. It has a large color LCD screen (see photo at right) that so far seems to be of little value. DoCoMo's Internet access is based on a simplified HTML protocol; its two competitors are both using the WAP protocol and it's unclear which approach is going to win out.

Internet access is easy and cheap: iMode service costs only an additional $3/month on top of reasonable phone service prices. You pay a little money only as each packet of data you request from the Internet is sent into to your phone; thereafter, you can read the page as long as you want for no additional change.

Most iMode users apparently spend most of their time on a series of sites that have been optimized for iMode usage; there's a menu of dozens of them available when you punch a couple of buttons on the phone. It was easy for me to create an iMode-optimzed version of this site (see photo at left); I just need to use small, simplified graphics and I was able to create and upload a rudimentary "RAIN for iMode" website in minutes.

My biggest surprise here is that virtually all of the mobile Internet access in Japan to date is text- and graphics-based -- i.e., there's no audio.

Because music licensing issues have not yet been worked out between potential Webcasters and the recording industry, there are virtually no radio Webcasts or Internet-only radio broadcasters here. Furthermore, the Internet-enabled cell phones apparently don't have an audio player like Real Audio built in, so you can't listen to, say, U.S.-based Webcasters either.

Still, the popularity of iMode service (and its compeitors) continues to grow. Each of the phone companies must have armies of hundreds or thousands of young people selling phones and phone service throughout the country. (See photo above for one of the more than a dozen sales operations within a couple of blocks of a single subway station).

Thus, all of the elements necessary for a revolution -- audio delivered via Internet to cell phones -- seem like they're falling into place. It will be a situation worth looking at again in the near future.




The electronics shops of Tokyo are full of cool devices that seem to have great popularity -- MiniDisc players, Windows CE devices for e-mail access, a new style of headphones, voice recorders in a bewildering variety of form factors -- but one category of product that's gathering dust is FM radios that can receive and display data along with the broadcast.

The idea was that consumers could see the title and artist of the song being played and get other related data on a medium-sized LCD screen.

Consumers haven't gone for it. Virtually all young people in Tokyo seem to have cell phones and most have MD players, but although these devices have been available for at least a couple of years now, I haven't seen a single one of them in use yet.

More live from Japan tomorrow in RAIN.


News from America:

From CNET News: "MTV Internet, the online division of MTV, is expected to announce today that it is acquiring Mischief New Media to boost content and technology offerings throughout its Web network. With the acquisition, MTVi will add Mischief's MusicStation.com into SonicNet, the company's music news and information hub.

"MTVi chief executive Nicholas Butterworth would not disclose the amount of the acquisition but said it was for all of Mischief Media's assets. Jason Hirschhorn, the founder of Mischief New Media, will join MTVi as vice president of product development for SonicNet."

Here once again, traditional radio broadcasters are not giving the attention to Internet audio that others, like MTVi, are. You can read the full story in CNET News here.






From Monday's Wall Street Journal: "Starting a radio station on the Internet is easy. The hard part is following the rules. 'A radio station can play Garth Brooks all day, but I can't play four songs by the same artist within three hours,' gripes John Aprigliano, an amateur Webcaster in Tallahassee, Fla. 'It's frustrating.'

"Mr. Aprigliano is lamenting the extremely convoluted federal copyright laws governing Internet broadcasts. Among other things, he's not supposed to take requests or publish playlists in advance. Never mind that his broadcast of alternative-country fare rarely reaches more listeners than a boom-box at a dorm-room party...

"On a recent evening, [Live365.com] had about 4,300 people broadcasting and 4,200 total listeners... Net-radio directories like Radiospy.com and Mycaster.com list thousands of stations, most of which have from zero to five listeners at any given time."

It's an interesting and entertaining piece. Search for it on the WSJ website here (subscription required) or find a copy of Monday's issue.





I've looked all over Akihabara (Tokyo's famous home electronics shopping district) this week, and I haven't seen a more stylish new home electronics item than the Sony Music Clip audio player (see photo).

And now you can win one in the first-ever RAIN Viral Marketing Contest!

To be eligible to win it, all you have to do is tell a few of your friends and/or co-workers about RAIN via e-mail, with a "cc:" to "RAINreply@kurthanson.com." (Need help composing the e-mail? Click here for some suggested language.) (If you've already done this, just send me an e-mail reminding me and I'll throw your name in the hat.)

RAIN is already up to about 800 "subscribers" (i.e., registered readers; see form immediately below) and we've been hearing from about 10 new readers per day. So here's the plan: If RAIN gets 100 new subscribers this week, we'll give away the Sony Music Clip to one lucky winner (chosen randomly from those who sent out the e-mail recommendations). If not, we'll roll over all the entries, add something more to the prize package, and try again next week.

So think of a few people you know who might like to read RAIN -- co-workers, college friends, subordinates, friendly competitors, clients, vendors -- and do them a favor and tell them about this daily, Web-based newsletter about the key issues affecting radio and the Internet. And win!

More coming soon! Contribute your suggestions here.

Click here for RAIN News Archives