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
Japan may be way ahead of America in terms of home electronics and wireless Internet access, but we've got it all over them in terms of streaming audio programming, Mel's "No streaming" edict nonwithstanding.

In America, we don't have all of the music licensing issues worked out yet, but our general attitude is to play the music now and worry about rights payments later. In Japan, on the other hand, they're going to get the rights negotiated first. Cultural difference.

What that means is that you will find few, if any, streamed audio broadcasts coming from Japan. A radio station's website might, for example, feature an archived montage of its jingles -- or an archived countdown show featuring 30 seconds of each song.

We'll have more on the following Japanese Internet-only broadcasters, and others, next week in RAIN.

From the Sony Japan website: "[Last December,] Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) [launched] bitmusic, a new site to be added to its existing 'Sony Music Online Japan' website, where title tracks of CD-singles by Sony Music Japan's domestic artists may be downloaded with a paid fee.

"This marks the very first time that music content has been made downloadable for playback on SDMI-compliant software and hardware players.

"Sony Music Japan, in adding this new business model to existing packaged music sales, hopes to present a reliable infrastructure in the field of electronic music distribution (EMD). Consumers will be able to download new tracks on the same day the CD including that track is released, and enjoy the music through their personal computers and SDMI-compliant portable devices. Personal enjoyment of music will rapidly expand with this new EMD system with viable copyright protection, payment and distribution methods.

This is a good year ahead of anything the major record labels are doing in the U.S. -- although the tracks currently available on the site are a pretty limited selection, I'm told. You can look around the site for yourself by clicking here.

News from America:

From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: "Even on the Net, the first can sometimes be last. For proof, just look at NetRadio Corp. The Minneapolis-based company began broadcasting music over the Internet in 1995. That was before Yahoo or Netscape became publicly traded companies, before most people even knew what the World Wide Web was. That gave NetRadio what is known in the Internet world as 'first-mover advantage.' But largely on account of financial concerns, NetRadio failed to capitalize on either its name or the fact that it had a market all to itself...

"Most music sites now are trading around or slightly below their initial offering price, but NetRadio's shares are down more than 50 percent. Ed Tomechko, NetRadio's CEO, vows that will change in 2000, as the company embarks on an aggressive marketing effort to raise its profile both on and off the Web. The company will spend $2 million to advertise on popular Web sites and an undisclosed amount for a print campaign in advertising trade publications..."

"CD sales accounted for slightly more than half the company's revenue in 1999, but Tomechko is counting on much-higher-margin advertising to carry the company forward in the near term. Last year, Net Radio had revenue of $1.4 million, and a net loss of $15 million.

"Advertisers have been slow to buy space on Internet broadcast sites, Tomechko said, because they can't deliver the big audience that a traditional radio station can..."

"Tomechko said NetRadio is prepared for the day when its audience might move beyond the personal computer. It has signed distribution agreements with Kerbango, maker of the Internet Radio scheduled to debut later this spring. It also has agreements with At Home Corp., which provides Internet programming over cable lines, and iBeam, which provides Internet programming via satellite.

"The company also will begin offering its programming expertise to other Web properties that want to increase the amount of time visitors spend at their site. For example, NetRadio could create co-branded music channels for Starbucks' Web site, and share in the advertising and product sales it might generate.

The article seems like it's a little harsh on NetRadio on certain points, but it's an interesting look at an Internet-only broadcaster from a business writer's perspective. Read it here.


News from elsewhere:

Amsterdam-based RAIN reader Jonathan Marks writes: "Here in Europe we're also excited about the wireless revolution, especially since we started international broadcasting in this part of the world as station PCJ on shortwave.

"You might be interested in advanced notice of a special webcast being organised by Radio Netherlands, the Dutch International Service. This station runs a programme called Media Network, which looks at developments in broadcasting. You'll find details of this public radio show at http://www.rnw.nl/realradio/index.html . The webcast is happening on Saturday."

The site explains, "From 1400 UTC Saturday (that's 9AM Eastern) March 11th, log on and listen to a special 2hr live stream on the Radio Netherlands home page. We'll be linking in real time to listeners and Media Network contributors around the globe... As an experiment, we'll be putting Optimod on the Real Audio output to see if we can emulate that rich full AM sound that had made talk radio stations in the US so famous. Its all a bit of fun, and it gives us a chance to experiment.

"It is the first Media Network live webcast, being made to celebrate 1000 broadcast editions. To listen to the Webcast, use one of the links on our special Webcast page at http://www.rnw.nl/realradio/html/webcast.html."

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.

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