From the Associated Press: "First came scratch and sniff marketing. So is it any wonder that in this era of regular technology upgrades, Ellwood Ivey Jr. wants you to click and smell or, if you're so inclined, click and taste. Ivey's company, TriSenx, has obtained a patent for technology that uses a desktop printer-like device to produce smells based on data programmed into a Web page -- essentially allowing a user to download a smell or taste from the Internet..." Full story here.



From FMQB News: "Webcast advertising is in an embryonic stage, accounting for only a fraction of current ad dollars, but media buyers see significant growth ahead for the medium. That’s the principal message from an Arbitron survey of 100 senior ad agency executives released Thursday (4/27) at the USC/Inside Radio Internet Conference 2000 in Scottsdale, AZ...

"The report found that 77 percent of ad agencies have placed advertising on the Internet, but the percentage of their total ad budgets devoted to online advertising is generally 10 percent or less.

"Banner ads are the most popular type of online advertising, used by 83 percent of agencies that place ads online, followed by sponsorships (43 percent), e-mail (21 percent), pop-ups (14 percent) and buttons (13 percent). Only 21 percent of agencies that have placed online buys have used Webcast advertising, and they largely tend to be interactive agencies.

"The size of Internet budgets earmarked exclusively for Webcast ads is negligible: 62 percent of agencies say they put five percent or less of their Internet ad dollars into Webcasting. But that’s likely to change. Sixty-nine percent of Webcast-using agencies expect to spend more on it this year, and 56 percent of Webcast virgin agencies say they are likely to try it this year..."

Read the full FMQB piece here (click appropriate headline in right-hand column) and look for commentary and analysis in RAIN tomorrow.



From ZDNet News: "When one thinks of Internet radio stations, the first word that comes to mind is streaming. Streaming audio has become the backbone of Internet radio stations, and yet slow connections prevent listeners from tuning in to high-quality streams.

"ClickRadio promises to change all of this and bring Internet radio to the mainstream in a very unique way. Instead of streaming audio, ClickRadio runs in the background, downloading songs silently while your computer is online."

You read all this a week and a half ago in RAIN (here).

Here's the new information that ZDNet contributes:

"While downloading entire songs may not seem like a modem-friendly task, a proprietary audio-compression scheme from Lucent (ePAC, or Enhanced Perceptual Audio Coding) lets users download up to four songs over a 56k modem in 30 minutes...

"A propritary audio-compression scheme...lets users download up to four songs over a 56k modem in 30 minutes..."

"ClickRadio's business model is fairly standard for an Internet radio program. Five minutes' worth of commercials will run every hour, and as it does with the songs, ClickRadio will keep track of the ads in the history list and provide additional information on the ad upon request...

"ClickRadio...is set to launch in May with 30 different genres of music. More than 70 genres are expected by the third quarter."

Read the full ZDNet piece here.

Also, the firm has named several more hires: Former WAXQ/New York MD Amy Winslow has been named Director of Entertainment Programming, assigned to coordinate ClickRadio's music and content. Outside consultants (keeping their day jobs) include WLZR/Milwaukee PD Keith Hastings (Active Rock), "HardDrive" producer Roxy Myzal (Metal), WXPN/Philadelphia PD Bruce Warren, Chess Records President Marshall Chess (Blues), WWRL-AM/New York air talent Sharon Gordon (Reggae), and "Modern Rock Live" producer Richard Winn (Electronica).

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This site was recommended by ZDNet's music forum moderator as one of his three favorite Internet radio sties. The station's streaming is available in your choice of either theRealPlayer or QuickTime (pictured) formats.

Unfortunately for me, I don't speak French, but I was able to comprehend enough to find the stream and listen to it. The station sounds interesting and, using the QuickTime player, at least, the audio quality sounds great.

If you speak French and would like help other RAIN readers by interpreting and/or commenting on this site, e-mail us here.

Click logo at left to visit the site. And contribute your favorite international webcast sites here.

If you're hiring for a position that's radio- and Internet-related this week, we'll post it -- free! Simply e-mail the job description here. If you're looking for new opportunities that involve the Internet, you can take a look at the first three available positions here.

Try it out! Explore the wide world of Internet audio by clicking the screenshot above.

May 15-18	Radio Ink Internet Conference, Boston
May 22-26	Real [Networks] Conference 2000, San Jose
June 12-14	Streaming Media East 2000, New York City
June 14-17	R&R Convention 2000, Los Angeles
June 14-17	PROMAX & BDA, New Orleans
July 13-16	Upper Midwest Conclave, Minneapolis
August 3-5	Morning Show Bootcamp, New Orelans
September 20-23	NAB Radio Show, San Francisco
October 5-7	Billboard/Airplay Monitor Seminar, New York
November 5-7	NAB European Radio Conference, Berlin
Did we miss a major conference? E-mail us here.

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Visit the RAIN News Archives here.