BY KURT HANSON
How long did you think it would take before teenagers would be able to listen to radio stations -- or MP3 files -- on their cell phones?

Well, in Europe, the radio listening part of the above scenario may start happening next month! A recent Reuters article in Media Central says: "Looking to cash in on the cellphone Christmas high season, Ericsson is among a host of firms launching products across Europe which aim to bring data and music onto mobile handsets even before the planned full services are rolled out." (The article is referring to a new mobile data transmission standard called Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) -- due sometime next year.) "A radio plug-on can go where hands-free attachments now slot into the base of a phone, to let users listen to music and answer the phone without having to fumble between devices."

All right , that might be GOOD for radio! But then early next year Ericsson and Nokia and others will be selling a similar attachment to let users play the music they have chosen for themselves, downloaded from the Internet in MP3 format. (One step forward, two steps back?) Click here for the full text of the Reuters article.

Ericsson phone that's become popular with trendy British teens (per Reuters)

Learn more about WAP from ZDNet and and PC Computing.



There are a growing number of Internet-only music broadcasters -- like Spinner, Sonicnet, NetRadio, and Launch -- and they are getting increasingly sophisticated.

But a major key to their future financial success (or lack thereof) may be coming to a head soon in a dispute between the sites and record labels over appropriate licensing fees. According to an article in yesterday's New York Times, record companies are asking for royalties as high as 15% of the sites' gross revenues. (The sites are suggesting 1% or 2% would be more appropriate.) The Digital Millenium Copyright Act, signed late last year, provides for this issue to go to arbitration if the two sides can't reach an agreement.

Read the full NYT story here or click on the site names that follow to visit Spinner or SonicNet or NetRadio or Launch.



Imagine you're on a website, surfing around it, when you notice an item (in this particular case, a chocolate chip cookie) moving slowly across the page you're on. Naturally (assuming my behavior is representative of others'), you'd click on it. What happens then? It takes you to a description of a contest! ("Excellent! Grab 14 more cookies and qualify to win! Brought to you by Pillsbury's OneStep Cookie.")

That's what's going on right now on a website aimed at "Generation Y" called Alloy.com. Click here begin at the Alloy home page or here to read their introduction to the contest.


Are you aware of any really excellent website-based contest -- and willing to share your knowledge with others? If so, e-mail me here and tell us about it.

As of 9PM Monday night, in Radio Ink magazine's "Executive of the Millenium" poll, AMFM CEO (and newly-named CEO of AMFMi, the company's Internet subsidiary) Jimmy deCastro had a 7-point lead over radio (and RADAR) inventor Guglielmo Marconi.

Vote here.

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