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 BY
KURT HANSON
Over two dozen of the webcasters involved in the fight
to "Save Internet Radio" are joining together tonight
to simulcast a benefit concert — a jazz/blues show featuring
The Gerry Beaudoin Trio (with
Jay Geils, formerly of the J.Geils band).
Among the webcasters planning to carry the concert are Radioio,
WolfFM , Flaresound, Houndogradio, Twangcast , Whereveradio, The
Megarock Network , Digitally Imported, Inetprogramming , WMVY-FM,
ChoiceRadio, WorldJazzFederation, Webangel,  Onthei.com,
TheRockFM , IRH-Live (www.hotspotshawaii.com), SomaFM.com , Chronix
radio , Bnetradio , and SpeakersFM.com
The concert will be webcast from the State Theatre in Falls
Church, Virginia near Washington, D.C. at 7:30PM
ET tonight. Opening for Beaudoin will be The
Mike O'Meara Blues Band featuring Mike O'Meara of the
nationally syndicated "Don and Mike" radio show. The event
will be MC'd by "Online Tonight" and "Net Music Countdown's"
David Lawrence.
According to publicity material, "Guitarist Gerry
Beaudoin (pictured below, left, with Geils) has carved
a career out as leader and arranger for one of the most successful
acts to  come
out of Boston. The award winning guitarist (1992 NAIRD Award and
1994 Cadence Magazine Editors' Choice Award) was the founder of
the very successful and critically acclaimed Boston Jazz Ensemble.
His recording 'Minor Swing' with mandolin virtuoso David
Grisman and guitarist Duke Robillard
has achieved  cult
status among acoustic music fans. His latest recording, 'Just
Among Friends,' features David Grisman and guitar legend
Bucky Pizzarelli. 'Just Among
Friends' reached number twenty on the Gavin jazz radio chart and
was submitted for consideration for a 1998 Grammy Nomination.
Acoustic Guitar Magazine reviewed Beaudoin's most-recent album
by saying, "Everyone enjoys playing with friends,but when your
friends include mandolin titan David Grisman, archtop legend Bucky
Pizzarelli, and jazz clarinetist Billy Novick a friendly get-together
becomes a memorable musical event. "
Internet broadcaster and streaming media service provider
TVWorldwide.com and the International
Webcasting Association (IWA)
will produce the webcast to benefit the IWA's Legal Defense Fund.
George Bundy's BRS Media
is among the sponsors of the event.
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Thanks
to all the fine companies
(including those listed below) who agreed to be part
of our recent "RAIN
Vendor Guide (Ver. 2.0)" issue. If
you didn't have a chance to spend time with it yet,
you can access the issue here.
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From USA Today: "More than 200 Internet-based radio
stations have shut down because of a royalty fee that takes effect
in September, and more are closing daily. Most of the estimated
10,000 radio Webcasters are expected to follow suit, 'with the exception
of Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft and other deep-pocketed conglomerates who
can afford a loss leader,' says Kurt Hanson,
[publisher] of the Radio And Internet Newsletter...
"Payments are due Oct. 20 for this year and are retroactive
to 1998, which could add up to tens of thousands more in arrears.
The fee applies to both commercial and non-commercial stations;
many non-profits have closed their Web stations, including University
of California-Los Angeles and New York University. KPIG of Watsonville,
Calif., the first
commercial station to stream its signal over the Internet in 1995,
has stopped Webcasting, as have others with dedicated followings
such as All80s, GrrlRock and SavageRockRadio...
"Hilary Rosen of the Recording
Industry Association of America says this issue shouldn't
be presented as big labels vs. mom-and-pop operations: 'If you don't
have a business model that sustains your costs, it sounds harsh,
but that's real life. If a grocery
store can't afford to pay for the vegetables, they can't keep their
doors open.'
"However, many of the stations shutting down are non-profits.
'This isn't a bunch of rich college kids who don't want to pay the
fee,' says Will Robedee, general
manager of Rice University's KTRU
of Houston...'The
better we do our job, by attracting more listeners, the more it
will cost us, even though we're not making money...'
"John Simson, executive director of the SoundExchange,
formed by the RIAA to collect royalties from new media, says he's
willing to work out a compromise
with the small Webcasters that could keep them in business, but
hasn't come up with a plan yet. 'We want to reach
a resolution well in advance of the Oct. 20 deadline,'
he says.
"Rosen contends that most college stations won't owe
more than $500 a year. 'Given our problems with digital
piracy on university servers, it is almost comical
that they have the nerve to
complain about $500,' she says."
This entire article is online here.
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From USA Today: "For three years, Rusty
Hodge ran his SomaFM
Internet radio station. He watched it grow from 10
listeners an hour to 2,000 and become one of the more popular Net
stops thanks to its eclectic mix of electronica and independent pop,
the sort of stuff that's tough to find on commercial radio.
"But Soma has shut down because of federal copyright royalty
fees that go into effect in September. 'We would have to pay $10,500
a month,' says Hodge, 40, who ran Soma (named for the San Francisco
area south of Market Street) out of his garage. 'We existed on listener
donations. Our last month produced $3,000. We weren't in any position
to pay that kind of money...'
"'Any company doing ad-supported radio will cease to exist,' says
Peter Csathy, president of media
software company MusicMatch,
which runs the subscription RadioMX service. 'The only ones
who'll be able to continue are the conglomerates. For the consumer,
that means less choice and (less) exposure to new acts. It's bad for
consumers, bad for artists and bad for the labels.' (MusicMatch has
its own deal
with the labels and says it won't be affected.)..
"Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban
[pictured right] who founded Broadcast.com,
which was purchased by Yahoo, acknowledges that the agreement's goal
was to level the field by ousting small Webcasters.
"'Of course I would try to negotiate something that would
put my company in a better competitive position,' he said in an e-mail
interview. The Yahoo deal was based on numbers of listeners instead
of percentage of revenue, which is what small Webcasters are seeking.
'Percentage of revenue is not fair to those who have revenue,' Cuban
says. 'How do you compete with someone who doesn't?'"
Read the entire USA Today sidebar here. |
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From CNet News.com: "Members of the Ogg Vorbis project
have unveiled release 1.0 of their software, an open-source
alternative to the MP3 format.
"The official release of the audio encoding and streaming
technology has been widely anticipated by enthusiasts of open-source
software. Ogg Vorbis is completely royalty-free,
meaning companies can incorporate the technology into their software
without cost.
"The team behind the Ogg Vorbis format is the Xiph
Foundation, which serves as a nonprofit parent for the open-source
development effort...
"Because of the small size and high-quality of MP3 files,
the technology has become the de facto standard for trading audio
files over the Internet. However, the Fraunhofer Institute and other
members of the MPEG Consortium control the format, meaning software
makers must pay the group royalties for each encoder distributed."
Read this entire CNet story here.
Public stations
now off line
This is from the SOS:
Save Our Streams website, which focuses the struggle
against thewebcasting royalty rates as they pertain to independent
educational and noncommercial stations. |
| KWJC-MO; WRSU-NJ; WERS-MA; KTSW-TX; WSUM-WI; WSTB-OH; WONB-OH;
WXOU-MI; WZIP-OH; WUTK-TN; KDIC-IA; KETR-TX; WSBF-SC; WRMC-VT;
KSDS-CA; WNYU-NY; WSUW-WI; WEVL-TN; KRCL-UT; WSRN-PA; KXCI-AZ;
WUVT-VA; KSJS-CA; KDHX-MI; WPTS-PA; KBCS-WA; WMHW-MI; KBVR-OR;
KXRJ-AR; WDWN-NY |
| Silenced iM Network affiliates
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Zydeco to the Bone; Nuevo Wave-O; Jazzeteria; Altrok.com;
Celtic to the Bone; Extra Smooth Symphonie; Melancholia; Qawwali-On-Demand;
60s RnB to the Bone; Just Classic Rock; All Top40 Hits; Piecemeal;
Swing Central; Cafe Twilight; Jazz to the Bone; Drone Sickness;
Gospel to the Bone; Truly Cool, Cool Jazz; 400 Years of Hits
Jazz to the Bone; Hot Bubblegum 100; Dream Chamber; Modern A
Cappella; African to the Bone; Hillbilly Radio; Cajun N Country
to the Bone; X-tra Energy Dance; World Intensity; New Orleans
to the Bone; Modern Rock Hits; Rastaman's Reggae
MainLine Rock; Latin to the Bone; House Party; Love Field; Planet
Musiquarium; The Breakbeat Jungle; Succubus; Bollywood; Club
Reggae; Hyperspace; Murder, Betrayal and Redemption; Top RnB
Hits; ChitrapatSangeet; Resonant Radio; Sweet Revenge
Female Voices; Old Dawg Country; EnginesOfReagan; Lovecats;
Muddy Channel; Movie Music; Adventures In Radio; Truly Alternative;
Alt Songsters to the Bone; Spacerant; Trance-ilvania; Vox Radium;
50s RnB to the Bone; Box O Bone's; Digitalis; darcade; Not AA
Radio; Busted Heart Radio; Shuaku No Bi; Hillbilly Radio; Kickin'
Kountry; Cyberspace Sonata; Solvent Loud Radio |
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| July 25-28, 2002 |
The
Conclave 2002 Learning Conference: Minneapolis, MN |
| Sept. 12-14, 2002 |
NAB
Radio Show 2002: Seattle, WA |
| Oct. 1-4, 2002 |
Streaming
Media East: New York, NY |
| Oct. 20-22, 2002 |
NAB
European Radio Conference: Prague, Czech Republic |
| Oct. 30-Nov. 2,
2002 |
CMJ
Music Marathon 2002: New York, NY |
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