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BY PAUL MALONEY
The law firm of Shaw Pittman LLP, on behalf of a group of
webcasters led by ioMediaPartners
(which owns
and operates RadioIO.com)
has filed a Notice of Appeal of the Copyright Office's final order
setting rates for webcasting in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
D.C. Circuit. The deadline for parties affected by the ruling to
appeal is today.
A total of 19 small commercial webcasters, including Live365.com
and Radio Free Virgin,
are participating in
the appeal.
Yesterday RAIN reported that the Intercollegiate Broadcasting
Association (IBS),  on
behalf of its 700+ noncommercial education member stations, had
filed its appeal the very day the Librarian's ruling was published
in the Federal Register.
Additionally, RAIN received word this morning from a spokeman
from the National Association of
Broadcasters (NAB) that that organization would not
be filing an appeal. The NAB sticks by its contention that the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) does not
make
broadcasters that simulcast their over-the-air signals on the Internet
liable for sound recording performance royalties (the latest in
RAIN is here)
-- and its assumed the organization will focus its efforts on this
front.
The other webcasters party to the appeal are: Radioparadise,
3WK LLC (3WK Underground Radio), WolfFM, Discombobulated LLC (Ultimate80s),
WebMedia Consulting Inc. (DigitallyImported), Chatmasters Streaming
Network, Internet Radio Inc. (ChoiceRadio), INETprogramming Inc.,
SomaFM, Wherever Radio, All Bass Radio, Internet Radio Hawaii, Classical
Detroit, flareSOUND, TheRockFM.com, and Pacific Internet Broadcast
Services (HawaiianHits.com).
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Reprinted from today's early edition...
BY PAUL MALONEY
iBiquity Digital announced yesterday that with their acquisition
of technology and intellectual property of Command
Audio Corporation, they
will develop of a "Radio TiVo" of sorts for the digital
radio platform.
What this means, according to a company press release, is
radio content on-demand, including
pausing and saving content for
later listening.
iBiquity is the sole U.S. developer of the coming digital
AM and FM broadcast radio format.
The release also promises the new technology will enable
listeners to select programs via electronic guide and scan content,
while "advertisers will be able to develop new messages which
appeal
to and connect with consumers, and content providers will have new
tools with which to design innovative programming."
Broadcasters and programming producers have not been willing
to accept the technology of digital television recorders like the
TiVo and SonicBlue's ReplayTV
(see screenshot at left). These groups say the technology's ability
to skip over commercials and trade programming via the Internet
infringe on copyrights. In fact, Hollywood studios have filed suit
against SonicBlue.
It remains to been seen how broadcasters, whose revenue is
dependent on advertising; and record labels, who have been characterized
as unwilling to lend their content to new modes of distribution,
will embrace the technology. The release gave no indication of when
consumers might expect the technology to become available.
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BY PAUL MALONEY
 In
anticipation of the release of their new album "A Rush
of Blood to the Head," alternative rock band Coldplay,
and their recording label Capitol Records, are streaming "a
track a day" to registered fans for free.
Beginning this past Monday, and through August 16, fans can
go to the site www.arushofbloodtothehead.com
and each day hear a stream of a different track on the album.
 Additionally,
Capitol is streaming the new single, "In My Place,"
for free on their site at www.hollywoodandvine.com.
At the site, visitors can also listen to a streamed playlist "sampler"
of new and catalog Capitol music in various formats.
The Coldplay album will be in stores on August 27.
Another band on the Capitol label, Radiohead,
has seen significant success with streaming their new music online
before delivering the album to stores.
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Thanks
to all the fine companies
who agreed to be part of our recent "RAIN
Vendor Guide (Ver. 2.0)" issue. You
can see the entire Guide here.
To be part of RAIN's Vendor Guide, please call
312-527-3879. (The "Domain name registrars"
and "E-commerce partners" categories will
be featured next time)
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| Custom
music channels |
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The
Iceberg
Iceberg Media.com's corporate
radio channels provide a total broadcast solution featuring:
Customized streamed audio, Creative and Strategic Consultation,
Creative media player design, promotions, Ad insertion
and more. Put your Web site and the power of music together,
and your brand comes alive. |
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Moontaxi
Moontaxi provides programmed and on-demand licensed music,
cleared for use on the Internet. We create custom web-only
music channels that can be used to highlight certain programming
segments or broaden the appeal of a radio station, as
well as turnkey private label on-demand music services
that can be monetized either through advertising or user
fees. |
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RCS
iSelector
Fully branded player, both visual and audio. Listeners
create customized streams of your station's music, and
can play artists MORE or LESS or BAN them based on their
preferences. Visualizations of album art and links to
your station's or any music warehouse. |
 |
XACT
Media
XACT Media provides Branded
Custom Internet Radio, Multimedia CD-ROMs, Instant Wireless
Messaging and related revenue programs to radio stations,
consumer brands and record labels/artists. Over 40 affiliates
are using XACT Media services. Please call David Juris
at 303-302-9410.
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Over the past three days, Wired.com
has published a three-part series on the rapid growth of Clear Channel
Communications (most notably the radio division), the company's
effects on the radio industry following 1996 ownership deregulation,
and the recent tremors the company has felt as its stock price falls.
The following is excerpted from all three installments.
Clear-Cutting radio forest
From Wired.com: "If you want to hear Aretha Franklin
or Lauryn Hill or Metallica on the radio in San Diego, you have
no choice but to tune to a Clear
Channel station. The same goes for sports talk, local
news and Rush Limbaugh...
"From Honolulu (seven stations) to Des Moines, Iowa (six),
and Ft. Myers, Florida (eight), Clear Channel Communications dominates
the dial across the country.
"But nowhere is its domination more prevalent than
in San Diego. The world's largest radio company controls 14
stations there -- a half-dozen more than anywhere else
in the United States -- and it still has room to grow by looking
to the south...
"Over the past three years, Clear Channel programmers
sacked San Diego disc jockeys and replaced
them with voices from out of town, hoodwinked listeners by airing
national contests as if they were local, and rolled out cookie-cutter
radio formats designed elsewhere. Meanwhile, the company sweet-talked
Mexican station owners across the border
and tore through legal loopholes in order to build its mini-empire."
Read Part One of this series in Wired here.
(Your town here)
From Wired.com: "It's 11 p.m. Do you know where your
favorite disc jockey is?..
"Odds are he's not around, so don't even think about
calling the request line. The chances are pretty good that the man
 behind
the voice lives in another time zone, appears on stations in four
states, and picks up local color by reading newspapers online. He
may even have taped his show last month then gone on vacation to
some exotic locale he's never visited. Like, say, your town.
"Thanks to advances in audio technology and pioneering
work by Clear Channel Communications, an epidemic of digital fakery
has struck the radio industry. Only the listeners are live and local
at many radio stations, and Clear Channel is gambling that nobody
will notice. Or care...
"Meanwhile, the entire radio industry is embracing the
idea of pre-taped programming, especially outside the all-important
'morning drive' hours. In San Diego, the nation's 17th largest radio
market, only two major music stations bother to broadcast live programming
after midnight."
Read Part Two of this Wired series here.
Murky water
From Wired.com: "From New Zealand to Norway, Clear Channel
Communications has spread into radio, television, Spanish-language
broadcasting, concert promotion, billboards and even satellite radio,
the
newest alternative to lame local stations.
"Not bad for a San Antonio company that only owned a
few dozen radio and TV stations in 1995. But a funny thing happened
on the way to world domination. Choppy seas have jolted Clear Channel
this year, sending its head honchos into damage control mode.
"Few people think a giant wave of regulation will capsize
Clear Channel, but some critics are daring to predict that Congress
may act to limit its size...
"The best indications that Clear Channel is reeling
come from its own top bosses, who have issued a flurry of defensive
statements. 'The evil intentions attributed to Clear Channel are
not true at all,' declared Randy Michaels
(above), CEO of Clear Channel radio operations, in a speech at a
radio industry convention in June, several weeks before he was transferred
to become head of the company's technologies department."
Read Part Three of this Wired series here.
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From Salon.com: "It's becoming harder and harder to
stay the course at Clear Channel Communications. The multimedia
and entertainment giant is the world's largest radio broadcaster,
concert promoter and outdoor advertising firm, as well as a major
player in the American television business. In the last year, however,
Clear Channel -- well known for its hardball tactics -- has been
hit with numerous antitrust lawsuits, petitions to the Federal Communications
Commission and pending legislation on Capitol Hill.
"The recent distractions have became so intense that
Clear Channel executives have been trying to silence some of the
static. Most recently, Clear Channel president Mark
Mays sent out a companywide e-mail assuaging employees,
urging them to 'stay the course.'
"Yet two weeks ago Mays was the one who abruptly changed
course when he announced that Randy Michaels,
the powerful and controversial chief of Clear Channel's radio division,
was stepping aside to take over Clear Channel's new technologies
division.
"Mays claimed the move had been planned for a while,
but observers, noting that no replacement was lined up to run the
revenue engine that drives the $8 billion company, concluded the
move may have been an abrupt
one. Investors quickly punished Clear Channel. During the two days
after the Michaels announcement, Clear Channel's stock lost 25
percent of its value, before rebounding somewhat. These
days the stock, battered by a radio advertising recession and a
sinking concert business, trades at around $24. Two years ago it
flirted with $100."
See this new article in Salon 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. |
| KTAI-TX; KNHC-WA; KAPU-CA; WMUA-MA; WEBR-VA; WDCE-VA; KWJC-MO;
WERS-MA; KTSW-TX; WSUM-WI; WSTB-OH; WONB-OH; WXOU-MI; WZIP-OH;
WUTK-TN; KETR-TX; WRMC-VT; KSDS-CA; WNYU-NY; WSUW-WI; WEVL-TN;
KRCL-UT; WSRN-PA; KXCI-AZ; WUVT-VA; KDHX-MI; WPTS-PA; KBCS-WA;
WMHW-MI; KBVR-OR; KXRJ-AR; WDWN-NY |
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