BY DANIEL MCSWAIN
Arbitron and comScore have released their latest Online Radio Ratings studies for the months of April and May.

After AOL Radio jumped nearly 20% between March and April for the M-Su 6A-12P AQH, the top ranked webcast dropped 25% in May's ratings for the same daypart.

Live365 also saw a huge increase in April for the same daypart, growing 40% before dropping right back down in May. The webcasts measured under the "RL Select" name fluctuated similarly, growing 36% in April and dropping 57% in May, perhaps due to small webcasters throttling down their audience numbers over concerns about the CRB royalty decision.

Yahoo! LaunchCast's numbers remained stable over previous months, while Clear Channel enjoyed its fourth straight month of growth.

The "average quarter hour" estimate, or AQH, is defined as the  estimated average number of persons tuned to a channel  for at least five minutes during a 15 minute period. It can be understood as "the number of people listening to a station at a specific moment."

Numbers formatted in this style denote either an increase or no change compared to the previous month's rankings.

RAIN's coverage of the ratings from the online radio ratings service Webcast Metrics, which covers a different set of webcasters, is here.

** Since January, the comScore Arbitron ratings have included a group of independent webcasters that have banded together under the name "RL Select". The network , which is made up of GotRadio, Big R Radio, and 181.FM, is aggregated by the Ronning Lipset Radio ad rep firm.

April 2007

comScore Arbitron Online Radio Ratings

Rank	Station/Network	AQH	Weekly Cume
1		247,300	1,675,100
2		162,900	1,983,300
3		97,200	1,358,600
4		77,400	804,000
5	RL Select	34,100	914,900
Total:		618,854	6,735,888

Rank	Station/Network	AQH	Weekly Cume
1		420,000	1,205,200
2		293,300	1,468,100
3		177,500	1,077,200
4		137,600	547,900
5	RL Select	58,200	654,800
Total:		1,086,579	4,953,177

May 2007

comScore Arbitron Online Radio Ratings

Rank	Station/Network	AQH	Weekly Cume
1		185,000	1,582,100
2		162,200	1,999,800
3		110,800	1,467,600
4		58,200	696,200
5	RL Select	14,700	672,900
Total:		530,726	6,418,568

Rank	Station/Network	AQH	Weekly Cume
1		323,400	1,129,300
2		300,700	1,563,100
3		207,300	1,298,600
4		105,900	521,400
5	RL Select	24,400	440,100
Total:		961,605	4,952,541

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From TechCrunch.com: "Anywhere.fm has launched a new online music player that looks and feels a lot like a web based version of the iTunes player, sans the music marketplace... Anywhere.fm’s iTunes bulk uploader makes it easy to get up and running with your existing library.

"The company leverages the web to add portability and a social layer to their music player. There is currently no cap on the number of songs you can upload to the player, so you can create a potentially unlimited music library you can listen to anywhere...

"Like a host of other social music startups, Anywhere.fm has also added music discovery features. While not as robust a discovery engine as a Last.fm and company, users can find new songs by listening to their friends’ playlists and will soon be able to find new friends based on a music compatibility score. However, due to copyright concerns, playlists from other users can only be streamed as radio stations. Playlists must be a couple songs long and played in a random order. Although, Anywhere.fm isn’t following official online radio play guidelines like Lala, which require station play lists to be at least three hours long before publishing...

"Anywhere.fm is looking to make money outside of charging users for their service. They are considering the obvious step of affiliate music sales for songs you don’t own, inserting audio ads in radio streams, and selling music directly...

"Good video review is here. "

Read this entire article at TechCrunch here.

From the Wall Street Journal: "A trade association representing major music publishers signed on as plaintiffs in an existing lawsuit accusing YouTube of copyright infringement, joining a growing list of parties who argue Google Inc.'s video-sharing service routinely violates intellectual-property rights.

"Members of the National Music Publishers Association own copyrights to lyrics and melodies for songs, separate from the rights to specific recordings of those songs, which are controlled by record labels. Technology and media companies that want to use music typically must secure separate licenses from publishers and record labels.

"All four major record labels have reached licensing agreements letting YouTube carry their music in exchange for a share of advertising revenue.

"But most music publishers haven't reached any such agreement. Continuing negotiations have failed to reach a royalty rate that satisfies publishers, people close to the situation said."

Subscribers can read the entire article at the Wall Street Journal online.

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Here's feedback on yesterday's A story, "Labels would get $50 million, Judy Collins would get $900" (here)...

"Without radio, it would've never happened..."

"It isn't about what artists need. It is about what they deserve..."

On the royalty "math," please remember that the recognition of a terrestrial performance royalty in the US will also open the coffers for artists worldwide. Your calculations do not take this into consideration.

Your dismissal of the amounts that Sam Moore and Judy Collins would receive are rather high handed. It must be nice to make so much money that $24,000 a year won't make a difference to you, let alone $900. I have clients for whom that lower figure will be a couple months rent, or a couple prescriptions they won't have to skip.

The people behind musicFIRST have unfortunately framed this discussion in terms of "needy" artists. Frankly, there is no difference in need between Sam Moore and Johnny Halliday (he's a veteran French performer) except that Halliday gets performance royalties from terrestrial radio in his home country and elsewhere and Sam doesn't.

It isn't about what artists need. It is about what they DESERVE. Nearly every recording artist in the world [played on the radio] gets this money. [They] also get the promotional value of having their music played on terrestrial radio.

Why not US performers?

"U.S. performance right will also mean access to international funds..."

Gee whiz, Kurt. You speak so eloquently on behalf of the "little guys" (like AccuRadio) in royalty proceedings, but in the August 6 RAIN you’re ready to throw the other little guys of the industry (semi-retired performers, artist estates, indie labels) right under the bus when it comes to a full performance right.

You don't come out and say it, but it seems your conclusion is that since, compared to major labels, the money isn't huge for these parties, they should get nothing.

Mr. Neil's argument is similar: Since the "artists of today" will make more from a full performance right, the "artists of yesterday" should get nothing. And his comment that "[r]ight now, radio is setting up hundreds of artists with careers for life," is the latest twist on the very old "Free Promotion for Free Music" refrain that may not cut it this time around.

Both you and Mr. Neil fail to acknowledge that a U.S. full performance right will also mean access to international funds. IFPI reports that in 2006 labels collected nearly $730 million in performance royalties worldwide, the vast majority from traditional broadcasters. Estimates are that recording artists' royalties were also in the hundreds of millions, of which U.S. artists got approximately zero.

Plugging your numbers into such a market (which grew at around 8% last year) would yield Ms. Collins, Sam & Dave and their respected industry colleagues many multiples of your estimates. But, according to you and Mr. Neil, they had their chance and are now entitled to nothing.

Finally, what about the indie labels, the other little guys who would collectively be entitled to the $100 million pot you identify (and much more internationally)? Since they’re small, I guess they get nothing either.