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BY KURT HANSON WITH PAUL MALONEY
The lack of a universally-accepted method of measuring and reporting
on Internet radio listenership has
made if difficult to deduce any but the most general trends in the
industry. WIth the two leading measurement services reporting different
statistics for different timeframes, and many webcasters participating
in neither service, compiling a list of the top webcasters
that's both comprehensive, "pinpoint" accurate, and corresponding
to the same period in time seems to be a daunting task.
Yet we've never seen anyone make the attempt at even a "rough"
ranking system using the
various data points available. While it might not be conclusive,
we believe it is possible to get a general gauge as to who the "Top
Webcasters" might be. So over the next week or so, we'd like
to take a stab at doing just that.
Obviously, at our disposal are the publicly released numbers
of the Arbitron Webcast Ratings, the MeasureCast weekly and monthly
reports, and Shoutcast audience numbers.
But in the interest of being as comprehensive as we can,
we'd like to include top webcasters whose numbers aren't made publicly
available by the above methods. So, if you run a webcast (or network
of webcasts), and during your peak listening time
of the day it regularly streams to at least 500
simultaneous listeners, we want to know about it.
However, we do ask that you make available to us some form
of documentation of your claims. If you have data from your server
logs, a bill from your bandwidth provider, whatever... anything
that will allow us to tell our readers that we have seen some
evidence to support the audience size you claim.
If you'd like to participate (and again, if we don't already
have access to your numbers through Arbitron, MeasureCast, and or
Shoutcast -- or, if you're exclusively an Arbitron reporter and
believe you've had massive audience gains since March), please send
us some data that might help us roughly infer your total
number of hours streamed for the month of July 2001,
by Tuesday, September 4th.
On Friday September 7th, we will publish our findings, and
rank the industry's top webcasters. We're looking forward to seeing
what the numbers show us.
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BY KURT HANSON AND PAUL MALONEY
Radio Internet site design company SiteShell
confirmed yesterday that the organization is available for  acquisition.
In fact, SiteShell is apparently already in discussions with several
other parties regarding possible transactions ranging from outright
acquisition to new financing, according to SiteShell chairman Joel
Hartstone. The company released a press statement late yesterday
afternoon.
SiteShell, through their proprietary "BlueDot Website
Network," design websites for radio stations, supplying and
updating
a large portion of the content on a large-scale level (music news,
contests, games, etc.). The individual stations update the local
market and station news. The Shelton, CT-based company counts WOR-AM/New
York among its clients (see screenshot at left).
In the release, Hartstone explained why he thought another
firm would want to acquire a design company (instead of handling
the site management "in-house"). "Most major media
companies could spend millions of dollars and dedicate top executives
to a similar project over the next two years, and replicate what
we've produced over the last two years...SiteShell can put them
in a 2003 competitive position right now."
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From the press release: "CenterSpan
Communications Corp. announced the acquisition of certain
intellectual property assets from Supertracks, Inc.
"These assets include source code and documentation
for Supertracks' BridgePort Music System, a secure local cache streaming
technology. In addition, Supertracks' digital music distribution
technology and several associated patents-in-process
were also acquired. Current plans for the BridgePort technology
include integration with C-star, CenterSpan's mediated P2P content
distribution platform...
"Supertracks received approximately 66,900 shares of
CenterSpan common stock at a price of $11.21 per share, for a total
acquisition price of $750,000."
Read the press release here.
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Tell your colleagues about RAIN and...
You could win one of three
free registrations we're
giving away simply by telling  your
colleagues about RAIN! Each of these registrations is
a $895 value!
The NAB Radio Show and NAB Xstream is September 5th-7th
in New Orleans. The roster of scheduled speakers is more impressive
than ever, and includes Wall Street Journal tech columnist Walter
Mossberg, RIAA president Hilary Rosen, NAB president Eddie Fritts,
management expert and author Tom Peters, and more.
The conference itself is organized along three tracks:
Production, Entertainment, and Enterprise. Read more details
here.
Here's the best part: all you have to do to be eligible
to win is to tell some of your industry colleagues
about RAIN: Radio And Internet Newsletter, then e-mail
us. That's it!. Simply recommend RAIN to someone who
might find it valuable, then send us an e-mail, telling us their
name and position. With RAIN readers being respectable
professionals, we have no problem working on the honor system.
Just tell us that you told them! Send your e-mail entry to paul@kurthanson.com.
We'll draw for one winner on Wednesday,
Thursday, and Friday, August 29th, 30th, and 31st at 5pm CST
from all qualified entrants. (Note: If you're already registered
for the convention, your prize will be a free registration for
a friend or co-worker of your choice.)
Good luck! And thanks very much for helping spread the
word about RAIN to your colleagues.
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