From an AP story in The Washington Post: "The music industry and online broadcasters have been duking it out for months over the royalties that should be paid to record labels and artists, but there are signs that the logjam could break as early as this month.

"John Simson [right], the head of SoundExchange, a music industry group that collects royalties from digital broadcasters and distributes them to artists and labels, said he is optimistic about reaching an agreement soon with public radio stations, possibly by the end of September.

"Resolving questions over royalties for online broadcasting is critical for the futures of both the music and radio industries... Wading through the complex issues, however, has taken longer than many had hoped. A lobbying group for the broadcast industry, the National Association of Broadcasters, said it's disappointed it hasn't heard back from SoundExchange about its proposals for three months...

"Public radio stations, which have been able to broadcast music online under better terms than commercial stations, may now be closest to a deal... talks with NPR are one of several tracks of negotiations that the music industry is pursuing with different groups of Internet radio broadcasters.

"NPR may be the first large organization to reach a comprehensive agreement with music rights holders...

"Jonathan Potter [left], executive director of the Digital Media Association, whose members include large commercial Webcasters such as Yahoo, RealNetworks Inc. and Pandora, says he's 'cautiously optimistic' about reaching a deal in the next several weeks...

"'We're in a holding pattern,' Potter said. 'This is obviously not the time for people to be launching new ventures. We've got to resolve this before the industry can get to the next level.'..

"Simson, with SoundExchange, noted that the music industry's multitrack talks with the various groups of Internet radio operators has been extraordinarily complex and said talks are moving ahead as expeditiously as possible."

Read this entire article at the Washington Post website here.

RAIN is brought to you today by:
	There's huge, and growing, demand among consumers for Internet radio (at least during the 9AM-5PM workday), as shown by the rapid growth of our AccuRadio project. AccuRadio features a variety of popular music formats that you simply can't find on the broadcast dial: Swingin' Pop Standards, Brit Rock, Piano Jazz, Broadway and more at www.AccuRadio.com.

From The Wall Street Journal: "Investors who have grown impatient with Yahoo Inc. may have to wait awhile longer to see any pop in its stock.

"The Internet company replaced its chief executive in June and this summer kicked off a strategic review to better position it for a changing online-advertising market and compete with the likes of Google Inc.

"Now, partway through Yahoo's strategic soul-searching, people familiar with the matter say a major overhaul appears unlikely...

"In recent years, Yahoo has been eclipsed by the success of Google's search-advertising-fueled growth, faced criticism for a lack of management focus, fumbled some opportunities to capitalize on the latest high-growth Internet areas such as video and social networking and saw its revenue-growth rate fall as advertisers expanded their online spending on other sites...

"Other likely outcomes from Yahoo's process: The company slims down some of its activities. Its Yahoo Music service, which has about 250 to 300 staff, is among those expected to be trimmed and its fee-based subscription music offering overhauled or shuttered. Overall, the company plans to move staff around and freeze some positions, though significant layoffs aren't expected, people familiar with the matter say."

Wall Street Journal subscribers can read this entire article here.

From Broadcasting & Cable: "In an effort to make its Web-video site more local, CBS is partnering its Audience Network with the corporation’s TV and radio stations and their Web sites.

"Besides expanding the online syndication of CBS Entertainment, CBS News and CBS Sports to local sites, the agreement sees content produced at the local level shared with CBS Audience Network. CBS’ 29 owned TV stations, 144 radio stations and some 183 affiliated station Web sites will share content with the Audience Network, starting before the new lineup kicks off later this month."

This entire story is available at Broadcasting & Cable's site, here.

Advertisement