RAIN: Radio And Internet Newsletter

September 21, 2006

Daily news and commentary on the key issues involving radio and the Internet

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RAIN is taking today, Friday, September 22, off. We will return Monday with a look at the Arbitron ratings release with in-depth analysis from RAIN Publisher Kurt Hanson that gets at the real story beneath the headline of the Arbitron press release.
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Headline: "July Webcast Metrics report shows strong Summer numbers"

BY DANIEL MCSWAIN
Although the ratings have taken a little while to surface, both Internet radio ratings services have released numbers this week.

In July's Webcast Metrics "Internet Radio Top 20" rankings, there was little change in the numbers among the top webcasters. All five of the top

webcasters in the M-Su daypart slipped slightly, while 1.fm and Digitally Imported enjoyed small increases during the work week.

Summer ratings from comScore Arbitron, which RAIN will cover in detail tomorrow, show an AQH increase of almost 40% from the same time last year. Check in tomorrow for full coverage of those ratings and a look at the growth among major webcasters since 2005.

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 more simply be understood as "the number of people listening to a station at the average moment." Cumulative listeners, or "cume," is the non-duplicated number of different people tuning in at least once (for at least five minutes) during the time period in question.

RAIN's report on Webcast Metrics' June 2006 numbers is here. Webcast Metrics is one of two firms measuring Internet radio audiences; RAIN's coverage of comScore Arbitron's April ratings is here.

The rankings below are seperated by day part. Numbers that are bold and maroon either moved increased or stayed the same from the month before for that webcaster.

Monday-Sunday 6a-12m July 2006
Rank	Station	Name (Format)	Monthly Cume	AQH
1		Digitally Imported (Electronic/Dance)	n/a	29,239
2		AccuRadio (Multiple formats)	875,655	14,881
3		1.FM (Multiple formats)	n/a	13,587
4		202.fm (Multiple formats)	497,463	12,989
5		Club977 (Multiple formats)	n/a	10,979
6		ABC Radio Group (Multiple formats)	274,101	8,433
7		RadioIO (Multiple formats)	606,605	7,365
8		Big R Radio (Multiple formats)	331,009	5,944
9		ESPN Radio (Talk)	143,832	5,556
10		EMF Broadcasting (Multiple formats)	200,618	5,459
11		Soma.FM (Electronic/Dance)	n/a	3,366
12		Air America Radio (Political talk)	203,183	3,214
13		WNYC (Public Radio)	97,521	1,777
14		Beethoven.com (Classical)	72,544	1,539
15		GotRadio.com (Multiple Formats)	181,766	1,152

Monday-Friday 6a-8p July 2006
Rank	Station	Name (Format)	Monthly Cume	AQH
1		Digitally Imported (Electronic/Dance)	n/a	38,440
2		202.fm (Multiple formats)	331,208	22,044
3		1.FM (Multiple formats)	n/a	19,343
4		AccuRadio (Multiple formats)	495,544	17,347
5		Club977 (Multiple formats)	n/a	15,911
6		ABC Radio Group (Multiple formats)	215,766	15,144
7		EMF Broadcasting (Multiple formats)	144,341	10,272
8		ESPN Radio (Talk)	125,602	10,267
9		Big R Radio (Multiple formats)	231,344	10,103
10		RadioIO (Multiple formats)	352,803	8,245
11		Air America Radio (Political talk)	141,403	4,349
12		Soma FM (Multiple Formats)	n/a	4,294
13		WNYC (Public Radio)	64,708	2,587
14		Beethoven.com (Classical)	46,202	2,433
15		GotRadio.com (Multiple Formats)	115,571	1,841

Links to previous RAIN coverage of Webcast Metrics rankings can be found here:
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005

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Headline: "Survey: ipod owners ignoring itunes store in favor of 'free'"
From BBC News: "Despite the success of Apple iTunes, few people stock their iPod with tracks from the online store, reports iTunes a study.

"The Jupiter Research report says that, on average, only 20 of the tracks on an iPod will be from the iTunes shop.

"Far more important to iPod owners, said the study, was free music ripped from CDs someone already owned or acquired from file-sharing sites...

"[T]he report into the habits of iPod users reveals that 83% of iPod owners do not buy digital music regularly. The minority, 17%, buy and download music, usually single tracks, at least once per month.

"On average, the study reports, only 5% of the music on an iPod will be bought from online music stores. The rest will be from CDs the owner of an MP3 player already has or tracks they have downloaded from file-sharing sites...

"The importance of 'free' to digital music fans should not be underestimated, warned the report, and should be a factor for newer digital music firms, such as Spiral Frog, which use an ad-supported model.

"Perhaps the only salient characteristic shared by all owners of portable music players was that they were more likely to buy more music — especially CDs."

Read the entire article at the BBC Online.

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Reader Feedback
Here's feedback to yesterday's lead story, "YouTube, WMG agree to percent of revenue deal for licensed use"...

"YouTube will be less open..."

The YouTube model is premised on freedom of expression. This statement indicates to me that the new YouTube will be less open, less free, less expresive and,
ultimately, less interesting.

The statement, while couched in terms of copyright law, is actually an declaration
that Warner will be able to approve what ideas can be expressed, and how, in
conjunction with what (in this case, music.) Such invites are the equivalent of a heckler's veto by the coypright holder, which engenders quesitons of fair use and freedom of expression. The problem is, YouTube's popularity is fueled by the absence of this kind of "approval." The new arrangment is the equivalent of asking an Internet radio station to seek "approval" of the non-audio content available on their site while a certain rights' holder's music is playing.

Does anyone know the actual terms of the deal that support that statment? If this kind of power is what is required in order for Internet radio stations to achieve precentage of revenue deals across the board, I'm not sure who's winning and who's losing.

Deep Background

Have an opinion? Drop us a note! (Or, to use your own e-mail software, click here.)


Your e-mail address:
Your name (if not obvious from your e-mail address):
Kurt and Paul, this is deep background -- don't quote me!

Thanks!


September 20-22	NAB Radio Show: Dallas
September 25-26	OMMA: "The Internet - Back on Speed": New York City
October 4-5	Digital Music Forum West: Los Angeles
October 5-7	Future of Music Policy Summit: Montreal, Canada
October 28	IBS Radio, Webcasting Conference: Chicago
November 4	IBS Radio, Webcasting Conference: Boston
November 11	IBS Radio, Webcasting Conference: Los Angeles
November 12-14	NAB European Radio Conference: Rome, Italy

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