BY PAUL MALONEY
Eight additional U.S. representatives have added their names as cosponsors of the Internet Radio Fairness Act (IRFA) since last week, when representatives of the webcasting community canvassed Capitol Hill in the bill's support. The names of all 35 legislators who've signed onto the bill are listed in a table below.

The lawmakers who this week added their names are: Reps. Maurice D. Hinchey (D-NY), Martin Olav Sabo (D-MN), David E. Price (D-NC), Virgil H. Goode, Jr. (R-VA), Susan A. Davis (D-CA), Deborah Pryce (R-OH), Robert A. Underwood (D-Guam delegate), and Doc Hastings (R-WA).

The IRFA, introduced by Congressmen Jay Inslee (D-WA, pictured right), George Nethercutt (R-WA), and Rick Boucher (D-VA) in July (see RAIN coverage here), aims to help keep the smaller commercial webcasters alive by exempting them from the Librarian of Congress's royalties determination and opening access to the arbitration processes that help determine rates.

The bill includes benefits for all parties involved -- including broadcasters, large webcasters, and even labels -- in that it would revise the CARP standard for future CARPs from "willing buyer/willing seller," which has proved problematic for all parties, to a more traditional standard that involves fair market value.

At its introduction, the IRFA had 13 cosponsors (in addition to Inslee) in the House of Representatives. Calling the trip a success, President of IO Media Partners and Radioio founder Mike Roe told RAIN yesterday that among the goals of the webcasters who visited Washington last week was to increase support for the bill.

The bill is still a significant way from becoming law however. It is still in committee, there is not yet a companion bill in the Senate, and skeptics doubt the chances of a bill being passed so late in the legislative year by a Congress dealing with terrorism, corporate malfeasance, and the possibility of war with Iraq.

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BY PAUL MALONEY AND KURT HANSON
Once hailed by this publication as "possibly the best multichannel webcast in America" (here), Sirius Satellite Radio is apparently now trying to limit the availability of their streaming in an effort to promote their satellite broadcast subscriptions.

Whereas one used to be able to listen to the webcast for hours at a time, the player and stream now load normally, but after about 20 minutes sound is cut off, and the player window is reloaded with promotional information encouraging listeners to subscribe to the satellite service (see screenshot below).

However, a resourceful listener can continue listening by simply going back to the website and launching a stream again.

When we reviewed the Sirius webcast for RAIN in January, we noted that the 47 Kbps stereo Windows Media streams, the customized front-end for Windows Media Player (that at the time showed graphics, displayed 'Now playing' and the prior four songs, and provided presets) (see illustration at left) and the live-sounding approach (as opposed to the more-common jukebox-like series of tracks with pauses between cuts) resulted in a great usability and listening experience -- and even worked as a good promotional tool for the subscription service.

"What surprises me most," Kurt wrote, "is that Sirius's multi-channel webcast has totally sold me on satellite radio. (By giving it away on the web for free, they're getting me as a customer in the 'real world.' This is exactly how the Internet was supposed to work!)"

Sirius's larger competitor, XM Satellite Radio, doesn't stream its actual programming content — instead, it offers prerecorded looped "samples" of several stations.

SIrius must be caught between two conflicting concerns: On the one hand, they don't want to pay streaming and royalty bills for "freeloaders" who spend dozens of hours a month listening to their commercial-free streams. On the other hand, no one is going to get hooked on Sirius and compelled to have it in their vehicle based on a mere 20-minute segment of listening.

From Radio & Records: "No one is sure exactly when it happened, but probably sometime late Sunday an unreleased Nirvana song titled "You Know You're Right" started showing up on Internet file-sharing sites — and it didn't take long to spread to radio.

"According to Mediabase data, the first station in the country to play it was Radio One's WPLY/Philadelphia, which world-premiered the song on its morning show at 7am...

"While no one at Interscope was available for comment, the cease-and-desist orders from the label were flying all day Monday and Tuesday. 'I respect the cease and desist order,' says [WPLY PD Jim] McGuinn...'As the Internet is usurping radio's ability to spread exciting new music, we don't have a choice. We look kind of lame when kids tell us they have a record that we don't.'"

This story appears today in the News section of R&R's website here.