BY DANIEL MCSWAIN
With wireless broadband connectivity no longer a question of "if" but "when", experts from the music and tech industries are singing the same song to consumers and businesses: Get Ready.

The "Wireless Media and Super Portability" panel at last week's Future of Music Policy Summit focused on industries where ubiquitous wireless broadband access promises to have the heaviest financial implications, namely broadcast radio and the automobile market. All panelists agreed that Internet radio's looming leap into the mainstream will have dramatic consequences for both fields.

"What was a very limited radio dial available to the automobile is about to grow into a radio dial that can listen to streams from all over the world from anyone," said Jim Griffin (pictured left), CEO of Onehouse and founder of the popular music industry listserv Pho.

"You've got a kid in the garage that's competing with a big company like Clear Channel or CBS Radio. I think that's very exciting."

Many of the panelists agreed that the statutory license that allows webcasters access to all copyrighted musical works is largely responsible for the explosion of the industry in recent years. But given the limitations inherent to the license, the panel expected to see great innovation in the medium as its reach and audience continue to expand.

"With the compulsory license, you can't do anything fully interactive," said consultant Whitney Broussard. "I don't think a lot of people want to be running around picking the next 15 songs they want to listen to. I think there's an awful lot of people who just want to press a button and listen. To be truly interactive — that's very difficult to deliver to a cell phone."

While the panel agreed that Internet radio listeners in a car would likely vary as to their preference of an interactive vs. pre-programmed stream of music, alternatives to the two options were proposed.

"Statutory limitations are imposed on the webcasters, not third parties who can add interactivity," Griffin quickly pointed out. "The car company doesn't have a webcaster license, so it's not limited by the DMCA. These issues are so fluid and malleable in the way we look at them, I think we're going to see a great deal of interactivity, even where we didn't intend it."

Skip Pizzi, Manager of Technical Policy at Microsoft and regular contributor to Radio World Online (pictured below), applied the developments to how broadcasters might handle the shift that ubiquitous wireless access will create.

"Terrestrial radio has stayed pretty much the same throughout this whole period. We've seen Internet radio go from transistor radio [quality] audio to full blown surround sound," Pizzi said.

"[Broadcasters] are the ones that still have the scarce licensed spectrum. It's their game to lose if they don't figure out a way to continue to monetize that, and also add in the [online capabilities] they can get into just like anyone else."

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From the Washington Post's Faster Forward blog: "The MP3-download store from Amazon.com... is now ready to take your money, the company announced this morning.

"Any venture by Amazon into digital music downloads would be a big deal in the music business, but this one is also DRM-free — every track is sold as a 256-kbps MP3 file without any copying restrictions or controls. You can play them on the hardware and software of your choice.

"So far, I've seen songs selling for 89 or 99 cents each and albums going for $5.69 to $9.99 — in each case, a decent discount over the prices at Apple's iTunes Store, and in particular the $1.29 Apple charges for DRM-free iTunes Plus song downloads...

"The weakest part of Amazon's store... is its selection. The advertised two million songs sounds like a lot, but only two major labels, EMI and Universal, are represented, because the others refuse to sell their work unencumbered by DRM controls.

"On the other hand, Amazon's inventory includes works from independent labels that wanted to be in on iTunes Plus from the start but whose work remains DRM-bound on Apple's store."

Read the entire post at the Faster Forward blog here.

From The Register's (UK) "Register Hardware": "No sooner does DAB establish itself as the radio format of the future, than internet radio begins tapping it on the shoulder and trying to muscle its way past...

"Products like the Noxon look, feel and act like a real radio while setting free the real potential of internet content...

"The Noxon isn't perfect, but it does deliver a real generational leap in radio listening, in an easy-to-use package... The sound is made richer by the unit's down-facing sub-woofer. This is a really welcome addition to the product as it delivers a big boost to the sound across all the Noxon's sources, particularly when it's dealing with digital signals...

"Overall, the unit produces a surprisingly rich and big sound. The machine also copes well with more complex jazz or classical feeds as well as the more common pop or talk stations...

"Internet radio is really what this product is all about and it's with this function that the unit really comes to life. Setting it up, there's a list of the most common makes of wireless basestation to choose from. Simply select yours from the list, enter your wireless password, and the Noxon goes online and searches for all available stations.

"A full search takes just a couple of minutes, and then the Noxon has all that internet radio has to offer -- the manufacturer reckons there's currently about 10,000 stations. Broadcasters are listed by genre and then by country. Selection and search is really fast -- faster than it is on many computers...

"A function we really like is the dedicated Podcast search wizard. Again, this is listed by genre and then country and, like the station search, content is found and starts to flow almost instantaneously...

"The Noxon's networking capabilities do not end there. The ability to link up to any existing media servers or computer on a home network is present, so the unit can play back any stored files. If a computer or media server is already network-enabled it should just pop up on the screen's menu...

"The real challenge for any internet radio device is to deliver the sheer amount of content available in a usable form. The Noxon 2 does this well and there's even a function to highlight new stations as they come on line. Despite some of its eccentricities... the biggest compliment we can pay the Noxon is that we all wanted to take it home."

Read this entire review from The Register here.

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