Clear Channel

Public radio station KCSN/Los Angeles, which is owned by California State University, is now available on Clear Channel's iHeartRadio Internet and mobile radio service.

KCSN (88.5 FM "The Music You Want") is an Adult Alternative format and plays a mix of indie rock, "legacy artists," soul, electronic dance music, Americana, and blues. It's also home for legendary air talent like Nic Harcourt, Jed the Fish, Mark Sovel, Terri Nunn, and more. The station is programmed by veteran Sky Daniels.

Listeners can find KCSN in iHeartRadio's Public Radio section. There are now more than 1,000 broadcast and online-only stations on iHeartRadio, which also offers a Custom Radio personalization feature. Clear Channel says the iHeartRadio platform racks up 100 million listening hours a month.

Yesterday Clear Channel announced a groundbreaking deal with the Big Machine Label Group in which it more or less traded AM/FM performance royalties for a break on digital royalty rates (RAIN coverage here).

At Billboard's Country Music Summit in Nashville, Clear Channel Media & Entertainment CEO/chairman John Hogan spoke more about the deal, saying that it helps provide "a very predictable, transparent business model... We are much more motivated to grow the digital business."

Hogan also mentioned that, as a market-based solution, the agreement is probably better than what Congress may legislate. "I'm as big a fan as the next guy of elected officials, but I think it's always a little scary when you look for legislative or regulatory solutions to what should be marketplace solution," he said.

"There is little doubt the deal was a strategic, preemptive move by Clear Channel to strike a favorable deal before Congress gets involved," comments Billboard (here).

"It’s the kind of innovative thing that Congress would prefer, rather than going through the hell of another fight between its friends in the record business on one side and its friends in radio on the other," commented Radio-Info's Tom Taylor (here).

Meanwhile, the NAB "remains steadfastly opposed to a government-mandated" performance royalty, it said in a statement in reaction to Clear Channel's deal. But it takes "no position on free-market agreements negotiated between broadcast companies and other businesses."

And there may be more such agreements on the way. Irving Azoff, a Clear Channel director and chairman of Live Nation Entertainment, tells Bloomberg Businessweek (here), "We’re trying to convince labels to enter into a direct deal because we can’t get legislation passed."

He continued, "Unrealistic rates on the digital side were choking the ability to expand digitally for radio companies."

But Neil Portnow, CEO/president of the Recording Academy, sees Clear Channel's deal as a gateway to action from Congress. "With Clear Channel's recognition of the terrestrial performance right, continued opposition by the NAB will now ring hollow on Capitol Hill," he stated.

The U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Communications and Technology will hold a hearing today on "The Future of Audio," including witnesses from Pandora, the NAB, music industry and tech companies (RAIN coverage here).

You can find more coverage on the statements from the NAB and Recording Academy in Billboard here.

Clear Channel, the largest owner of radio stations in the U.S., has agreed to pay Big Machine Label Group performance royalties for the use of sound recordings on AM/FM in exchange for more advantageous digital royalty rates. Essentially, Clear Channel will pay the label an undisclosed percentage of music advertising revenue for all broadcasts -- digital and terrestrial. That enables Clear Channel to avoid SoundExchange and the per-song, per-listener royalty rate.

Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman says that's the advantage of the deal. "I can't build a business space based on paying money for every time I play a song," he said, "but I can build a business by saying I will give a percentage of revenue that I bring in... What we are really trying to do is come up with a predictable model." Clear Channels hopes to make more direct deals with labels this year, but Pittman says they'll need to wait and see if the deal with Big Machine works out economically first. "Starting small is the way to do it because it will have less of an impact."

Said John Hogan, Chairman and CEO of Clear Channel Media and Entertainment: "Today, 98% of our listening is terrestrial broadcast and 2% digital -- with record labels and artists only paid for the 2%. This new agreement expands label and artist participation from just digital to terrestrial broadcast radio revenues in one comprehensive framework that will give all of us a great incentive to drive the growth of the digital radio industry and allow everyone to participate financially in its growth. This market-based solution helps bring the best in music to radio listeners wherever they want to hear it."

Radio-Info calls the deal "a potential game-changing revenue deal to fuel digital radio's growth." Billboard dubs the partnership "unprecedented."

Big Machine Label Group includes artists like Taylor Swift, Tim McGraw, Rascal Flatts, Edens Edge, Ella Mae Bowen, Reba McEntire and others. "Now, we can align our interest with radio in a predictable model based on ad revenue so that we can drive digital growth," commented the label's president and CEO Scott Borchetta. "When stations tell me that they can't afford to broadcast digitally, what good does that do me?"

Clear Channel has also launched a new channel on iHeartRadio: Big Machine Radio. It will feature music from the label's artists, plus interviews, rare recordings and a weekly "From the Vaults" feature (including archived radio specials from artists' early days). Find more info about the new channel from Clear Channel here.

What kind of impact will this deal have on the industry at large? "If Clear Channel turns to other indie labels and offers the same deal, it could be setting a market rate precedent for the day, should it ever come, when such a sound-performance rate is legislatively enacted," comments Billboard. "Also, if Clear Channel sticks to dealing with indies, the company could set a rate precedent without dealing with the major labels, which tend to ask for big advances and aggressive rates."

"Because of its sheer size, everything Clear Channel does affects other groups," writes Radio-Info's Tom Taylor. "There could be howls."

You can find the companies' press release here and further coverage from Billboard here and Radio-Info here.

Clear Channel, the largest owner of radio stations in the U.S., has agreed to pay Big Machine Label Group performance royalties for the use of sound recordings on AM/FM in exchange for more advantageous digital royalty rates. Essentially, Clear Channel will pay the label an undisclosed percentage of music advertising revenue for all broadcasts -- digital and terrestrial. That enables Clear Channel to avoid SoundExchange and the per-song, per-listener royalty rate.

Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman says that's the advantage of the deal. "I can't build a business space based on paying money for every time I play a song," he said, "but I can build a business by saying I will give a percentage of revenue that I bring in... What we are really trying to do is come up with a predictable model." Clear Channels hopes to make more direct deals with labels this year, but Pittman says they'll need to wait and see if the deal with Big Machine works out economically first. "Starting small is the way to do it because it will have less of an impact."

Said John Hogan, Chairman and CEO of Clear Channel Media and Entertainment: "Today, 98% of our listening is terrestrial broadcast and 2% digital -- with record labels and artists only paid for the 2%. This new agreement expands label and artist participation from just digital to terrestrial broadcast radio revenues in one comprehensive framework that will give all of us a great incentive to drive the growth of the digital radio industry and allow everyone to participate financially in its growth. This market-based solution helps bring the best in music to radio listeners wherever they want to hear it."

Radio-Info calls the deal "a potential game-changing revenue deal to fuel digital radio's growth." Billboard dubs the partnership "unprecedented."

Big Machine Label Group includes artists like Taylor Swift, Tim McGraw, Rascal Flatts, Edens Edge, Ella Mae Bowen, Reba McEntire and others. "Now, we can align our interest with radio in a predictable model based on ad revenue so that we can drive digital growth," commented the label's president and CEO Scott Borchetta. "When stations tell me that they can't afford to broadcast digitally, what good does that do me?"

Clear Channel has also launched a new channel on iHeartRadio: Big Machine Radio. It will feature music from the label's artists, plus interviews, rare recordings and a weekly "From the Vaults" feature (including archived radio specials from artists' early days). Find more info about the new channel from Clear Channel here.

What kind of impact will this deal have on the industry at large? "If Clear Channel turns to other indie labels and offers the same deal, it could be setting a market rate precedent for the day, should it ever come, when such a sound-performance rate is legislatively enacted," comments Billboard. "Also, if Clear Channel sticks to dealing with indies, the company could set a rate precedent without dealing with the major labels, which tend to ask for big advances and aggressive rates."

"Because of its sheer size, everything Clear Channel does affects other groups," writes Radio-Info's Tom Taylor. "There could be howls."

You can find the companies' press release here and further coverage from Billboard here and Radio-Info here.

Napster co-founders Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning have recruited Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman to serve on the board of their start-up Airtime, a live video platform for meeting new people.

Parker, who was Facebook's first president and is an investor in Spotify, told AllThingsDigital, (Pittman is) "the only media mogul who’s genuinely an entrepreneur." Pittman, who rode the success of Clear Channel's iHeartRadio initiative to the CEO post last year, returned the compliment: "Sean and Shawn have a unique ability to see opportunities in the consumer internet and create services that fundamentally change our culture."

Read more in AllThingsDigital here.

You can find the Domestic Mon-Sun 6a-12m ranking below. Find out more from Triton Digital’s Webcast Metrics report here (PDF) and find our coverage of March 2012’s ratings here.