Streaming Media - October 2008 - (Page 64)

question of money. Which revenue models will prove successful? Will listeners tolerate advertising or will they pony up for paid subscriptions, and, if so, for how long? This article will try to paint a picture of what the future holds for internet radio. There are no inventors or sci-fi authors weighing in with crystal-ball answers. But the general consensus from internet radio’s major players represented here is that radio—over-the-air, satellite, and internet radio pure plays—will find its destiny online, that tweens and Baby Boomers will join the more than 30 million Gen X and Gen Y internet radio listeners in the U.S. and the nearly 15 million listeners in the U.K., a death knell for terrestrial radio signals and extraterrestrial satellite signals alike. it? Then purchase the song in one touch through AmazonMP3.com or the iTunes Store. You can listen to Pandora on your iPhone or iPod Touch or any Slim Devices or SONOS device. In this article, Pandora CEO Joe Kennedy weighs pure plays against over-the-air simulcasters and discusses what each must do to keep from sinking. Representing over-the-air simulcasters are the CEOs of two major streaming solutions providers that are helping on-air stations transition to online and deal with RIAA reporting—Zackary Lewis of Liquid Compass (www.liquid compass.net) and Mike King of Abacast (www.abacast. com)—and a handful of their clients. Liquid Compass hosts more than 700 over-the-air broadcasters on its the future of internet radio Live365’s Jason Stoddard is bullish on internet radio’s future, for internet radio pure plays as well as terrestrial and satellite players. Unless webcasting royalty rates change, says Pandora CEO Joe Kennedy, “internet radio as we know it will end.” Let’s Be Friends 2007 Streaming Media Reader’s Choice Awards winner Live365.com (www.live365.com/broadcast) is perhaps the most popular internet radio network for amateur webcasters with niche tastes to create their own Tift Merritt or Liam Finn stations. Fans of Fleet Foxes and other similar bands can tune in using a variety of media players, including the free Live365 Player, or connect via TiVo, Slim Devices’ Squeezebox, or other hardware devices. In this article, Jason Stoddard, director of broadcasting sales at Live365, shares his prognosis for internet radio. Based in the U.K., Last.fm (www.last.fm) is the online destination for those seeking to expand their musical horizons. Once its Audioscrobbler technology sees that you like bands such as Girl Talk and SwitchFocus, it will recommend that you give DJ Danger Mouse a try, for example. The site can be accessed through myriad media players, and an application for the iPhone or iPod Touch is available for download. Last.fm PR manager Christian Ward tempers the RIAA conversation with a U.K. point of view and ponders internet radio’s future in this article. Using a song’s genetic make-up, Pandora (www.pandora. com) finds the common denominator among your musical tastes. If you like “Pumpkin Soup” by Kate Nash, odds are you’ll like Milli Vanilli’s “More Than You’ll Ever Know.” No? Give it the thumbs down and you won’t hear it again. Love 64 STREAMING MEDIA October/November 2008 network, including ABC Radio, Clear Channel, Entercom, NBC/Gannett, and others, and provides ad-trafficking solutions for clients through its TrafficMyAds service. Abacast, with an estimated 400 clients, provides stations with revenue-generating features such as its Ad Injection System, Subscription Systems, and AdSync. Held Up Without a Gun Bruce Springsteen recently said, “I’m old-school in that I think you should pay for your music.” Paying homage to the wisdom of The Boss, in March 2007, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) increased the royalty rates webcasters have been ordered to pay SoundExchange, the nonprofit RIAA spinoff charged with distributing the money to artists. Thanks to a legal loophole, the increase did not apply to over-the-air broadcasters. [For a more in-depth history of the royalties issue, see Streaming Media’s previous articles on the topic at www.streamingmedia. com/ research/center.asp?id=30. —Ed.] Webcasters such as Kennedy are lobbying Congress to nullify the CRB’s order, claiming that the hike will wipe them out. “Very simply, unless the rates change, internet radio as we know it will end,” he says. The royalty rates, according to Kennedy, hit pure plays harder than simulcasters. http://www.AmazonMP3.com http://www.liquidcompass.net http://www.liquidcompass.net http://www.abacast.com http://www.abacast.com http://www.Live365.com http://www.live365.com/broadcast http://www.Last.fm http://www.last.fm http://www.streamingmedia.com/research/center.asp?id=30 http://www.Last.fm http://www.streamingmedia.com/research/center.asp?id=30 http://www.pandora.com http://www.pandora.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Streaming Media - October 2008

Streaming Media - October 2008 Table of Contents Standard Time Technology and Business Trends by the Numbers Encoding for Screencams Meeting the Enterprise Video Distribution Challenge Pulling Back the Curtain on Level 3 The 2008 Streaming Media Readers’ Choice Award Winners The Ultimate Guide to Creating Online Video Content That Works, Part 1 Brave New Platforms Video From the Democratic National Convention—Both Official and Unofficial—Made Clear That It’s No Longer Politics as Usual Creative Suite Turns 4 The Future of Internet Radio Decoding the Truth About Hi-Def Video Production Educating the Next Generation of Online Media Makers ViewCast Niagara GoStream SURF The Past and Future of Online Video: I’m Not Dead Yet!

Streaming Media - October 2008

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