Streaming Media - October 2008 - (Page 65)

“For those of us who lack the ability to subsidize losses based on other businesses, it remains a life or death threat,” he says. But despite that pending doom, webcasters sound strangely Pollyanna-ish. On the bright side, says Stoddard, the threat has brought out his company’s prudent side. “Hopefully, in the end, [the rate hikes are] a good thing,” he says, adding that Live365 strives to understand “the best way of delivering [programming] and the most cost-conscious way of delivering it.” Though royalty collection in the U.K. is less complicated than in the U.S., a quarter of Last.fm’s listenership accesses the site from the U.S., so the company could commiserate—but it doesn’t. “We’ve been working hard since day one to ensure that all artists, labels, and rights-holders receive their relevant royalties,” says Ward. “As a leading music website, this is an absolutely necessary process for us.” Over-the-air stations are exempt from the raised rates for now, but that is expected to change. Stoddard acknowledges that “the terrestrial guys are learning now that it’s not just an internet radio issue. It’s an issue for everyone.” “As soon as one set of music distributors is paying a certain amount that’s so much more than anyone else, well, guess what? That just means that your rates are going up, too,” he says. “Not to mention that everybody is moving into IP-based delivery anyway.” King speculates that the impact of the rate hike will speed over-the-air’s transition to online-only. He predicts that “most of the small-town radio stations will go out of business” if said stations are asked to shell out beaucoup bucks, which is a move he supports. “It will be interesting to see how that affects Abacast radio customers because it may well be that they shut down their terrestrial operations and simply go online, where things are cheaper to distribute, and become much smaller organizations,” he says, adding that “there is no doubt that’s the direction consumer music consumption is going. The question is how fast it gets there.” Simulcasters are already feeling the pain, says Lewis. “Terrestrial broadcasters were hit quite hard by the introduction of royalties,” and the company’s business model has had to change quickly. “Prior to 2003, we were focused on building out our delivery network and getting our feet wet with nextgeneration media players,” he says. “When the first round of royalties hit, we needed to adapt quickly to prove to stations that they could make money by using ad replacement technology and enhanced media player tools to attract a new breed of advertisers.” At the station level, the challenge lies in creating the reporting required by the RIAA, since the amount owed is figured on a per-listener, per-play fee. Brian Ma, IT director at New Northwest Broadcasters, an Abacast WWW.STREAMINGMEDIA.COM 65 http://www.streamon.fm http://www.streamon.fm http://WWW.STREAMINGMEDIA.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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