Music Royalty Talks Hit Impasse

WSJ: Negotiations between music copyright holders and online music services have broken down over the issue of how much to pay copyright holders for streamed music. The impasse means copyright holders, such as songwriters and composers, will continue to miss out on royalties for online subscription music services such as Napster and Rhapsody.
Copyright holders signed a series of agreements with some individual companies in 2001 allowing those companies to use their music for subscription services pending a royalty agreement. No deal was struck with representatives of copyright holders such as the National Music Publishers' Association and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

Clear Channel tuning Web radio

Hollywood Reporter: An interview with Claer Channel's executive vp Evan Harrison, who is looking after CC's renewed online efforts...original online radio shows, podcasts and advertising push. A good overview..

Radio Leads In Music Discovery

FMQB: Paragon Media has released the third and final part of its study on new media's effects on radio. The latest findings show that terrestrial radio is the #1 source for listening to music..Purchased CDs were next with 30 percent of the vote, and radio also beat out television, personalized CDs, music downloads, satellite radio and Internet radio.
The full series of reports, here...

Clear Channel 3rd Of 5 In June Online Radio Ratings

BBRM: Clear Channel Radio’s online music and radio network of 400 radio stations, debuted third among the five-rated online radio networks measured by the comScore Arbitron Online Radio Ratings service for the month of June.
Yahoo! Music was in first place with 2.6 million weekly listeners, followed by America Online’s AOL Radio Network at 1.6 million. Microsoft’s MSN Radio and WindowsMedia.com were fourth in the ratings with 702,800 weekly listeners and Live365 was fifth with 535,900 listeners.

Air America Gets Interactive With Gilbert

Billboard Radio Monitor: Former Clear Channel Radio Interactive VP/operations Russ Gilbert, who left that company a few months ago, joins Air America Radio (AAR) as VP of Interactive.
Gilbert will oversee all Web initiatives for the company, including multiple revenue streams, premium services, content administration, alliances with other Web sites and integration of Air America’s Web presence with its affiliates.

Clear Channel Radio Sees Streaming Success

FQMB: Clear Channel Radio reports today that online audiences are flocking to the company's radio Web streams....Clear Channel currently has about 400 radio stations streaming online, and data from the June comScore/Arbitron Online Ratings Report says that the company's Web traffic has increased by 177 percent in 2005.
Time Spent Listening for Clear Channel's online stations increased by 51 percent year-to-date, and since January 2005, the company reportedly rose from last place to third place in the number of weekly listeners.

Online Radio Grows Up

NYTimes: The radio behemoth Clear Channel, with more than 1,200 stations, has finally begun introducing its first meaningful online strategy which could be another signal of the industry shifting away from FM...However, the article reports that even though overall Internet radio usage is growing, it remains comparatively small, according to Arbitron. In a January survey, 22 percent of Americans had watched or listened to Internet radio broadcasts in the previous month, compared with 10 percent in January 2000. That's admittedly a healthy growth, but to put it in perspective - Offline, Clear Channel Radio still reaches about 110 million people each week and Online, Clear Channel's Web sites currently only reach about eight million each month...

The good news though is that advertising dollars are starting to follow that growth...Advertising fees for online radio are starting to reach prices that are competitive with offline radio and the entire scenario is normalizing...Kurt Hanson of the Radio and Internet Newsletter estimated that online radio advertising revenues would amount to about $25 million this year...

Karim Sanjabi, executive vice president of marketing innovation for Carat Interactive, an advertising agency based in San Francisco, said: "Definitely the audience is there, but we haven't seen the excitement from clients yet, which is strange, because online radio is a very good option. It feels like there hasn't been a champion of Internet radio - someone who's really pushed it out there."

Yahoo! Tries Interruption-Free Web Radio, Chrysler Sponsors

ClickZ: Yahoo Music signed Chrysler to sponsor four commercial-free channels on the free version of its LAUNCHcast online radio service. Yahoo dubbed the program "Listen Now!" and is promoting it across the portal.
Chrysler branding appears on the player window and on the LAUNCHcast front page. Additionally, at the start of each audio stream, a 21-second spot identifies Chrysler as the stream sponsor.

The SoundBridge Solution

digitimes: As you're all well aware, the digital media market is fraught with competing technologies, standards and interoperability issues and here Chris Hall does a good job of airing the issues in a three-part interview with Anthony Wood, founder and CEO of California-based Roku.

One of their latest products, the Soundbridge, combines a standalone Internet “radio” receiver with the ability to wirelessly access digital audio content on the PC...Basically, it plays your PC or Mac digital music files anywhere in the house – connecting your stereo or powered speakers to your computer’s digital music library. Or, listen to a variety of Internet Radio stations, without even turning on your computer. Very Cool !  WMA, MP3, AAC, AIFF and WAV music formats are supported and it's network ready with wired Ethernet or Wi-Fi. It's the best selling digital media receiver in the US (and probably worldwide), and its popularity is growing fast.... Currently there are three models in the market retailing at US$149, US$199 and US$399...

"For consumers it’s quite a challenge to understand that the different formats don’t work with each other, and that if they buy Apple’s music they’re locked in and they can’t use Microsoft’s content, and vice versa...To be honest, I think that these days the bigger issue is the lack of a single unified DRM standard, worldwide. That’s what causes the most headaches for a consumer."

Dial R for Radio on Your Cell

BW: A good story on radio on mobiles, though it confuses a bit among all the approaches being tried out in the market...it covers Motorola's iRadio trials, Nokia's Visual Radio, Crown Castle's DVB-H approach, Sirius' recent deal with Sprint, Mercora's P2P streaming, Sprint's Mspot effort and Qualcomm's MediaFlow effort...