Give 'til it Hurts
The battles over raised streaming fees begins as Chicago radio station 9FM bans free CD giveaways with the stated reason being "In the face of the RIAA’s struggles, it just doesn’t seem fair for us to be giving away CDs (for free) to music fans fully capable of paying for the music themselves."
The station began airing PSA style mentions encouraging listeners to voice their concerns over the latest ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board to raise streaming fees, and offered to 'buy back' any CDs the station had given away by trading it for a t-shirt.
You can read the entire press release here.Labels: Fees, Profits, Streaming
A little peeved about Apple releasing that new version of the iPod mere weeks after you finally broke down and shelled out a couple hundred bucks for their OTHER "new" version?
Until now you would have been stuck giving that older iPod to a friend or younger sibling as a hand-me-down and taken the loss of upgrading. Or, you could have posted your iPod with a (bazillion others) on eBay and kept your fingers-crossed, hoping you'd make back a few bucks if some random buyer was gullible enough to think buying a used iPod from someone they didn't know qualified as a "good idea." But now there's Beyond The Pod.
BeyondThePod.com is a spin-off "let-us-do-it-for-you" online auctions company The Drop Spot. Beyond The Pod specializes in a single focus of operation -- buying outdated iPods from Steve Jobs worshippers like you.
Just visit BeyondThePod.com and go through their simple step-by-step iPod valuation process to arrive at a firm cash-money value for your iPod. They'll accept most any model, and pay a sliding value based on condition, age, accessories, etc. Right now they'll pay up to $47 for a Shuffle, $174 for a Nano, $96 for a Mini, and $253 for an iPod.
The best part is that you don't have to buy a damn thing to take their cash, and if you elect to be paid via PayPal, you'll get your cash within two days of their receiving your iPod at their office (you'll have to wait a little longer if you want to be paid by check.)
What do they do with the old iPods?
It went to go live on a farm and play happily with a bunch of other iPods, Timmy. WHO CARES? All you need to know is that you have the cash needed to go pray at the iPod altar.
Visit BeyondThePod.comLabels: iPods
Will User Outcry Result in User Payout?
BusinessWeek offered up decent coverage of how the new web streaming fees will negatively impact the majority of internet broadcasters, but far more interesting were the reader comments.
Many express outrage at the new fees, but not one of them (to-date) said they would be willing to toss in their share of the new fees -- not even for the heavily supported (at least in word if not deed) indie-casters. In ZombieRadio's opinion it is the smaller web streamers who might very well stand the best chance of surviving this last salvo from the RIAA pickpockets.
The new licensing fees are based on individual plays of songs to individual listeners. While this could very well be a nightmare for large webcasters, (does ClearChannel pad its online listeners in order to reap more advertiser cost-per-point or do they bury actual counts in order to decrease their licensing fees?) the smaller webcasters are dealing with tens or maybe hundreds of listeners versus the thousands and thousands of "Big Media."
The indie users also tend to be the most passionate about their products, thus it may not be a hardship for the smaller webcaster to basically put out the proverbial tip jar and ask their listeners to support their online stations not just through word of mouth -- but through word of wallet as well.
Based on the newly released 2007 fees, each play of an individual song to an individual listener is charged at $0.0011 -- this means that if an online station played 16 songs per hour (which is what the Radio And Internet Newsletter is using in their own industry average calculations) it would cost a user $0.0176 to listen for an hour.
For ease of payment and collection, let's say listeners can only opt to purchase 24-hour blocks of consecutive listening time. This means a station listener could pay their own way for only $0.4224/day.
A webcaster charging their listeners $0.50/day would not only cover the new licensing fees, but make a $0.0776 profit -- and that's only if the entire 24-hour block is being used.
If a listener purchased 24-hours but only actually listened for 10 hours ($0.176 in licensing fees) the webcaster's profit would be $0.324 -- not bad considering there is only fractional mark-up in our proposed subscription structure.
A fifty-cent daily listener fee is less money than someone would feed into a jukebox (most jukeboxes start at $1 for only 2 or 3 songs) and the listener receives an average of 384 song performances.
NOW... will the fans of these threatened webcasters step-up and toss a few coins into the hat to keep them alive, online, and on the air -- or will there only be bitching, bashing, and gnashing of teeth?
Make no mistake
I am NOT a fan of the CRB or the RIAA, but neither am I a fan of those who complain about the situation and do nothing to help. This is an opportunity for the public to show their disdain for corporate radio clones and support programming they say they value -- for mere pennies each time they use the product.Labels: Fees, Profits, Webcasting
Raising Kane Over Raising Rates
Following the March 3rd announcement from the Copyright Right Royalty Board on new rates for streaming music on the web, SaveTheStreams.org has started a petition and a passionate discussion on the topic.
This could be especially expensive news on the heels of the most recent studies indicating Terrestrial radio keeps raising its share of Internet radio listening. From a recent Inside Radio: 37% of unique visitors to Internet radio in January were folks listening to a stream from terrestrial radio. J.P. Morgan analyst John Blackledge has been tracking radio's steady progress on that score and says it's due to "Increased investment" in the Internet.
I suggest we all join in the conversation.
Thanks to RadioBistro.com for pointing me to this site.
The Google Bamboozle
Not that I blame Google for taking Radio up on its tendency to drop their pants...er... I mean PRICE for any advertiser willing to throw a nickel their way, but let's not fool ourselves into thinking the Google's model of buying inventory for pennies on the dollar is going to result in higher rate cards for Radio.
From this morning's Inside Radio:
Google says its entry into radio will raise advertising rates - not lower them.
Google Audio national director of sales Drew Hilles tells Inside Radio "Our main goal is to draw new advertisers to radio" and when they do that'll put pressure on inventory and result in higher rates for all buyers. The onetime CBS Radio exec says one way they help preserve a station's rate card integrity is by allowing buyers to pick markets - but not individual stations.
That's like WalMart saying their low prices are going to help drive traffic to the malls. In what world will an advertiser not realize that they can buy cheaper rates from Google than direct from the Radio station?
My advice to Radio is to simply not particpate in the program. Sell or auction off the inventory to your current collection of loyal advertisers -- Hell, BONUS it to them for being a great advertiser all these years -- or use it for self-promotion, to experiment with alternative programming, music testing, or to play iTune playlists from your listeners.
Do ANYTHING but sell it to the lowest bidder and let them determine the value of the most important thing you have to sell -- inventory.
PS: Just thought of a use for Google RadioAds -- let them buy all the inventory they want on your HD channels.Labels: Profits
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Brraaaaainnssss...
Focusing
primarily on terrestrial radio broadcasting, ZombieRadio.com is
dedicated to pointing out the mindless and brain-dead actions of the
mainstream media industry in general.
Don't
get too comfortable satellite, television, cable, and internet -- we
all know from seeing zombie movies that the contagion spreads quickly.
"They're
coming to get you..."
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