Technology360

Rags Gupta: Terrestrial Radio Should Pay Royalties Too

In a two-part post, Raghav Gupta (VP of Consumer Services & Partnerships, Brightcove) writes:

... I've long advocated a level playing field when it comes to royalty rates and this is the most glaring example of the field not being level.  Performing artists should get compensated for their work regardless of the medium in which it is performed.  The argument of the promotional value of radio making up for the lack of a royalty doesn't hold water for me -- if it is indeed promotional, then the copyright holders should be willing to waive their royalty in exchange for greater airplay and promotion. ...

Link:  Rags's Soapbox.

And, from part 2:

... Satellite radio pays about 7% of its revenues to the labels and artists, while internet radio webcasters pays anywhere from 12% to many times this rate depending on how you're counting.  What does terrestrial radio pay? Zip.  Nada. Through a historical accident, terrestrial radio has paid royalties to songwriters and publishers, but not the labels and performing artists.  The LA Times has a good rundown of this, and mentions how it may be easier this time around given the troubles of the record industry and the fact that satellite and internet radio have to pay such royalties (as does most of the rest of the world's terrestrial radio stations).  The labels have tried to claim this performance right in the past but have found themselves outmatched politically by the powerful broadcasters. ...

Link:  Rags's Soapbox.

A more complete discussion of this should include the fact that broadcasters do provide value to labels and artists by providing discovery and promotion services for their music.  In fact, this value has been so powerful that we've had to legislate against payola.  That is, record companies paying broadcasters for air play, not the other way around.  I'm all for making the playing field level, but let's recognize that the value chain is a lot more complicated.  --Dennis (disclosure: a broadcaster since 1969)

TV's Gravitational Pull in the Digital Universe

Susan Whiting (Executive VP, The Nielsen Company) writes:

... According to a Nielsen report released earlier this spring, the average American household receives a record 104.2 channels–eight more than the year before, and more than double that of a decade ago. Though TV viewing is down slightly this year compared to last, Americans continue to watch at some of the highest levels ever recorded by Nielsen Media Research. Indeed, television consumption eclipses any other medium by a wide margin, and 90% of viewing is still done at home.  ¶  Nonetheless, television is changing, and all signs point to even more dramatic alterations ahead, as a confluence of technology, economic forces and social dynamics create what can aptly be described as the medium’s version of a perfect storm. Programmers are investing billions to develop or acquire digital media content. Advertisers are leveraging new technologies to mount ever more sophisticated campaigns. And consumers are becoming adept at moving, manipulating and using content on their own terms. ...

Link:  All Things Digital.

Is Justin Timberlake a Product of Cumulative Advantage?

Please read both pieces linked here.

First, Duncan J. Watts writes:

As anyone who follows the business of culture is aware, the profits of cultural industries depend disproportionately on the occasional outsize success — a blockbuster movie, a best-selling book or a superstar artist — to offset the many investments that fail dismally. What may be less clear to casual observers is why professional editors, studio executives and talent managers, many of whom have a lifetime of experience in their businesses, are so bad at predicting which of their many potential projects will make it big. ... Recent research, however, suggests that reliable hit prediction is impossible no matter how much you know — a result that has implications not only for our understanding of best-seller lists but for business and politics as well. ...

... The common-sense view, however, makes a big assumption: that when people make decisions about what they like, they do so independently of one another. But people almost never make decisions independently — in part because the world abounds with so many choices that we have little hope of ever finding what we want on our own; in part because we are never really sure what we want anyway; and in part because what we often want is not so much to experience the “best” of everything as it is to experience the same things as other people and thereby also experience the benefits of sharing. ...

Link:  New York Times Magazine.

Then, in Cumulative advantage and 'the good stuff', Nico Flores responds:

... People usually don't know what they want until someone tells them what they might want. To an extent, word-of-mouth is taking over this 'discovery' role from broadcast media; but this does not mean that people's preferences are formed in isolation, that broadcast media won't play a role in this process, or that the process of discovery is simply one of matching consumers profiles with product attributes (it is that, but only up to a point). Persuasion, 'hits' and marketing are here to stay, and even without big media the process by which content becomes popular is not just a matter of merit. The very concept of quality ('the good stuff') becomes suspect. ...

... First, people's initial encounters with content are mediated by lists of stuff (or what I have elsewhere called aggregates) ...

... Second, lists articulate communities: when I look at a list I know I am joining a 'consumption community' (not my term; read an earlier post on this, and also this) of others who are also looking at it, one in which the list's author (when there is one) plays a leadership role. ...

... Finally, this has important implications for news. There, more than in any other genre, the three needs that Watts identifies (too much stuff; not knowing what to care for; and needing to know what others know) are crucial. ...

Link:  On Demand Media.  Very thoughtful pair of essays.  --Dennis

Thinking "Bigger" about the Election

NPR and Iowa Public Radio are partnering on an innovative election coverage arrangement whereby full and free public access is available to anyone who wants to use it (see Karen Everhart's brief description in Current).

IPR's Todd Mundt writes about it in more detail and about larger thinking about content sharing in his blog.  Link:  Converge.  --Dennis

Google's In-Video Ad Experiment

Catherine Holahan writes:

Coming soon to a vlog near you: commercials? On May 23, Google ... began inserting video advertisements within online programming. The initial ads are part of a test confined to video producers within Google's AdSense network, a collection of Web site publishers that post Google ads on their sites in exchange for a piece of the advertising revenue. If the pilot goes well, however, it's not a stretch to imagine Google inserting commercial breaks into its hosted videos—maybe even on Google video or YouTube. ...

Link: BusinessWeek.

ABC to Stream HD Shows Online

Todd Spangler writes:

Disney-ABC Television Group claimed to be the first major television programmer to stream HD video online, at 1280-by-720 resolution. In a test the broadcaster expects to launch in early July, ABC.com’s HD channel will feature a limited amount of content... When ABC launches its new season in September, the site will offer a “more robust” HD lineup. ...

Link:  Multichannel News.

The (Bayesian) Advantage of Youth

Clay Shirky has a terrific short essay on the advantages of youth in the entrepreneurial sphere.  He writes:

... Young entrepreneurs have an advantage over older ones (and by older I mean over 30), and ... age isn’t in fact a mindset. Young people have an advantage that older people don’t have and can’t fake, and it isn’t about vigor or hunger — it’s a mental advantage. The principal asset a young tech entrepreneur has is that they don’t know a lot of things. ...

Link:  Many2Many.  Thanks for the tip to the advantaged Andrew Haarsager.  --Dennis

2007 Competitive Media Usage Overview Update

A new study from Bridge Ratings reports:

... Among Americans using these technologies, terrestrial radio continues to dominate overall market penetration for the number of people listening for five minutes or more in a typical week despite the number of options available. 93.5% of Americans still listen in an average week, while MP3 players (including iPods) reached 30% of the population.  ¶  57 million Americans listen to some form of Internet Radio in a typical week according to our interviews. Satellite radio's nearly 15 million subscribers accounts for nearly 5% of the U.S. population and HD radio reaches 450,000 weekly users. ...

Link:  Bridge Ratings.

Terrestrial Radio's Run Through the New Media Gaunlet 1998-2007

Dave Van Dyke's Bridge Ratings is worth a bookmark and frequent visits for relevant, informative analysis.  It's new report with this title discusses new media impact on terrestrial radio listening.  Good stuff, but beware that the Y axes in the several charts have different scaling.  Link:  Bridge Ratings.  --Dennis

Pandora Mobile Radio

Dave Van Dyke writes:

Sprint Nextel Corp and Pandora Media Inc., have teamed up to offer the personalized streaming radio service to its mobile phone users. And Pandora is likely not going to stop there. We figure Sprint is just the first of many mobile carriers. Pandora also announced this week an up-coming Wi-Fi music player. Uh-Oh! Faster than you can say "Here comes wireless Internet Radio", we've got a new contender. ...

Link:  Navigate the Future.

Also see Mark Hefflinger's, Pandora Personalized Web Radio Comes to Sprint Phones, Sonos Player.  Link:  DigitalMediaWire (with links).

For pictures, see Michael Arrington's, Prototype Of Pandora Wifi Device Shown ..., Link: TechCrunch.  Thanks to Scott Weatherly.

And May Wong, Sprint to Offer Pandora Streaming Radio.  Link AP via Chicago Tribune.

Updated 25 May, 2007:
Also see Tong Zhang's Sprint to Deliver Pandora for Personalized Streaming Radio on Mobile Phones.  Link: MobileTechReview.  --Dennis