The Summer of Copyright Part 4: DoJ Reviews ASCAP & BMI Consent Decrees

Broadcast law attorney David Oxenford writes about the Department of Justice review of ‘consent decress,’ which govern how ASCAP and BMI operate. “All music services need to watch and stay involved as this process develops,” Oxenford advises. “There are obviously important and complicated issues that will be considered in this review.” Continue Reading

RAIN founder Kurt Hanson honored with inaugural “Radio’s Most Innovative” award

RAIN News founding editor Kurt Hanson today received the inaugural “Radio’s Most Innovative” award from Jacobs Media, which plans to celebrate many honorees on a series of “Innovation Fridays.” The award bestowal features an interview with Kurt, including his highly researched analysis and asssessment of different pizza types. Continue Reading

KNDD’s spot-load test shows promising early results; Entercom CEO David Field comments

In June we reported on Entercom-owned Seattle station KNDD’s experiment in dramatically lowering its broadcast ad load. the station started a “Two minute promise,” in which no spot break would exceed that time, and each hour would be capped at six minutes. Today, the first signs of success for the KDNN test — higher ratings, and comments from Entercom CEO David Field. Continue Reading

ASCAP appeals Pandora ruling

ASCAP announced that it is appealing the decision it lost to Pandora in a federal rate-setting trial in March. ASCAP seeks to reverse a district court’s ruling that set a much lower royalty rate for Pandora’s use of music created or published by ASCAP members. In the earlier trial, federal judge Denis Cote was categorical in her rejection of ASCAP’s argument. the stakes are high enough to motivate ASCAP’s appeal. Continue Reading

The impact of viral videos on music sales (maybe)

YouTube is the world’s largest distributor of streaming music, and an important music-discovery platform. Does extreme YouTube music popularity (virality) boost music sales? Nielsen takes a stab at answering that intriguing question, acknowledging that the results are inconclusive. But the graphic report is interesting. Continue Reading

adStream: Lexus localized

adStream is a journal of ad-stalking and interesting commercial sightings in online audio services.

Pandora has spent resources building a local ad-sales network working in over three-dozen markets, and deploys algorithmic tools to target ads by location. But in our ad-stalking experience, we don’t notice many location-specific commercials in our test account. We caught one the other day, though. Continue Reading

Internet Radio Rewind podcast #009: Swell Radio; Vevo; Pandora; NPR; Sirius; Radionomy

This weekly podcast is a quick and concise catch-up of must-know news in streaming music and online audio

This week: Swell Music shutters … Vevo looks for a buyer … Pandora releases earnings … NPR reinvents radio, again … Sirius and Radionomy have news.
Continue Reading