It seems like the defenders of the status quo affiliated with every type of media have warred with the Internet before embracing it. The Internet is too great a distribution method to be ignored, though, so I definitely think Internet radio has a great future ahead of it. However, we might have to wait for a Hulu-like online partnership to emerge in the music industry before this SoundExchange nonsense is sorted out. Internet radio as a concept won't die, but we might lose some of our favorite online radio stations in the short term, unfortunately.
Gavroche
· 1 year ago
I think Internet radio is just in its infancy! For me, Pandora has completely replaced any need for radio, especially since I can now listen to it on my iphone. Because traditional radio stations are uber expensive, stations often need to be backed by big corporations (clear channel) and are thus required to play terrible mainstream music. Of course there are some exceptions, with great indie radio in seattle and new york, but generally, traditional radio sucks. Especially in san fran!!
Because the costs of entry are minimal online, internet radio can appeal to the long tail of music tastes.
For me, traditional radio is only listened to in my car. For my entire life I have associated my car with the radio. Now and in the future, it seems like i'll be associating my phone with radio -- and will be listening to internet radio!
Yoram Roth
· 1 year ago
I have to say your article is pretty unclear. In particular, your comparison to terrestrial radio is hard to follow. But one point: "old" style radio may not have kicked revenue to the artist because at one point it was deemed "promotional" but that model was a bad deal for them to begin with. Why keep it alive? And in a time where single-song sales make up a substantial part of potential revenue, artists should get a piece of the "air" play. The other issue is that is quite feasable these days to record the number of times a song was played, and how many people "listened" to it.
What is your conclusion? Is this another one of those Mashable articles that makes everyone in entertainment out to be a weasel?
ekubio
· 1 year ago
thanaks
Cure Dream
· 1 year ago
You mean the tiny world of terrestrial radio? (As opposed to simply small world of satellite radio.)
I think "god damn the boomers" every time I turn on the radio and hear the same Doobie Brothers song that was playing the last time. I don't know if the whole country is like that, but the "big" radio stations in our area play mostly the same 15 "classic rock" songs. There are two college stations, one of which plays 90% "classic rock", the other one plays 90% of college rock bands that haven't changed their sound since "They might be giants". 10% of the times, the college stations play something cool.
If the boomers want me to pay for their retirement, they'd better let go of the radio.
Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins
· 1 year ago
Smart internet radio services will move all their servers off American shores. This has been going on with Shoutcast stations for age. It's the only way to cut a profit.
/mark
Luis Galarza
· 1 year ago
Thank you for keeping us up to date with this type of online business news... I think the article needed a little more information about what artist and music labels think about this situation and Internet radio in general...
The truth is that for artist without a record deal Internet radio open a huge door of marketing opportunities that help them compete on a same level with top bands, which is great for them and listeners. But, for bands with record deals that have to share their revenue with the label company, distributors, etc., this is cutting their chances to increase music sales on the Internet... Or at least this is what some of them think.
Personally I think Internet radio is here to stay, and companies like Soundexchange needs to think about the whole picture. Internet radio is not satellite radio.
Nicki B.
· 1 year ago
I truthfully don't listen to Internet radio as much as I had in the past. Now that I'm all grown up, I prefer to have the music on demand, and I'll actually pay for it this time around. Really, the record companies should continue their focus on illegal download sites and use Internet radio, like regular radio, as a promotional tool - and maximize the use of it.
Mark Lassoff
· 1 year ago
Internet radio is in its infancy.
Many pandora fans will attest to that. However, Pandora just scratches the surface of the possibilities. The internet allows the narrowest of demographics to be served through online broadcasts. Imagine radio programs geared towards everything from softball players to airline pilots-- Internet radio is THE medium that makes it possible.
Darren
· 1 year ago
SoundExchange isn't *the* place to go to license music to play online, it's just *a* place. There is nothing to keep a music artist from negotiating with a company like Pandora to play their music for whatever rate they wish. They can even offer to let Pandora play their music for free.
There is no crisis with internet radio, and it's not going anywhere. If the SoundExchange option is taken away through higher royalty rates, artists and webcasters will just have more incentive to negotiate between themselves. And that's the way it should be, anyway. We don't need the government to set royalties.
Tim
· 1 year ago
Traditional Radio doesn't pay a dime ! WHAT PLANET DO YOU LIVE ON.
As a commercial broadcaster I will tell you I write royalty checks every month ! How does ten percent of your gross sound to you.
If you are operating on a twenty percent margin ten percent of gross can hurt.
I wish the world for radio was as you paint it.
Yankee54
· 1 year ago
An important note which Mr. Grindlinger fails to make is that terrestrial radio stations doe in fact pay royalties. These stations pay performance royalties to the performance rights organizations, ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. The distinction is that they do not pay mechanical or recording royalties.
The public, or the consumers of these media venues should be as educated as possible on these issues, in order to make informed choices and whether or not to make changes in their listening habits.
johnny
· 1 year ago
I think it should be pointed out that the story is talking about recording royalty rates which traditional radio doesnt pay but internet radio does. That should have been made clearer
ed
· 8 months ago
You're as bad as the writer of the article! The "recording" royalties as you call them are really called "mechanical" royalties and only the record labels pay these, not internet radio. Traditional AND internet radio pay only one kind of royalty and it's called "performance" royalties. The only person who gets money from "performance" royalties is the songwriter. So if only one person in the band wrote a song he's the only one who gets money from it being played on the radio (traditional and internet). Also many artist don't write their own songs, thus there are songwriters behind the scenes that the public doesn't know about who make their living writing songs for artists via the "performance" royalties from their songs being played on radio. The Spears and Lopez's of the world don't get paid when you hear them on the radio because they don't write their own songs. "Mechanical" royalties are the money paid from the physical CD's sold or the song download and both the artist and songwriter get these royalties, though the songwriter only gets 9 cents for per song. So if a songwriter wrote one song on Spears latest album they only get $90.000 if it sells a million copies, plus that is split with their publisher, so after that and taxes all the song writer made was around $30,000 for a song he wrote that sold a million copies. Big money huh?
All Comments
Because the costs of entry are minimal online, internet radio can appeal to the long tail of music tastes.
For me, traditional radio is only listened to in my car. For my entire life I have associated my car with the radio. Now and in the future, it seems like i'll be associating my phone with radio -- and will be listening to internet radio!
What is your conclusion? Is this another one of those Mashable articles that makes everyone in entertainment out to be a weasel?
I think "god damn the boomers" every time I turn on the radio and hear the same Doobie Brothers song that was playing the last time. I don't know if the whole country is like that, but the "big" radio stations in our area play mostly the same 15 "classic rock" songs. There are two college stations, one of which plays 90% "classic rock", the other one plays 90% of college rock bands that haven't changed their sound since "They might be giants". 10% of the times, the college stations play something cool.
If the boomers want me to pay for their retirement, they'd better let go of the radio.
/mark
The truth is that for artist without a record deal Internet radio open a huge door of marketing opportunities that help them compete on a same level with top bands, which is great for them and listeners. But, for bands with record deals that have to share their revenue with the label company, distributors, etc., this is cutting their chances to increase music sales on the Internet... Or at least this is what some of them think.
Personally I think Internet radio is here to stay, and companies like Soundexchange needs to think about the whole picture. Internet radio is not satellite radio.
Many pandora fans will attest to that. However, Pandora just scratches the surface of the possibilities. The internet allows the narrowest of demographics to be served through online broadcasts. Imagine radio programs geared towards everything from softball players to airline pilots-- Internet radio is THE medium that makes it possible.
There is no crisis with internet radio, and it's not going anywhere. If the SoundExchange option is taken away through higher royalty rates, artists and webcasters will just have more incentive to negotiate between themselves. And that's the way it should be, anyway. We don't need the government to set royalties.
WHAT PLANET DO YOU LIVE ON.
As a commercial broadcaster I will tell you I write royalty checks every month !
How does ten percent of your gross sound to you.
If you are operating on a twenty percent margin
ten percent of gross can hurt.
I wish the world for radio was as you paint it.
The public, or the consumers of these media venues should be as educated as possible on these issues, in order to make informed choices and whether or not to make changes in their listening habits.