BMI Agrees on Lower Interim Rates

BMI and the Radio Music License Committee have agreed on new interim rates, which will be taking effect August 1, 2010. These rates are lower than the temporary rates which took effect on January 1, 2010.

“The Radio Music License Committee and BMI have reached an interim fee agreement in the radio industry's rate making proceeding which began earlier this year. The interim fee agreement takes effect August 1, 2010, and calls for an industry fee reduction from $217 million to $192 million. (This follows BMI's voluntarily agreeing to provisionally lower fees paid by the industry from $233 million to $217 million as of January 1, 2010),” said a joint statement.

“The parties agreed to these terms in order to expedite court determination of an appropriate final fee retroactive to January 1, 2010. The agreement was reached by the parties without prejudice as to final fee consideration,” the statement added.

What about Google?

Within the next several months, Google will be rolling out their music store aiming to take some market share from Apple’s iTunes Store.

Google’s music service will be tied to its search engine, and a subscription-based service will be available. Last year, as a first step, Google started linking to partner sites like iLike and Pandora through its search engine which allowed people to stream a song with a single click right on the search results page.

Currently if you search for a song in Google, the first result you will see is a link to play the full song either from iLike or Pandora.

Scott Morrison from the WSJ explained, "The first phase of Google's music service is expected to be a Web store where users can buy and download tracks, music industry insiders said. It will be tied directly to Google's search engine, so that people using Google.com to look for a particular group or song will be served a link to the company's music store…”

Google’s involvement in the music industry is welcomed by music labels that feel Apple is becoming too dominant. Apple accounted for 28% of all music purchased by U.S. consumers in the first quarter, according to NPD Group.

Online and Mobile Music Listening to Rise 15%

According to AccuStream Research, online and mobile music listening are forecast to rise 15% this year to 8.3 billion hours, compared to only a 9% increase in 2009.

Total listening hours are forecast to expand 22% in 2011.

AccuStream’s report, Online and Mobile Music Spins and Media Spend: 2010 – 2012 provides comprehensive music listening and media spend analyses by avail type (audio, video, rich media, sponsorships and text) and platform (PC and mobile). Extensive Q & A’s are included.

Ad supported listening hours are forecast to improve 20% this year but as inventory sellout rates continue to increase, royalty rates are reset and mobile platforms achieve greater scale.

Audio and video ad sales made up approximately 50% of total media spend made against Internet radio, generating market value of $168 – $190 million in ’09 including all paid placement, from banners to rich media executions.

Sellout is forecast to reach 55% and generate $135 million in 2010 (audio and video media buys alone), a 41.6% growth spike; the market grew by 13.9% in 2009.

The current year’s estimates acknowledge much greater emphasis being made by terrestrial broadcasters with online extensions to implement a highly localized sales strategy.

In addition, more sophisticated geo-targeting solutions, better national sales execution and bundled solutions provided by third party representation firms like TargetSpot and Triton Media — -plus the emerging mobile platform — point toward a solid growth year. Mobile music media spend is forecast at $6.7 million in 2010.

RadioTime and Denison Webradio Announce World’s Radio Stations on USB Drive

DALLAS - (Business Wire) RadioTime, Inc., a developer of technology for finding and listening to radio online, today announced it provides its Internet radio guide to the Dension Webradio, a small USB dongle that can bring the world’s radio stations and programs to any USB-capable home entertainment system or car radio.

Developed by Dension Audio Systems, based in Budapest, Hungary, the Dension Webradio enables anyone with a free RadioTime.com account to load their RadioTime Presets, pair the device with a 3G-enabled mobile phone and plug it directly into a radio’s USB port. Each station will appear on the car or home system as an MP3 file, enabling the user to browse, select and listen to the stations by name, and view that information on the radio’s display.

“RadioTime.com will provide our users with access to 30,000 AM/FM and Internet-only radio stations and 100,000 music, news, talk, sports and entertainment programs, and the Dension Webradio makes it so easy to listen to your favorites anywhere, from the living room to the driver’s seat,” said Bill Moore, founder and CEO, RadioTime, Inc. “You simply plug the Webradio into your computer to copy your RadioTime account in one step. No need to enter any codes or endure a registration process.”

According to a recent Arbitron Inc./ Edison Research study, nearly one in four Americans have listened to audio from an iPod or other mp3 player connected to a car stereo1. The Dension Webradio works like an mp3 player, but goes a step further by offering live Internet radio from around the world instead of being limited to an mp3 library.

The Dension Webradio is now available in the U.S., with a suggested MSRP of $120 USD. For more information, visit the Dension web site.

RadioTime provides an easy means of finding local, national, or global radio programming airing on stations in 140 countries and broadcasting in 55 different languages. It provides an Open API to enable hardware manufacturers and software developers to add the RadioTime guide to their devices and applications.

About RadioTime

RadioTime is the leading radio tuner that powers Internet services and devices by connecting them to radio broadcast DJs, talk personalities, and sports programming. Listeners easily access free, live, local, and global radio programming through RadioTime service. Its service enhances other products and services by powering them with thousands of radio channels and programming. RadioTime, founded in 2002, is based in Dallas, Texas. More information is available at www.radiotime.com.

1 “The Infinite Dial 2010: Digital Platforms and the Future of Radio,” © 2010 Arbitron Inc./Edison Research.

NPR CEO Schiller Says All Cars Will Have Internet Radios

This morning during The Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital conference, National Public Radio’s CEO, Vivian Schiller, had some positive outlooks on internet radio.

Here are some of the things she mentions:

NPR’s ratings continue to grow -- just hitting 34 million listeners, averaging 6 hours a week. It’s important that listeners are on every platform, and not just conventional radio. Digital audiences are additive; there is no evidence of cannibalization going on, she says. The idea is to reach the most number of people.

Schiller says that over the next 5 years internet radio will take the place of traditional broadcast radio. And pretty soon, most cars will be equipped with Internet radio in one form or another.

About 40% of weekday listening is now in the car… once most cars have Internet radio, people ideally will listen to the same stations in their car.

Schiller says they won’t charge for listening; at the heart of the mission is to make the content available to people for free. Only 10% of listeners give. We will be free, if you choose not to support us through membership, then we will still be there for you.

The iPad, she says, has been phenomenal, with almost 300,000 downloads of their app for iPad. She says it is designed specifically for that device; not for the iPhone, or the Web. You can listen, and experience NPR content in difference ways.