The new performance royalty rates that internet radio will pay artists and record labels were released on December 16 and many small and mid-sized internet-only broadcasters are now fearing they’ll be put out of business. While there was a modest increase on the fee paid for each song played, the bigger concern is what’s missing. […]
It has been a while since I checked in on Earbits, the commercial free online music application that encourages you to become an active fan of the bands and musicians on your stream. Since then, it has greatly improved and I have constructed a hybrid classical radio channel via its excellent Chrome extension feature. For those […]
Live365 has sounded the alarm regarding the Copyright Royalty Board’s latest proposed copyright royalty rate schedule. Layoffs and worse are in the offering. The CRB’s latest tithes: (1) Commercial Webcasters: $0.0022 per performance for subscription services and $0.0017 per performance for nonsubscription services. (2) Noncommercial Webcasters: $500 per year for each channel or station and […]
Perhaps it was too good to last, or maybe it’s time to revive the tired old saw, “this is why we can’t have nice things.” In any event, Art Bell’s return to nightly broadcast is over, yet again. In a blog post dated December 11, Bell writes that he is “going to hang it up” […]
Serial music and radio entrepreneur Michael Robertson is back with a new platform that updates and replaces his Radio Search Engine idea, with a focus on making it easier to share songs on social media. Radio Search Engine was exactly what it sounded like, a sort of Google for radio, which let you search for […]
Plug.dj is gone, but the idea of a service that offers virtual dj rooms to music sharers will not die. Four alternate turntable room style applications have become more prominent over the last six months: Dubtrack.fm, Juqster, Beatsense, and Soundtrack.io. Compared to plug.dj and its predecessor turntable.fm, they’re pretty bare bones. But maybe that’s the application/economic […]
The music-techno-chattering classes are pondering recent Pandora news: a huge drop in the online song server’s stock price, largely attributed to the launching of Apple Music. Bottom line: in the third quarter of this year Apple Music, claiming 6.5 million paying customers, pinched Pandora audience expansion to the tune of 1.3 million listeners. “Let me […]
The Copyright Royalty Board recently released two orders that affect community and college radio stations. The CRB sets the royalty rates that webcasters pay for the right to play recorded music. Royalties are paid to SoundExchange, a non-profit group that distributes payments to musicians and record labels. These payments only apply to online streaming broadcasts, […]
Shortly after the announcement that the turntable-style music sharing room plug.dj would cease operation, I wrote to the site’s founder, Jason Grunstra, for an analysis. “It really just comes down to money,” Grunstra responded. “The development and hosting of a massive real-time application is no small feat. It’s incredibly complex and we just couldn’t find […]
At the end of last year I bought a Sonos Play:1 speaker and a Sonos Connect stereo component to add super-simple on-demand music streaming to a couple of rooms in my apartment. I’ve really enjoyed how well the platform seamlessly integrates with services like Spotify, TIDAL, Slacker, Pandora and Deezer Elite, while also easily tapping […]
