Jul 27 2009
National Public Radio has redesigned is Web site and will be adding new applications for smart phones.
The new NPR site is designed to make it faster and easier for users to either read or listen to news or to find and listen to the site's many audio features.
The site is divided into three sections – News, Arts and Life, and Music
Music listeners will find it easier to find live streams for public radio stations like WXPN, WBGH and other NPR stations' jazz and folk programming, and to see what's new in the site's live concert and other music archives.
The site is doing more with multimedia and visuals, including interactive maps, slideshows and larger photos.
Later this summer, NPR will launch an application for iPhone users, who’ll be able to listen to live and on demand program streams on the iPhone or iPod Touch.
Jul 09 2009
Internet radio will be able to rock on after all, and listeners can stop worrying about their favorite Web radio stations going silent.
On July 7, Webcasters reached an agreement with SoundExchange to set new royalties rates that everybody can live with.
Larger Webcasters -- those with more than $1.25 million in annual revenues -- have a choice between the higher of two options -- paying 25 percent of their revenues, or a per song fee.
Smaller Webcasters will pay a lower percentage -- around 14 percent.
Internet radio has been on the endangered species list for quite awhile, thanks to a 2006 ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board requiring online stations large and small to pony up hefty royalty fees for the music they play.
In many cases, these stations would end up owing almost as much in royalties as they were bringing in, and therefore wouldn’t be able to stay in business for long.
The ruling applies to stand-alone Internet stations like Pandora or RadioIO -- not to online conglomerates with music channels like Yahoo or AOL, or to terrestrial stations that stream their regular programming online.
The 10-year deal will be in effect to 2015, and is retroactive to 2006, when the original CRB ruling was made.
The audience for online radio is growing. There are now 42 million people in the U.S. aged 12 and older listening to online radio, according to an Edison/Arbitron survey conducted in April, which found that listening had increased: 17 percent of those surveyed said they tune in to online radio, compared to 13 percent in 2008.
The new royalty deal is good news for those listeners and for Webcasters, in the short term at least, because it means they can stay in business.
But the compromise is still weighted heavily against Web radio when compared to the competition. Satellite radio pays a 6.5 percent royalty. And mainstream terrestrial radio pays 0 percent to performers and their labels, although that could change. Commercial radio stations currently only pay royalties to song composers by maintaining ASCAP and BMI licenses.
SoundExchange is trying to extend the radio royalty payments to artists and labels as well. The battle between radio broadcasters and SoundExchange is currently raging in Congress.
The new sliding scale for Webcasters has its disadvantages, as Brandon Matthews points out in SatWaves: “The incentives to grow are now gone. The more the company grows, the more it pays.”
For more details on the deal, go to Radio and Internet Newsletter, which has been covering the controversy in blow-by-blow detail since day one.
Jul 05 2009
Anyone who has been through the insane rollercoaster ride of planning a wedding will get some laughs out of "Road to the Altar," a recently launched Web series from MWG Entertainment, creators of the Web series “My Two Fans.”
This mockumentary stars Jaleel White, best remembered as Erkel of “Family Matters,” and Leyna Juliet Weber, who appeared in “As The World Turns” and who also is the writer/producer for the series.
The premise is the pending wedding of a couple who agree to appear in a reality series in exchange for a free honeymoon.
If “The Office” business suddenly shifted to a wedding planning operation, this is what you might get.
Everything that can go wrong does:. There’s the clash of cultures: it’s an interracial, interreligious marriage [“Are my grandkids going to be Jewish? Is that how it works?” the father of the bridegroom wonders at one point].
There are fights over flowers, a parade of quirky wedding planners, florists, photographers and lighting designers,. The clients are pretty crazed themselves, with their organizational flow charts for guest placements and disagreements over wedding flowers.
Viewers will not get to see the actual wedding all this is supposed to be leading up to. “Road to the Altar” might be all either these characters or viewers can take.
New episodes are posted on Mondays.
Note: This is not suggested for kids because of mature humor and language.