Choosing a radio station was once a right of passage for the American adolescence. It was what bound you to your friends, disassociated you from your parents and attracted to you whatever partner had the misfortune to have you. Regional in range, determined by frequency, traditional radio was completely national in scope, cities to suburbs, Natick to Nashville. And then, like with the overnight successes the medium helped popularize, everything seemed to decline.

Traditional radio has been in a steady fall for nearly a decade. While it still remains a 21 billion dollar industry, the time spent listening to radio has fallen somewhere to the tune of 8 percent since 2000, according to Arbitron, a firm that measure radio audiences. This steady drop in listenership has forced terrestrial radio stations to program music that can appeal to the broadest of audiences, disenfranchising both music fans and emerging artists, and helping to foster the growth of satellite and Internet radio.

“Internet radio has redrawn the whole radio landscape,” said Tim Westergren, a founder of Pandora, a leading Internet radio company. “It provides a more fulfilling radio experience and a mass promotion for artists being shut out of terrestrial radio.”

The metrics are in agreement with Westergren, Internet radio captures 33 million listeners per week, according to Arbitron, and nearly 15 % of 18 to 49 year olds tune in to Internet radio on a weekly basis. Internet radio companies, such as Pandora, Last.fm and Slacker offer a personalized radio experience which gives its listeners access to a greater variety of music and enhanced control over the music being delivered to them. The listening experience is now being offered portably, with Slacker’s offering a for-sale portable player and Pandora delivering an iPhone application.

Internet radio might be an even greater bonanza for the working artist. “For bands that have no shot at traditional radio”, says radio expert Kurt Hanson, “it is one way they can expose their music to fans.” Pandora is home to 60,000 artists, 70% of which aren’t affiliated with a major label. “While some bands are still holding out for that elusive deal,” says Joanna Ifrah, a former artist and repertoire scout for Columbia and Sony records, “Many more emerging bands are working their audience, working their Myspace pages, betting on themselves and getting paid.”

Artists are working comfortably and profitably outside of major labels, getting airtime through Internet and satellite radio, building audiences through social networks, and further being able to monetize themselves through sites such as Los Angeles based startup True Anthem. However, major labels are pushing back by influencing Soundexchange to refuse to renegotiate royalty rates agreed upon last year that could potentially bankrupt the Internet radio industry.

While the numbers can be complicated, it comes down to simple metrics; a now profitable Internet radio site will pay royalty rates that exceed total revenue if the current rates negotiated by Soundexchange are upheld. A company like Pandora, which is paying $750,000 per month to Soundexchange under the current rates, would go out of business under the new rates which increase per year retroactively going back to 2006. (Satellites and cable radio settled for 7.5 percent of revenue with Soundexchange). The idea that Internet radio has to pay any royalty rates, while fair to the artists, legally speaking, is laughable.

Traditional radio doesn’t pay a dime in royalty rates because it is considered promotional. Has there been a greater promotional tool for an artist since the invention of the barker than the Internet? Even with the 50% cut that the artist receive from Soundexchange, for the working musician, according to Hanson, Internet radio is for more valuable developing a fan base than the “single digit cut they get from royalties.” If these rates are enforced and companies like Pandora go out of business, bands that don’t fit in the broad world of terrestrial radio will have a far more difficult time building a fan base and will lose the revenue stream that is Internet radio.

While the negotiations between Internet radio and Soundexchange look grim, companies like Pandora aren’t ready to lower the antennae on Internet radio just yet.

“We are going to plow ahead until we reach a reasonable settlement,” said Westergren.

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:eMusic Launches 10 Internet Radio MashupsAnother Court Loss for Internet Radio BroadcastersSaveNetRadio Applauds New BillInternet Radio Broadcasters Call for Day of Silence on June 26CBS Radio Rolling Out More Internet InitiativesLatest Offer from SoundExchange Turned Down by WebcastersRadio Webcasters Lose Court Battle - What Now for Last.fm and Pandora?

Source:Mashable!

Talk about bravado. Four days after launching the .me domain extension and inciting a virtual riot among customers, GoDaddy is toting the success of what it calls “the most successful new domain launch in GoDaddy’s history.” The basis for that claim? More than 20,000 .Me domain names were registered in the first 24 hours of availability, according to the company.

As we reported last week, the .Me launch was riddled with technical problems, including as many of 8 or 9 people claiming to hold receipts for the domain name Aweso.me. To its credit, GoDaddy responded quickly to the problems, issuing refunds to effected customers and making personal phone calls to many of them (a voicemail from a GoDaddy rep left with Andy Beal can be heard here). But that has done little to qualm the anger of many of those that thought they were the new owner of potentially lucrative .Me names.

In a press release this morning, the company acknowledges the technical issues they encountered upon launch, but actually uses the “it’s a nice problem to have” cliché, with CEO Bob Parsons stating “In spite of a few early difficulties - GoDaddy.com successfully processed a huge, record-setting level of registrations. To the best of our knowledge, there have never been more registrations handled in one day during the ordinary course of businesses by any registrar in history.”

Realistically, I don’t think there is that much GoDaddy could have done to prevent the issues it encountered as domain speculators raced to buy up premium .Me domains upon launch. However, given the frustration and confusion caused on launch day, I think the celebration dance would’ve best been kept internal.

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:GoDaddy Integrating Google Webmaster ToolsThe Daily Poll: What Do You Think of GoDaddy?GoDaddy Offers .Me Domain Names. It’s a Big .Fail So Far.GoDaddy Pulls the Plug on RateMyCopWho Sucks More - GoDaddy or MySpace?RackSpace Censorship: The RateMyCop Saga ContinuesGoDaddy: You Don’t Like Them. Can They Redeem Themselves?

In an announcement that some people are calling major, Amazon announced today that it will start streaming movies and TV shows on its own site – for a fee. Amazon’s Video-on-Demand service will feature 40,000 titles and hit the ground running today. And although it probably won’t turn a profit in the near-term due to the high royalty costs it’s forced to pay the film studios, I’m more than a little suspect of just how much Amazon can make by charging you to stream movies online.

Sure, at first glance, charging you to stream movies may look like the best alternative because it offers a guaranteed cash flow and is easier to regulate, but is it really best over the long-term?

The way I see it, free streaming movies should be the norm, not the exception.

Right now, you can surf your way over to Hulu.com and play some movies for free without a hitch. Granted, they’re not the best movies around and most aren’t even close to new, but that doesn’t mean we should downplay its significance.

Hulu movies can be viewed as often as you’d like and feature commercials before they start and a handful of commercial breaks between scenes. And while that works fine, it’s quite obvious that Hulu and the film studios aren’t willing to make it more compelling.

But that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t happen.

Here’s how I see it working:

Streaming old or crappy movies just doesn’t work. Why would someone want to waste time sitting through Attack of the Puppet People?

But if new and extremely popular movies were made available, things would be totally different. If after a movie like No Country for Old Men leaves theaters, it’s made available on a free streaming service, can you imagine the advertising revenue the service could generate from it? And in turn, how much revenue the movie studios could generate as well?

But in order to generate serious revenue, the services would be forced to play commercials. Playing them before the movie starts is a good idea, but I’m not too fond of dropping them in-between. It not only proves to be an annoyance, but it takes you out of the movie and totally changes the flow of it. Instead, maybe the service should start overlaying ads during the playback, or, if need be, it still can resort to commercial breaks if that makes it more financially viable.

Either way, the point of streaming movies is to turn an even greater profit than making people pay for the stream and with enough viewers and a logical revenue scheme, it should work.

In just a few months, Hulu has already proven to be a cash cow for TV studios and its success is most easily shown in the number of networks that have joined the fray and allowed their content to be made available since its launch. We also shouldn’t discount the fact that Hulu is run by the networks themselves, meaning they get all the benefits of ownership.

Why can’t the film studios follow suit? Instead of trying desperately to stop piracy and spend too much cash on it, it should save its money, invest in a service like Hulu, break out from its foolhardy misconceptions about the Internet, and embrace it. Upon doing so, it can establish advertising schemes in the vein of Hulu and allow you to watch movies whenever you’d like for free.

Sure, it may run against the way things have always been done in the movie business, but as theater revenue continues to fall and rentals slowly go away, the film industry needs to find something to pad its bottom line and free streaming movies seems like a great place to start.

Consider the impact of being able to sit at home, stream brand new movies anytime you’d like, and only be forced to sit through a handful of commercials that companies are paying huge sums of cash for.

If Hulu can service millions of people each month and grow at such a rapid rate, why can’t a free streaming movie service grow just as fast?

Paying for streaming may be a temporary solution, but it won’t be enough to stop piracy, nor become the best way to watch movies. If nothing else, Google, Hulu, and countless other services should have shown the film industry that free use of media is what appeals to people and if you invite that kind of service and monetize it thorough advertising, it can prove to be an even greater cash cow than you once expected.

It may sound extreme at first glance, but if it can work for TV shows, why can’t it work for movies?

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Swarmcast Moves Into Live StreamingcomScore Releases Video Streaming StudyNetflix Hack for DRM-Free Movie DownloadsLala’s Free Music Streams Shuttered: Too PopularLast.fm Still Growing. Thanks, Free Music.Last.fm: Free Music Initiative Has Sparked 119% Rise In SalesJalipo Is a Costly (and less cool) Joost

Source:Mashable!

A few hours ago at 11am ET one of the better domain extensions to debut in recent memory - .me – went on sale at GoDaddy for $19.99/yr. Since then, chaos has ensued, as apparently purchases are either not going through, or going through but the domain name remains available for others to buy. As an illustration of the problem this creates, according to the Twitter message below, at least 8 or 9 people are claiming to have receipts for the domain name aweso.me.

It’s not surprising to see a huge rush to register highly desirable .me domain names, but it appears GoDaddy is buckling under the pressure and is about to have an ugly mess on its hands. We’ve contacted the company to see how they intend to deal with the issue and will update accordingly when we hear back.

Meanwhile, you can follow the drama on Summize Twitter Search.

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:GoDaddy Integrating Google Webmaster ToolsThe Daily Poll: What Do You Think of GoDaddy?Domize: The Fastest Domain Name Search EverShould Whois Be Abandoned to Protect Privacy?.org Domain Name Registrations Slated For Price HikeWho Sucks More - GoDaddy or MySpace?GoDaddy Pulls the Plug on RateMyCop

Rick Schwartz just sold CNN the domain iReport.com for $750,000. Schwartz bought the domain in 1997 for “$70 to $100,” he told Silicon Alley Insider. CNN likely bought the domain for its I-Report program. You know, the one where You The Viewer get to do all the work. A concept which jibes just so nicely with Schwartz’s latest post on his personal blog.

Good morning from the HIGH SEAS. I am on the 8th day of a 9-day cruise. Most cabins on a ship are about 200 sq. ft. The cabin I am in is 5,300 sq. ft. Complete with private swimming pool, sauna and jacuzzi. The butler brings breakfast at 8:30 and the concierge takes care of all the daily arrangements. This is the 2nd time in the last 12 months I have taken the same cruise and same suite. It just doesn’t get much better. I like this lifestyle and I will do what I can do to protect it.

Valleywag will return on December 26 — barring some hilarious Christmas-Day tech meltdown that calls us to our laptops. Enjoy spending the day debugging your parents’ computers and installing your nephews and nieces’ new peripherals.

Ads by Pheedo

Source:Valleywag

Notorious nerdbody Julia Allison, the Star editor-at-large best known for her geek conquests, has this to share with Valleywag: Digg cofounder Kevin Rose has asked her out on a date. Really, could she have come with a more thoughtful present for a gossip blogger? How sweet. Let me go out on a limb here with my prediction: This is going to end badly. Incredibly, someone has already registered kevinandjulia.com.

Looks like tomorrow’s rumored MySpace announcement is a partnership between the News Corp.-owned social network and VOIP service Skype, according to a press release just sent to Valleywag. Bottom line: Now you can call your friends right from the “add me” page! The full press release after the jump.

MYSPACE AND SKYPE ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP BRINGING FREE INTERNET
VOICE COMMUNICATIONS TO MYSPACE GLOBAL COMMUNITY

Partnership Creates World’s Largest Online Voice-Connected Community

Beta Version of ‘MySpaceIM with Skype’ Announced Today

LOS ANGELES/LUXEMBOURG, October 17, 2007 — MySpace, the world’s most popular social network, and Skype, the leading Internet communications company, today announced a partnership to empower the MySpace community with voice communications. With more than 110 million monthly active MySpace users and 220 million Skype(tm) registered users around the world, this partnership connects two of the most popular communications platforms on the Internet to create the world’s largest online, voice-connected community. The announcement unveils MySpaceIM with Skype, a new product that integrates MySpace’s popular IM client–currently the world’s fastest-growing IM platform with more than 25 million installed users–with Skype’s free, high-quality voice-calling capability. The partnership will also enable users to link their MySpace profiles and photos or avatars to their accounts on Skype. Both products will be available to users starting in November. Launching in 20 countries where MySpace has localized communities, MySpaceIM with Skype will enable millions of users to place free Skype Internet calls to other MySpace or Skype users. The addition of Skype voice-calling to MySpace’s instant messaging feature
gives users more ways to easily connect with friends and family around the world, and does
not require MySpace users to download any additional Skype software.
“MySpaceIM with Skype is a truly groundbreaking product integration and partnership,” said
Chris DeWolfe, co-founder and CEO of MySpace. “Skype has the leading technology in
Internet voice communications and an enormous international user base that we’re thrilled
to connect with our existing community. Our network has no geographical boundaries–
Internet calling is the natural next step for how our members communicate with each other.”
Skype is available in 28 languages and is used in almost every country around the world.
The ability for Skype users to link their Skype accounts to their MySpace profiles will be
available globally, except in Japan, China and Taiwan. In addition to free, high-quality Skype
calling, MySpaceIM with Skype will also allow the users of the MySpace network to optionally
select Skype’s premium fee-based products, including:
* SkypeOut(tm) - To make calls to landlines and cell phones domestically or
internationally;
* SkypeIn(tm) - A local phone number to receive calls wherever you are in the world from
other people on landlines or cell phones;
* Voicemail - To take voice messages when you’re busy or offline; and
* Call forwarding - To redirect incoming Skype calls to a landline or cell phone.
“Both MySpace and Skype have become a part of people’s lives by bringing people closer
together, no matter where they live in the world. This partnership reiterates that Skype is the
platform of choice for Internet communications because we make it simpler and easier for
people to place free calls to one another whether they are on Skype or within the MySpace
network,” said Michael Van Swaaij, interim CEO of Skype.
MySpaceIM with Skype takes advantage of the many personal privacy settings available to
users throughout the MySpace network. Users who have a MySpace profile set to “private”
can not receive a Skype call from someone who is not on their friends list. Users can also
choose to allow only those individuals they have affirmatively added to their Skype personal
contact list to call them. Users are empowered to block any MySpaceIM with Skype user at
any time, and with the “incoming call window” users can pre-screen incoming callers in
order to accept, ignore, or block the call.
Financial terms of the MySpace and Skype deal were not disclosed.

Source:Valleywag

Typosquatter John Zuccarini has agreed to give up $164,000 in revenue from ads served to misspelled domains. Zuccarini had previously served two years in Federal prison for serving porn ads to misspelled children’s domains including teltubbies.com and bobthebiulder.com. (Remember John Ashcroft? Zuccarini always will.) This time around the ads weren’t pornographic. But they violated the terms of a court order that barred Zuccarini from registering typo domains. In the old days, his porn ads allegedly made up to a million dollars a year. [InfoWorld]