Apologies to anyone who was hoping to listen to free LAUNCHcast today. We’re shutting down the Internet’s #1 air service the time to draw concentration to the outrageous rates recently invariable by the Copyright commission food in Washington, D.C.. We are doing so alongside thousands of webcasters including Pandora, MTV, Real/Rhapsody, WXPN.com, KCRW.com, and many many others. For a more unalloyed list, check Kurt Hanson’s locality, RAIN. AOL and Clear Channel stand out as the only two online broadcasters too corporate to be noticeable their solidarity (penitent, Lisa ). Hopefully you’ll be seeing lots about today’s protest in the press, and most importantly I look forward to you’ll let your representatives in Washington advised of how you have a funny feeling. Please look in on the SaveNetRadio.org situation where they make this easy for you. We need your assistant between now and July 15th when the in the first place payments are down the new compensation rates.

The status quo webcasters are in is simple: the new royals rates are more than the revenues anyone can wish to proceed towards from related advertising. In other words, we all give the slip moolah on Internet radio starting July 15th. Yahoo! has no target of operating LAUNCHcast boom box as a demise-leader. This insensible rate hike needs to be changed or our enterprise will tease to. And unfortunately the advancing we’d have to change our calling would end up curtailing the excess dissimilitude that makes Internet boom box uniquely compelling. I think we’d all be terribly sad to see Internet ghetto-blaster start to sound more like mundane radio with its meagre number of stations playing a small number of songs. The irony that the additional rates force webcasters to either go out of matter or sound more like terrestrial radio, which pays no similar royalties, is rich.

Here are a infrequent myths which the industry needs to get its head round:

Myth: Yahoo! (and other immense Webcasters) can “afford” these rates.
truth: LAUNCHcast loses pelf subservient to these rates, Yahoo! has no desire to run radio as a loss-kingpin.

Myth: All Internet portable radio should be representing-let out obligation.
episode: Less than 3% of our radio listeners are subscribers. promise is a spotlight for the treatment of users who would file no interruptions, not an interesting business inasmuch as anyone.

Myth: Radio drives tons of users into Yahoo! and that being so Yahoo! devise operate radio at a deficit.
inside info: Not only is this a terrible way to structure an Internet function ecosystem so that it grows, it’s justified not true. We’re fortunate to be a part of Yahoo!, the most visited network on the Internet, and the conveyance the network drives to us is what makes us so accepted. Not immorality versa.

But in the interest those who want a midget more color in the story, I thought I’d portion a insufficient blips from the last three months of my freshness as I have contract fully up to speed on this delivery, visited Washington, met with artists, labels, and the RIAA, and worked with multifarious others to on a solution. It’s been thoroughly an tutelage for me.

I’ve worked at Yahoo! Music to go to three and a half years (since they purchased my negligible party, Mediacode in December of 2003), but be suffering with just been the General supervisor since the inception of March. I took the reigns the same week the CRB ruling was handed down. That first week Bob Roback called me in to a conclave where I was introduced to Ken Steinthal, the bencher who handled the anyway a lest by reason of the webcasters. Ken was shouting and cursing in disbelief on a conference bellow including AOL, MTV, Pandora, spirited365, and others. When we hung up I stated the indisputable to Bob: “I guestimate the purpose wasn’t profitable to us.” “It’s impossible to surmise a worse result,” he replied. offer hospitality to to your new gig, kid, I thought.

I quickly came up to put one's foot down with the help of many: Bob and Ken (mentioned above), Dina Hellerstein, Jeff Mickeal, and Jamie Hedlund from Yahoo!, and Jon putter around from the diligence group DiMA. The basics are childlike: you just need to look at the balance veneer to stick out provide with help the business losing more and more in money each year as the rates increase faster than the radio ad market does. But coming in late and having not been complex in the case, it’s impossible not to continue to petition yourself, “Why? How did we climb here? How does this cook?” The meet is unfortunately painfully simple: we’re in a crossroads where accomplished businesses and policy makers obviously don’t understand or believe the realities of a redone and growing affair.

Here’s what happened, as unpretentiously as I can indicate the story:

• Sound truck (the assembling which represents the copyright holders and administers the payments) and Webcasters can’t agree on a royalty rate.
• The Copyright sovereignty Board (CRB) is formed by Congress, a process is established, and a standard is established. The process is reasonable enough, the typical is “compliant buyer / willing seller” and not liked by the Webcasters as it is a more stringent standard than terrestrial and helper rates were resolved by.
• The CRB process begins, both sides splurge millions of dollars on the action.
• During the case, the CRB sees financial information from both sides, but a certain side never sees the other’s complete asseveration as much of it is redacted so private intelligence is not shared with passive partners and competitors.
• 18 months later a resolve is handed down which is incredibly unfavorable to the Webcasters and includes a footnote saying the CRB couldn’t be bothered with “unskilled” businesses which aren’t masterly to lie on the rates. In totting up to tripling the per-song rate, broadcasters are no longer clever to account by the “ordinarily Tuning Hour” (ATH, the non-appearance of which sends the costs higher), and there is a $500 “per station minimum” administrative fee that’s completely of step with the reality of technologically-advanced stations like LAUNCHcast, Pandora, and Rhapsody where there is a literally uncontrolled enumerate of covert “stations”. “complaisant purchaser / game seller” proves to be the joke the Webcasters knew it to be as there is only one seller (unbroken interchange) and there aren’t any buyers at the unwavering rates. The only appropriate good copy is that Sound Exchange won too big, so big a big searchlight would lief sheen on the decision as protests like today’s ring distinction to the issue.
• Webcasters summon inquire instead of a clarification on some of the more insane parts of the conclusiveness. Clarification denied.
• Sound Exchange issues press releases which spin the actuality wildly, including this one which talks relating to how Yahoo!, Clear Channel, and Microsoft are trying to short fluctuate artists, neglecting to mention that Microsoft got finished of the Internet Radio subject YEARS ago because the RATES WERE TOO HIGH. Thankfully, no anyone buys their story.
• Webcasters form SaveNetRadio.org, Representatives Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Donald Manzullo (R-IL) bring out the Internet Radio Equality Act, and Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sam Brownback (R-KS) make known the Internet Radio conformity Act. Co-sponsors sign on in numbers beyond webcasters’ expectations.
• Webcasters file an appeal, and are currently crossing their fingers hoping it’s granted in assist of the July 15th “pay up” date.

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting with Jon Simson and Michael Huppe from Sound interchange. They’re good people, by all accounts, and I can no greater than imagine that they rely upon in the position they’ve staked out in the press, that the CRB motto the details of our business and chose a rate which we could afford. If only. Unfortunately the CRB made a , handed undisturbed disagreement a loaded gun, and gave them the privilege to leap Internet announce dead. How the CRB came from the testimony presented to this outcome is a superior inscrutability to Harry involved. I’m guessing clear-headed altercation is nearly as puzzled as we are at this point.

I’ve also had the pleasure of conjunction with our representatives in Congress and truce their point of view. Congress doesn’t like to set rates, and I think we’d all approve of that we’d enter they didn’t micro-muck with the economy at this demolish. Instead, they site up a process and a standard, we all went through the process, and they’d like to come up with the outcome served the needs of the people. Our continued assert reasonable sounds like “wah! the rates are too high! wah!”, which they’re sick of hearing and I don’t guilt them. So we’ve been working hard to play them that the chin-wag here isn’t straight “hey, we aren’t making as much loaded as we used to” but in reality “um, we are losing a lot of money on Internet radio, and we’re effective to have to change our offering in such a way that it’s prevailing to yield a lot of its marvy diversity of programming at the very least or that it’ll go away entirely at the to a great extent worst.” But it’s a tough slog and has enchanted a doom of convincing.

Finally, the elephant in the scope is that while they’re asking Internet announce to pay off more than 100% of revenue in nobles fees, aide radio pays about 7% of proceeds and terrestrial portable radio pays 0%. bomb the newest, most separate, with the most wart unrealized, is asinine on the side of all involved.

I’d like to imagine we’re making progress, though. will do your be involved in and put in black or call your representatives in Washington and let them know what you over of the heavens answer and product. With your help, we can stand for Humpty outlying together.

strain in to KCRW.org anytime on Tuesday, June 26th, they resolve be looping an hour long ghetto-blaster program where Webcasters discuss the specifics of their situation.

Thanks to go to reading and your submit to.

ian c rogers
Yahoo! Music

We have partnered once again with fancy era friends Pepsi Co. to aid deliver the Mountain Dew ‘Transform Your Summer’ sweepstakes.  I’ll terminate decrease an passage from the official press deliver excellent explain what’s going on:

Consumers can enter the “turn into Your Summer” sweepstakes online at http://www.transformyoursummer.com. Thousands of prizes will be given away each hour and consumers will be able to pick out the prize they would like the chance to win by entering the daily drawing of their choice. There will be several commonplace drawings each sacrifice a different champion. The “Transform Your Summer” prizes catalogue the Ultimate Gaming Package (Xbox 360, Panasonic 42″ Plasma HDTV, games and accessories), trips to major sporting events, vacation packages and many other items. In addition, a limited-number Pepsi(TM) Optimus Prime(R) collectible truck figure commitment be available as part of the encouragement.Here’s how the “change Your Summer” sweepstakes works:

 1) Look in the course of codes under the caps of specially-marked 20-ounce and 1-liter bottles of Mountain Dew, Pepsi and Sierra steam up

 2) Register at http://www.transformyoursummer.com

 3) set your code during the daily drawing featuring the spoils you would like the chance to out first.

As you can see, you bewilder a to enter your code on a common depiction with a little amount of each of the prizes fact out quotidian.  But how to the fullest extent to decide what you beg for the duration of?  Do you go for the Ultimate Gaming coupled with a smaller chance of attractive, or do you go for the high expectation of scoring a $2 Yahoo! Music Download encode?

The Yahoo! Music marketing office is here to helper with this resolution by compelling a mathematical look at the theme.  We advise that you look at Expected Monetary Value of your code - weighing the value of the prize vs. the probability of conquering that prize.  For example, Mountain Dew is giving away $100 prizes every broad daylight with a probability of conquering at everywhere 1%.  That would effectively as though your jurisprudence worth $1.  

With this in mind, we took a sample day and calculated the pre-eminent value for your code.  The results, choose..

6^th Place - Panasonic 42” HDTV — $0.36 value per code 5^th concern - XBOX 360 — $0.48 3^rd Place - Yahoo! Music $2 Download patterns — $1 3^rd Place - fit in -  $100 cash — $1 2^nd employment - $25 cash — $1.85 1^st Place - authorized Mountain Dew Hoodie — $4.45

Our thoughts based on these results:

 – without thought the results above, our official position is that you should take the $2 Yahoo! Music Download structure because music is priceless and anything times priceless is priceless (except for peradventure 0).

So go get yourself a ton of 20 ounce or 1 liter bottles of Mountain Dew, make an offer for them all on the $25 honour, and grow a Soda-Promo Entrepreneur.