Monday, November 4, 2024

GOODIES TO GO! ™
August 16, 1999 — Newsletter #41


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GOODIES TO GO! ™
August 16, 1999 — Newsletter #41
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Please visit https://www.htmlgoodies.com
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Greetings, Weekend Silicon Warriors…


Did you hear…


>…about Bill 602P? This is, supposedly, a bill put before
the U.S. Government by Congressman Schnell. It would allow a
five-cent surcharge on all e-mail messages sent over the
Internet with the money being sent to the U.S. Post Office.
I have received numerous e-mails asking about it. People are
outraged! Well, calm down. The U.S. Postal Service announced
at http://www.usps.com/news/press/99/99045new.htm that the
whole thing is another Internet myth and is not true. The
first tip-off should have been that there is no Congressman
Schnell.


>Ever heard of Phoenix Technologies? You may not know the
name, but you know their software. Over 70% of all household
computers use their start-up software to boot computers. It
acts as a bridge between the computer’s hardware and
operating system. Apparently Phoenix isn’t making enough
money. They are now thinking of embedding advertising into
their software that would create a desktop icon you couldn’t
kill. As far as I could find, nothing was in stone yet, but
stay tuned.


>The small-town business that seemed to have a chance on the
Internet is running into problems now. Currently only 9% of
Web commerce is “local” business. That number is expected to
drop to 6% by 2003. Darn. I don’t like that trend.


Now onto today’s topic…


Here’s a bit of information you probably didn’t know about
me. I was a disc jockey for eleven years before I got my
Ph.D. I did radio in Oklahoma, Alabama (twice), New York, and
Pennsylvania. I was pretty good, if I do say so myself. I
won three radio market’s rating periods and was fired once
(getting fired in radio is a badge of honor).


I tell you that not to brag (well, maybe a little), but to
illustrate the soft spot in my heart for the business of
radio, the forgotten stepchild of television. Radio bugs
me a bit these days. The era of the local jock is going
away. Radio laws have allowed large conglomerates to own
multiple stations in the same market. The choice of music
has become so research-oriented that only a few popular
artists bubble to the top. With the possible exception of
the Country radio format, new artists and new music is hard
to find. If it is new, it’s new by popular artists.


Now, I know this isn’t the way with all stations, but it’s
the general trend. So, you can probably guess that I am a
great fan of Internet radio. All of a sudden, thanks to
streaming data, anyone can program their own radio station.
I often listen to a station that plays only one group, but
they play old demos and live concert footage, and it’s just
great. That’s what Internet radio can do. Little niches can
be grabbed all over the place.


In addition, the signal is no longer local… but global.
Maybe someone in Kentucky would like to listen to a
progressive rock station in Colorado. There’s no way in the
world with the FM dial, but on Internet radio… yep! Ever
been to Spinner.com? There are over 125 different streams of
radio audio. Want to hear it? It’s there. Also try Tunes.com
or NetRadio.


I’m not the only one yelling Hooray! for Internet radio. At
the last Plug-In, a conference created to discuss music and
the Web, Internet radio was lauded as a new “inflection
point.” That’s a fancy term for something that could create
a “radical change” in an existing marketplace.


But there’s a problem. I’ll illustrate it by returning to one
of the radio stations I jocked for. Near the studios, out of
any visitor’s view, was a large wooden sign that read:


Q: Why are we here?


A: To make money!



Yep, once again money is the root of it all. You can proclaim
you play what the “thinking” listener wants to hear, but if
that only represents 1% of the total audience, you’re done.


Internet radio is facing that concern right now. It’s not
that people aren’t listening. They are, in droves! But the
Internet radio market has become absolutely flooded with
competition. At first, Internet stations made pretty good
cash by running spots that reached a global market. Now the
money is being spent elsewhere.


A plan was discussed at Plug-In for helping Internet radio
succeed by bringing in funds:


1. Offer links to sites that sell the music currently
playing.


2. Sell the music on the site.


3. Sell subscriptions. You pay to listen.


4. Advertise. Not just banner ads, but ads in the music
stream.


5. Pay for “awareness” and “consideration.”


Awareness and consideration are a little tough to explain.
The concept is that people will purchase if they are made
aware of a product. Right now, only the company that gets
the actual purchase transaction gets the profit. Under the
awareness and consideration model, the person who bought
might be tracked to learn where they were made aware of the
product and those who assisted in the awareness would share
in the profit of the sale.


How’s that for a rough idea?


What about that third one? Pay Per Listen! Would you pay to
listen to a station? How about if that station was running a
concert? What if the Internet station ran Stern in the
evening, so you weren’t rushed to catch him in the morning?
Would you pay to hear traffic reports right when you wanted
to hear them instead of half past and a quarter till the
hour? This certainly has possibilities, but I fear that radio
has been perceived as the “free” medium for so long that it
might be a hard sell to run an entire Internet radio station
in this manner. Special event, yes. The entire station? No.


I like the first two best. Anything to cut down on the number
of radio spots. How many times have you listened to the radio
and wondered what a song’s name and artist were? I’ll tell
you why you don’t usually hear it. Past a radio station’s
desire to lower the amount of talk, most radio programmers
(me included) want a feeling of forward momentum. Everything
must be “coming up” to instill a sense of progression in the
listener’s mind. Backselling, announcing a song’s title and
artist after it has played, can kill that momentum. Announce
the song before you play it.


On the Internet, as the song streams over WinAmp or RealAudio,
the song’s title and artist is there to see. You could make
that title and artist a link and it could be purchased before
the song was through. Good idea.


I think the audience is geared to this type of profit-making
formula anyway. It is my opinion that where most Internet
radio stations want to grab audience is in the office at
work. Radio programmers (me included) have always had to
deal with an easy-listening station in their market. Some of
you might refer to these as “elevator music” stations. You
know them: They play long, dramatic versions of your favorite
popular songs (very popular in dentist’s offices). I ask
you… does anyone really listen to those stations? I know
they’re on, but does anyone really listen? When the radio
ratings come out, the easy listening stations always do
well. Here’s why:


Someone who works in an office listens to WDUL Easy
Listening from 8 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon.
On the drive home she listens to WROK with Fred and Joe in
the afternoon. Which station did she listen to? I would argue
it was WROK. Yes, she had WDUL on her office radio, but she
was a passive member of the audience. When she popped on
Fred and Joe, she became what’s known as an active listener.
She might have played the contest. She probably heard an
advertiser. She laughed at one of Fred’s dumb jokes.


When the rating numbers come out, WDUL succeeds with a higher
rating than WROK because of the hours spent listening, but
which station was actually listened to?


Internet radio would combine the two stations. Someone in an
office would actively listen to a station in the office for
those long periods of time. A format you like all day. That’s
a winner!


But the Internet itself is holding Internet radio back. It is
estimated that only a million people can use Internet radio
at one time. The bandwidth of the service simply won’t support
more than that. But that will change as the technology moves
forward.


Profit has hit, and hurt, through-the-ether radio. Playing
Imus or Stern and not hiring a local jock makes higher
profits. Running the same signal over multiple radio stations
creates a higher profit because only one set of announcers is
required to keep the signal going. News staff is being
depleted in favor of services. The local aspect of radio is
dying.


Hooray for Internet radio. I want them to find a method of
financial survival. If they do, then maybe Internet radio
will affect real radio to the point where they will have to
cater to their local audience rather than simply doing their
own form of streaming over a satellite dish.


It makes an old radio jock proud.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

And that’s that. I write. You read. It’s a nice little set-up
we have here.

Joe Burns, Ph.D.


And Remember: You’ve heard of blackmail, but did you know
there was also whitemail? In 16th century England, “mail” was
a tax. If you paid it in whitemail, that meant you paid with
silver, a substance with a set price. If you paid your tax
with a crop or other item, the value could easily be disputed
and the tax collector could demand more or send you to
debtor’s prison.

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