«Social.fm, the company formerly known as Mercora, has closed down. The service, which allowed users to stream their music collections to each other, cites no reasons for shutting up shop. Mercora was announced in 2003 by McAfee founder Srivats Sampath, and we first covered it the following year (report here). Mercora's subscribers were permitted to stream playlists to each other with certain restrictions: Users couldn't announce what they were going to play in advance, request songs from peers or repeat song sequences in a time period, for example. The company was licensed from the start, however, creating a back-end database, identifying material being played, and paying US internet streaming royalties. Ominously, last year the company ditched the subscription model and adopted a me-too name: Social.fm. Rival discovery services such as Pandora and Last.fm offered the instant artist/song lookup, while Imeem simply launched first, and worried about getting licenses and revenue later. The jury is out on whether any of these services are in themselves a viable, standalone business, or if they can only continue by being cross-subsidized by someone who is.The problem is that when competing with free music subscription revenues are hard to find, and the low CPMs commanded by music advertising mean that for an ad-supported model a smidgen of money is spread around so thinly you could measure it in microns. MusicAlly last week calculated that Last.fm's most-streamed song (Coldplay's Viva La Vida with over 130,000 plays) would have returned just over £30 in royalties to the band, had they signed up for Last.fm's Artist Royalty Program.So increasingly, a lot of the web music services are beginning to look like "features" of somebody else's business. But whose? »

fonte: ORLOWSKI, Andrew, «P2P radio goes titsup Farewell then, Social.FM, The Register, 4th August 2008

Economize espaço no seu disco rígido, não gaste dinheiro e ainda descubra novos cantores e bandas por meio de ferramentas que têm foco em música. Com buscadores, como o Mix Turtle, e portais, como o StumbleAudio, vai ser difícil não encontrar exatamente aquilo que você quer ouvir. O novíssimo StumbleAudio (www.stumbleaudio.com), lançado neste mês, pode fazer a alegria dos órfãos do Pandora (www.pandora.com), que hoje só está disponível para usuários dos Estados Unidos. Para usar a ferramenta, acesse a página e escolha se quer começar a ouvir música por artista ou estilo. Você pode colocar o nome de uma banda na caixinha de busca "I Like" ou, então, escolher entre diversos estilos, como folk, rock e pop. Se você gostar da música, clique em um polegar verde que aponta para cima. Se não, no polegar vermelho que aponta para baixo. Assim, a ferramenta começa a entender do que você gosta. O destaque do StumbleAudio, que conta com mais de 2 milhões de músicas de 120 artistas, é que ele toca músicas na íntegra. Outro aspecto positivo é que o catálogo é focado em artistas alternativos, que lançam o próprio disco ou têm apoio de gravadoras pequenas. E, sim, eles são pagos pelas execuções de suas músicas, diz o site.

Busca

Para procurar músicas aleatórias, tente o Mix Turtle (mixturtle.com). O site também cria seleções a partir do que você escuta. Se quiser fazer sua própria seleção de músicas, tente o Favtape (favtape.com), que cria seqüências a partir do que você ouviu no Last.fm. Há, ainda, opções como o Hype Machine (http://hypem.com/) o Elbo.ws (elbo.ws), que funcionam com agregadores de blogs de MP3. E para descobrir músicas que tocam em seriados da MTV, tente o Soundtrack (soundtrack.mtv.com/Soundtrack), que se propõe a ser uma guia de música na TV.

fonte: 03/08/2008 - 09h23 Procure por músicas, receba dicas e crie seleção na internet  DANIELA ARRAIS
da Folha de S.Paulo  

«Bandas acusam Last.fm de não pagar direitos de autor

Bandas britânicas como os Arctic Monkeys, Editors e Basement Jaxx estão a acusar a rádio digital Last.fm de dever «quantias substanciais» em direitos de autor. Isto depois de conversações entre a empresa pioneira no mercado da Internet e a Merlin, associação britânica que representa as editoras independentes se terem revelado infrutíferas. Segundo o Independent, as editoras dizem que esta situação não é aceitável e já foram aconselhadas a procurar apoio legal para resolver a questão.

É a segunda vez no espaço de um mês que a Last.fm é acusada de não respeitar direitos de autor, depois de em Junho o grupo Warner Music ter mandado retirar milhares de faixas do sistema, entre as quais canções dos Led Zeppelin. Actualmente a Last.fm chega a 21 milhões de utilizadores em todo o mundo e tem nos seus sistemas 3,5 milhões de faixas áudio.

15-07-2008

«What Last.fm is doing here is creating an alternative to the official royalty-collecting organization for musicians (i.e., SoundExchange). Last year, the royalty rates for music streamed over the Internet were raised, making it more difficult for ad-supported music startups to stay in business. Last.fm got bought by CBS, so it's not in danger of going under. And for any song owned by a label or artist who participates in SoundExchange, Last.fm continues to pay the going Internet radio royalty rate. But it is beginning to bypass Sound Exchange by giving new, unsigned artists an alternative

Since it is Last.fm's program, it controls the royalty rates it pays out, which it can adjust according to how much advertising revenues these songs generate. Now, does anyone actually want to listen to these songs and ill musicians shift over in massive numbers from the labels to this sort of direct arrangement? That is what will determine how disruptive this really is.

fonte: Erick Schonfeld  Who Needs Music Labels? Last.fm Starts Paying Royalties To Unsigned Artists TechCrunch.com
Wednesday, July 9, 2008

(em várias categorias - a taxinomia é fraca - e respectivos links)

Listen or download free music

Lists and reccommedation sites

Lyrics

Music blogs

Music communitiesMusic delivery and distribution services

Music encyclopedias

Music portals

Online radio

«Change is the only constant in the music business, and that goes double for the digital music business. Nonetheless, we've assembled a list of the 10 hottest digital music websites in the world. Criteria were simple and admittedly subjective: Sites were chosen based not only on what they currently do for music fans, but also on their potential to impact the future development of the music industry. Based on how things go with the first iteration, this list could be updated periodically and opened for voting.Without further ado, here's are Wired.com Listening Post's top 10 hottest digital music websites:

Imeem

IVideoSongs

Omnifone

MOG

Muxtape

(e outros)

a publicidade visual é compativel com a função secundária que a música incentiva?

Essencialmente – e independentemente de todos os imponderáveis – o modelo de negócio assenta na publicidade. Visual (de vários tipos) mas não áudio, como o Pandora teve oportunidade de constatar, ao lançar uma experiência com «spots» de nove segundos: «[Pandora] is now coming under fire from fans who aren't pleased with the service's recent addition of in-stream audio ads»[1]. A experiência foi rapidamente abandonada e restam os anúncios visuais. Já em 2008 um novo serviço, We7, começou a oferecer a possibilidade de fazer «downloads» com publicidade áudio acoplada, mas ainda é muito cedo para tirar conclusões. Ao nível do «streaming» parece claro que «unlike terrestrial radio, where you're hearing ads every few songs, you're not going to get any interruptions of your songs. You're just going to have ads to look at when you go to the websites»[2].

Editoras de música apostam na net e no streaming

«How Streaming Works
A very simple analogy to illustrate how streaming works is be that of taking a bath (a 'download') in contrast to a shower (a 'stream'): when taking a bath it's necessary to fill the tub with water to the desired level before getting in, whereas with a shower you can turn on the water and get in straight away!

Typically with a shower the flow rate (or data) is lower but you can actually finish sooner as you don't have to wait so long at the beginning.

With streaming, content can be played even while the data packets are still being sent over the network, so there is no need to wait until a complete file has been fully downloaded. Therefore a song or movie can begin to play after only a very short delay (a few seconds in most cases).
And unlike a download no file is ever stored on the device; instead it has "streamed" through in its entirety but can easily be viewed again by repeating the process. Usually the stream requires consistent throughput (i.e. a steady network without too many variations) to give a good user experience, although some mobile streaming systems such as Vidiator's Xenon Streamer maintain the streaming quality even in varying network conditions that are inherent in wireless networks.

Benefits of Streaming to the Consumers
The key benefits of streaming to the consumer are that it requires no storage on the mobile and allows access to a vast library of content with minimal delay to start playback.
Some streaming servers including Xenon support user-created playlists, to play songs in the desired order or in a randomized shuffle mode. A music streaming service can be considered a network-based MP3 player giving the consumer their own personalized listening service.
With all these advantages, one may wonder why downloading still dominates the mobile music services available today?»

Bank, Roland, Music strategies - To stream or to own? 3/07/08, Mobile Europe

Pandora grew out of the Music Genome Project. The idea with this project is that the system will monitor your likes and then create a custom station which will match those likes. In my testing it seems to work reasonable well. A nice thing about this website is that you can type in a music type as well as an artist and it will attempt to build a station to your likes. For example if you like Piano music, you can type in Piano and it will create a station of piano music. In some competing sites you would have to select a piano music composer in order to get the same result.

«Free legal streaming music is a great thing to enjoy when you are searching for a particular song, working, or just plain relaxing. Listed below are some of the more interesting live streaming music sites that are definitely worth checking out. Some of the sites below operate as live streaming radio stations, and some allow you to program your own virtual station, or even to search for a specific song or artist. Check out all of them, since they are all free!

É que o elemento sonoro, o áudio, não tem competências suficientes para ser – por si só – um conteúdo primário. E a música, elemento-chave, é quase sempre sinónimo de companhia, de acumulação.

»Por trás das técnicas agem e reagem as ideias, os projectos sociais, as utopias, os interesses económicas o leque inteiro dos Iogas do homem em sociedade» (Levy, 2000: 24)

A oferta divide-se em duas grandes categorias:

1) streaming (ouvir sem possuir)

2) download (ouvir, comprando)

Podemos dividir a oferta de streaming entre os serviços que

1.1) não permitem construir playlists (a música não pode ser 'guardada' para voltar a ouvir)

1.2) permitem construir playlists (a música playlist pode ser ouvida especificamente)

Podemos a seguir dividir os serviços de download em:

2.1 download com publicidade

2.2 download com subscrição (global ou música a música)

«O desenvolvimento da tecnologia nas últimas décadas tem seguido em paralelo a instalação de um novo quadro estratégico. Hoje em dia, existem mais produtos nas lojas e nos armazéns de todo o mundo do que aqueles que alguma vez serão vendidos. Desde os anos 70/80 que a oferta de produtos e serviços ultrapassa estruturalmente a sua procura. Este status quo tem vindo a determinar uma mudança de poder nos mercados, das empresas para os clientes. É por causa desta mudança de fundo que na competição empresarial as preocupaçàes da gestão evoluíram das indústrias para os segmentos, dos segmentos para os nichos, e dos nichos para a singularização. Porque o cliente pode escolher entre o mar de produtos e de serviços à sua disposição, as empresas centram-se cada vez mais na singularização.» (Ilharco, 33) 

«A su autonomía personal en la gestión, se suma la flexibilidad de una tecnología uItraligera que no conoce otros límites que la imaginación de sus creadores. Los usuarios crean sus propias radios, se emancipan de las emisoras convencionales y establecen nuevas formas de relación mediática entre ellos. Las radios semánticas ofrecen al usuario la creación de un perfil tipo de temas y grupos afines a sus gustos musicales. Desde el año 2000 existen servicios para escuchar música en streaming de acceso libre y también modalidades de pago, con acceso a toda la fonoteca de la empresa» (Toral e Murelaga, 2007: 63) 

«Es cierto que todavía es una experiencia marginal en comparación con las audiencias que mueve la radio convencional. Es también una práctica muy reducida en comparación con el intercambio de archivos musicales, pero este paisaje sonoro emergente no se limita a la escucha. Los usuarios no necesitan de las emisoras de radio para crear y compartir sus propios relatos y programaciones, descubriendo una nueva galaxia sonora cuyos primeros hallazgos escapan a todos los dictados y previsiones que las cadenas de radio establecidas y los expertos habían prefabricado» (Toral e Murelaga, 2007: 64)

«Una nueva generación de radios individuales de masas - individuales por su producción - y de masas por su distribución potencial (Castells: 2006), exploran el futuro de esta radio interactiva, al tiempo que se produce una migración de las grandes estructuras radiofónicas hacia nuevos grupos y conceptos de radio muItimedia. Este proceso puede provocar la obsolescencia de las estructuras más pesadas de la radio establecida, así como de sus modos de producción, consumo y distribución, en favor de una miríada de nuevas radios  personales que nacen y desaparecen como estrellas fugaces, al albur de los deseos de sus propios creadores» (TOral e Murelaga, 2007: 63)

«se ha abierto un horizonte impredecible de usuarios y emisoras personales que se autoorganizan de forma horizontal. Son proyectos radiofónÍcos que se han emancipado de la radio establecida para crecer en forma reticular y multiplicarse de forma sorprendente a la vez que caótica. (...) han convertido la red en un tubo de ensayo donde ahora mismo se está produciendo una auténtica ) una auténtica eclosión radiofónica que puede cambiar el panorama de este medio y también su desarrollo futuro.» (Toral e Murelaga, 2007: 63) 

«Los grupos de comunicación maduran con lentitud el desarrollo interactivo de sus emisoras de radio en Internet, y ponen a punto nuevas líneas de producción para sus factorías radiofónicas que abandonan la exclusividad sonora. Mientras esto sucede en los grandes portales de la comunicación de Internet, en los márgenes de la red emerge una nueva constelación de archivos sonoros y listas musicales personales que crecen y se transforman en programaciones embrionarias. Al ritmo de Internet, estos proyectos desarrolIan un crecimiento orgánico que les permite adquirir una resonancia extraordinaria, creando nuevas redes emergentes de radio» (Toral e Murelaga, 2007: 62)

«MSN RADIO DROPS PANDORA AND SIMPLY SHUTS DOWN: Pandora and MSN Radio have ended their partnership, causing the latter service to shut down. MSN Radio had been powered by Pandora. Ending the partnership — which was enacted in November 2006 — was a “mutual” decision, reports Pandora founder Tim Westergren. He revealed that Pandora’s “limited resources” need to be consolidated in their flagship site, and that any partnerships “have to really be substantial…having been [on MSN Radio] for a while and been in front of their audience, it was no longer contributing that level.” For more on the story, read the Seattle Times’ coverage here. RAIN ANALYSIS: Radio has not been easy for MSN. MSN Radio has had a checkered history: In 2000, Microsoft acquired a company called MongoMusic in a $65 million stock deal to build stations called “Sounds Like” that matched artists or moods. In 2003, MSN experimented with a $29.99 subscription service called MSN Radio Plus. In 2004, they launched a set of 900 “Local Sounds” stations that tried to mimic local-market FM stations (more coverage here). One flaw in the “MSN Radio — Powered by Pandora” plan may have been the fact that if an MSN user sampled and liked the product, it was probably easier for them to go to Pandora.com directly, rather than to radio.msn.com, thereafter. — KH» (fonte: HANSON, Kurt, «RAIN 6/20: MSN Radio gives up; Edison on covering spot breaks» Jun 20, 2008)

«Problem : You purchased the new digital Alanis Morrissette album at work, but now you want to listen to it on your home computer.  Now what? Solution : When you purchase MP3s from stores like AmazonMP3, Napster, Wal-Mart they’re instantly added to all your computers and your Music Locker  (with album artwork!) using LockerSync. It’s now easier than ever to automatically get all your purchases on all your computers! Step 1 : Download LockerSync on all your computers Step 2 : Buy MP3s from your fave MP3 store or download songs and watch them automatically go to all your computers»

«Warner Music Group and Last.fm are at loggerheads over attempts to renew a revenue-sharing deal that allows users to listen to full-length tracks for free on the music recommendation website. The company, which became the first major music label to arrange a deal with Last.fm in February 2007, pulled its full catalogue from the site on Friday but gave no official reason. Behind the scenes, Warner is thought to be frustrated with the deal, which offers a lower share of advertising revenue than comparable agreements with other music websites. Warner owns a stake in the social music service Imeem, as well as a new joint venture with MySpace and other major music labels that is due to launch this summer. One source familiar with the situation told MediaGuardian.co.uk that music labels "do like Last.fm, but want to get paid". They are said to be frustrated that Last.fm has not introduced a proposed premium subscription service, which would allow users to stream unlimited songs for about £5 per month. Last.fm's current streaming service lets users listen to songs up to three times.  "Even if Warner manages to negotiate a better deal, that would mean the other labels want the same, so Last.fm is in a bit of a bind," said Dan Cryan, a music analyst with Screen Digest. "They either need to pay more to the labels, or demonstrate that they add value, either showing that they help increase sales or have a genuine promotional role. But there are a clutch of similar sites that could do this and pay more to the labels."»

fonte: «Warner Music Group and Last.fm at loggerheads over deal» Jemima Kiss guardian.co.uk, June 12 2008

«Today’s relaunch of AOL Radio (in beta) embraces that aspect of radio in many ways. First and foremost is its partnership with CBS Radio, which is replacing XM Satellite as the provider of music for 150 radio stations on AOL Radio (AOL itself continues to program another 200). Along with providing much of the music people can listen to for free, (...) CBS Radio’s ability to sell local ads was major reason why it won the partnership deal, especially with online music royalties increasing sharply. Lisa Namerow, the general manager of AOL Radio, tells me:

The royalties have gone up significantly. We had to reevaluate our business. We needed to partner in order to monetize radio better. We have grown advertising year-t0-year 100 percent, but with the increasing cost of royalties, we need to do a better job by leveraging local markets and advertisers. CBS has a string foothold in that local sales market, with over 140 sales teams.

That statement is an eye-opener for any music service hoping to make money from advertising. If AOL Radio, with three million unique listeners per month (according to Namerow), is having a hard time, how are smaller ad-supported music startups supposed to survive? And affiliate links are not going to cut it. Every song on AOL Radio has a link to iTunes or Amazon, yet Namerow cautions that “those commerce links are a very minor revenue source.”

(...) Two more suggestions: 1) Make personal music recommendations based on my listening habits; 2) Integrate with CBS-owned Last.fm for more music choices and social recommendations», AOL Radio Relaunches, Now Powered By CBS: Going After Local Ads Erick Schonfeld 10/06/08 tecrunch.com

«“Kids now only listen to music, they don’t download it’, Leonhard said. “Access has become an important factor. People want to listen to music on their mobile. Developments like Wifi, 4G, iPhone’s, fancy Nokia’s turn streaming music into the new radio”. This shift requires new business models, as even fewer people than now will want to pay for music. “The new business model is selling stuff around music. Tickets, merchandising, posters, books, things like that.”» fonte: Ernst-Jan Pfauth Leonhard: “Streaming music is the new radio”, The Nextweb.com 7/06/08

«Streaming music is a popular alternative to the pay-per-download and subscription services.  Streaming music allows site users to listen to music for free without actually owning the source of the song, like listening to a radio station.  There are quite a few websites where visitors can stream music for free.  Radio stations all over the US stream their broadcasts online.  Other sites like Pandora, for example, provide visitors with radio stations customized with music by artists they like as well as music that has a related sound.  If a song plays that a listener doesn’t like, then you can give it a thumbs down and you won’t have to hear that song, or any other like it, again.  Also, you can create as many stations as you want—all for free, with no advertisements! The Evolution of Digital Music On Demand   Mary Sekerak  28/04/08

«O propósito do MusOpen é tornar pública toda a música que já não esteja abrangida pela protecção de direitos de autor. E o serviço online adicionou recentemente novos títulos ao seu repertório: as 32 sonatas para piano compostas por Beethoven disponíveis para download gratuito e ilimitado.

Muitas das partituras escritas pelos grandes compositores da história da música fazem parte do domínio público desde há muito - os direitos expiram ao fim de 70 anos depois da morte do respectivo autor. Mas esta condição não torna acessíveis as obras gravadas para serem utilizadas em remisturas ou bandas sonoras. Às edições discográficas estão associados direitos conexos, que recaem sobre os intérpretes que executam as obras. E na Europa, a sua duração é de 50 anos desde a edição comercial. Tais direitos impedem a utilização livre dos registos.

O MusOpen propõe a regravação destas obras por músicos profissionais. Para tal, convoca os seus utilizadores para o apoio nos custos que suportam tal processo. As doações feitas online servem para pagar as gravações, que posteriormente são colocadas no site à disposição de qualquer pessoa. Por exemplo, para gravar as 32 sonatas de Beethoven foram recolhidos dois mil dólares em doações. De acordo com o próprio MusOpen, são necessários cerca de cinco dólares por pessoa para que uma gravação deste género seja concretizável (menos de cinco euros)» (ou seja, à margem das editoras, um modelo de viabilização alternativo ao dos sites de pop/rock)

Outras opções, aqui sistematizadas por Paulo Querido.

Quase todas as semanas, em 2008, aparece mais um site que oferece música atraves da internet (streaming ou donwloading) e que se afirma 100% legal. Somando todos os que existem, em versões desenvolvidas ou apenas «beta», serão nesta altura perto de 100. Ou estarão a chegar a esse número. A centena, neste contexto, nada tem de especial (não é uma meta). É importante, contudo, perceber que quantos mais existirem mais esta 'industria' se desenvolverá e se afirmará. Mais gente os utilizará, mais eles ganham dimensão. E, perante a concorrência, mais se desenvolverão, mais afirmarão capacidades de fazer a diferença. Todos têm música. O que irá variar ´não é portanto esse conteúdo (eles têm «toda» a música) mas a relação que estabelecerem com os utilizadores (porque disso depende a sua viabilidade). Ora para construirem uma relação com os utilizadores parece certo que o caminho será o de dar-lhes mais poder. Um exemplo final: o Pandora foi durante alguns anos «the best killer application» (para usar o jargão informático) mas perdeu fulgor a partir de 2007/2008, com o aparecimento de programas concorrentes que oferecem muito mais oferta, mas sobretudo mais personalização e poder de controlo ao utilizador.

«Qbox Corporation today announced the official beta launch of its streaming social network music service, available from Qbox.com. By indexing the entire music inventories of top social media sites, Qbox makes it easy for users to search, organize, and listen to the entire catalog of free and legally available online music - all through a single, easy-to-use point of access.

With tens of millions of unique visitors each month, social networking and media sites have become a leading destination for music search and discovery, allowing artists and fans to interact directly. But such services tend to search only their own sites, are largely browser-dependent, and offer limited listening and bookmarking options.

Qbox is an integrated hybrid desktop/web application, designed for user freedom and access to content from multiple social networks.»

«Major labels are continuing to invest in emerging digital companies, part of a broader diversification strategy.  Over the weekend, sources pointed Digital Music News to a Universal Music Group stake in Uber (uber.com), a startup that allows users to instantly create multimedia websites and blogs. (...) But Universal Music Group is not the only major investing in startups.  Just recently, Warner Music Group invested $20 million in Lala (lala.com), a company that offers ubiquitous access to music collections and is launching a novel, per-stream purchasing proposition» fonte: «Universal Music Keeps Investing; Uber Stake Surfaces», Digital Music News, 4/06/08

EMI Starts Supporting Ad-Supported; Qtrax + Spiralfrog: «The experiment that is ad-supported music received a powerful nod this week from EMI Music.  On Tuesday morning, the company licensed its catalog to Spiralfrog, and later in the day, the company announced an agreement with Qtrax.  (...) The Qtrax license covers both streams and downloads.  The DRM-protected downloads can be ported onto three compatible players, though users must visit the Qtrax destination at least once every 60 days to keep the songs alive.
Both Qtrax and Spiralfrog have been trudging through difficult and expensive licensing processes, perhaps a strong advertisement against legitimate licensing paths.  In the case of Qtrax, a blowout launch in January simply blew up, thanks to missing major label licenses. Spiralfrog has also experienced its ups and downs, though both are pushing forward with their steadily-expanding catalogs.  On Tuesday, Spiralfrog pointed to a monthly unique user base of five million, quoting data from Nielsen//NetRatings. fonte: EMI Starts Supporting Ad-Supported; Qtrax + Spiralfrog, Digital Music News, 4/06/08

1. iMesh

2. Pandora

3. Last.fm

4. IMEEM

5. Songza

6. thesixtyone

7. Grooveshark

8. SpiralFrog

9. Mp3eq

10. Ruckus

11. Jamendo

12. Live Music Archive

13. Songerize

14. Free Music Zilla

15. DEEZER

16. SeeqPod

17. MOG

18. MACIDOL

19. Slacker

20. Jango

21. OurStage

22. Allmusic

23. Sideload

24. MyBloop

25. Mininova

26. Unsigned Band Web

27. Soundflavor

28. Live365

29. iLike

30. Dizzler

31. finetune

32. Digitally Imported

33. Tagoo

34. purevolume

35. The Hype Machine

36. GarageBand

37. musicovery

38. MP34U

39. Fairtilizer

40. Music

41. Jamwave

42. Opsound

43. Artist Direct

44. MySongCast

45. Magnatune

46. liveplasma

47. Project Playlist

48. itBreaks

49. Newgrounds

50. Anywhere.FM

51. WeenRadio

52. Mashuptown

53. thetastates

54. SkreemR

55. GO Video [Codes]

56. Blastro

57. SpinJay

58. Yallwire

59. Roxwel

60. Muxtape

61. (em italico os que conheço; esta lista de 60 não inclui todos os sites que existem: não está aqui o we7, o Accutunes ou o Launchcast; quanto mais sites destes, mais dimensão critica, e mais opção se tornarão) fonte

A LAst.fm é provavelmente a melhor colocada para ocupar na musica o espaço que a Google ocupa relativamente aos motores de busca, o YouTube no video, a amazon e a ebay nas compras ou a wikipedia no conhecimento. Mas não há um lider claro. A Last.fm vai à frente.

38 free/cheap music sites — Welcome to the fray, Qbox!

- «No single strategy for listening to music online has come to dominate the market, as record labels, managers, artists, fans, Apple’s music offering, Internet radio and recommendation companies all jockey for position. But one thing is clear above all the din: Fans will not be denied their music — and most want it free.

- We tell you what the service does, what its business model looks like, and whether it lets users stream or download, among other things. The most useful categories may be 1) what we’ve termed “musicability,” or how easy can you find the song you want (this may be the best way to pick a potential favorite), and 2) “genre,” or how easy it is to search through a particular genre of music. Both are rated on a scale of 5.

-despite copyright restrictions, many of the sites manage to share music legally; others are dubious but are surviving anyway. We’ve most definitely missed several — we haven’t included most torrent or peer-to-peer (P2P) companies because there are simply too many of them and the majority operate illegally.

NOTAS essenciais:

- duas formas de difusão: streaming ou downloading (alguns tambem em telemoveis, iPhone

- Modelo de negócio: publicidade (audio ou banners), versões premium e vendas associadas (amazon, por exemplo

- A legalidade de alguns espaços é discutivel

A grande diversidade é na classificação destes sites: tanto são music search engines (ou search and discovery music engine ou jukebox/music search engine), como «music storage space», social music downloading, social music service, social music site, social network media site (ou social network service), music store, social media radio site, social music locker, social music blogging, online music locker, music storage locker, music radio, online music service

«Grooveshark was founded in 2006 by three University of Florida students determined to accomplish what the music industry couldn't - make purchasing music online easy, enjoyable and worthwhile. Grooveshark is the ability to find and listen to any song, share and receive personalized recommendations and purchase music at a fair price with the knowledge that the copyright holder will be paid. Today, Grooveshark has grown to a team of 40 passionate employees dedicated to creating the best online music experience possible - a goal that doesn't end, but instead will allow us to grow and evolve with our users.»

«

In 2008, this is all going to change.  We are now starting to see the next generation of music apps hit the web that no longer are beholden to the rules of Internet radio. These  music apps allow you to play any song you want, at anytime for free. Some notable next generation music apps that offer play on demand are Finetune, Jango, The Hype Machine, Grooveshark, and  seeqpod.  Spotify (in private beta) is extremely nice.  Over the next 6 months, we will see even more music apps released that let you listen to any song you want.

In the book ‘The future of music', authors Kusek and Leonhard write about a future where music 'flows like water'.  Where all songs are playable, on demand, anytime.  This is the Celestial Jukebox - the great jukebox in the sky that is ready to play any song you want.  2008 will be the year of the Celestial Jukebox - at least if you are sitting at your computer, You will be able to listen to virtually any song that you want, on demand.  The only time you will need to pay for music is if you want to listen to it on your iPod or your living room stereo.  And of course, in the not too distant future,  all of our devices will be connected to the net - when this happens, the Celestial Jukebox will really exist.  We will be able to listen to any song, at any time, at any place, on any device. » (ALBINIAK, Matt, The Celestial Jukebox is here May 24, 2008)

«Right now I'm playing with MeeMix Internet Radio. Meemix is a browser-based player which offers both an audio and video mode. MeeMix thinks of itself as an Internet community which offers members the ability to create and listen to personalized radio stations. MeeMix uses a "taste prediction algorithm" which tries and figure out what you will want to hear - not unlike what Internet stations like Pandora or Last.fm pioneered. I started by typing in "Abba" (It's just my default music search term) upon which MeeMix began playing "Take a Chance on Me" - a big 1978 hit for the band. MeeMix then decided I should hear Donna Summer's "Bad Girls" followed by a 1979 disco hit by Cameo. (...) MeeMix has a "Mood Control" with three controls: Surprize Me, Pulse, and Volume. (...). I definitely was surprised. MeeMix has a Not or Hot slider control which let's you tell it whether or not you like what it's picking for you to hear. MeeMix provides a lot of other controls to promote interaction, too: a favorites tool, another to block cuts, the ability to buy the CD you're listening to, recommendation tools, and more. MeeMix is fun to play with and free to use. First time visitors can try it out before registering and create up to 3 radio stations that allow you to listen to 5 songs on each one.»

Corey Deitz, Make Your Own Radio Stations with MeeMix Internet Radio 12/05/08 

«These social streaming communities have risen rapidly in popularity. iMeem recently overtook Yahoo! Music as the most popular streaming site on the web.

*The Hypem1500 presents aggregate traffic to the more than 1500 music blogs tracked by the Hype Machine, a popular blog aggregator. The Hype Machine itself is ranked separately from its network at #16.

fonte: Music Industry Downfall, Part II: The Rise of Social Streaming by Alex Patriquin Compete.com May 12th, 2008

«(...) many consumers don’t pay for music at any price. The chart below, based on Compete’s data on more than 1,000 music sites, shows how the most popular options for listening to music online are free.

Despite lawsuits against illegal download sites, the fastest growing category in online music last year was P2P downloads, which shot up 140%. Nearly ten years after Napster raged through college networks, online music piracy continues to grow.»

fonte: Music Industry Downfall, Part II: The Rise of Social Streaming by Alex Patriquin Compete.com May 12th, 2008

«Imeem is now becoming a serious contender in the streaming music space, at least according to data points surfacing Tuesday.  In a ranking of streaming music destinations compiled by Boston-based Compete, Imeem topped heavy-hitters Yahoo, AOL, MySpace, and Last.FM.  "As the music industry seeks to reassemble in the wake of digital distribution, it should recognize social streaming communities as the fastest growing opportunity in its evolution," explained Compete analyst Alex Patriquin. 
During the month of March, Imeem grabbed a unique visitor tally of 10.3 million, a bump of 58 percent from last year.  Yahoo Music (music.yahoo.com) was not far behind at 9.7 million, though AOL Music, MySpace Music and others trailed considerably. Specifically, AOL Music (music.aol.com) pulled 4.6 million uniques, down 30 percent, while MySpace Music (music.myspace.com) earned 4.5 million, down 3 percent.  That was followed by Project Playlist (playlist.com), MSN Music (music.msn.com), Pandora, iLike, Last.FM, Live365, and others.  Compete aggregated its data based on ISP, toolbar, and survey information»
Alex Patriquin, "Music Industry Downfall, Part II: The Rise of Social Streaming"

«Some of the biggest music labels could soon allow free legal downloads, after an ambitious ad-funded file-sharing service, Qtrax, signed a deal with Universal, the world's largest record label and home to U2, Kanye West and Mariah Carey. (...) When it emerged that several deals were not yet fully in place or had lapsed, analysts expected the service to disappear in the ensuing backlash. But it has since signed deals with Beggars, the UK's largest independent label, home to Dizzee Rascal and the White Stripes, and the publishing arms of EMI and Sony/ATV.The contract with Universal is the first with a major label to cover both publishing and recording rights, meaning that it should be able to offer music by its artists within the next month or so. The Universal deal is initially understood to cover only the US. Qtrax is just one of several sites trying to make money from the concept of free, ad-funded downloads and streaming. Earlier this year We7, backed by Peter Gabriel, began offering downloads with embedded audio adverts and signed a deal with Sony BMG to offer its catalogue on a streaming basis. Other sites such as Imeem and Last.fm have also signed deals with leading labels to offer streaming services that act as vast, ad-supported online jukeboxes. Adverts are displayed during the search and downloading processes. Spiralfrog, a New York-based site that has been striving for two years to establish a user base in the US and Canada, also has a deal with Universal. Qtrax has promised that tracks downloaded through its browser can be kept by users for ever as long as they regularly log in to renew the rights management software. It will also enable iPod users to transfer the tracks to their audio players, which could hit sales of downloads through Apple's iTunes Music Store. In addition to sites offering ad-funded music, labels are also exploring new licensing models for subscription-based or bundled offerings such as Nokia's Comes With Music and MusicStation and beginning tentative discussions with internet service providers about packaging music downloads into monthly broadband subscriptions» (fonte: Universal to allow free music downloads, Owen Gibson, The Guardian, Thursday May 8 2008»)

«Welcome to MOG, your personalized gateway for music discovery. With MOG, you can find, share, and talk about the music you’re into, from Abba to Zappa. Whether you’re a die-hard music junkie, or just looking for inspiration for your latest party playlist, MOG is your essential online music source. Created by a passionate community of music lovers and powered by cutting edge music discovery technology, MOG makes it ridiculously easy to find new music, watch music videos, and read news and reviews that match your personal taste in music. (...)Completely free, anyone can create a MOG page and browse posts, MP3s and videos by visiting www.mog.com.  One of the first online communities built exclusively for music lovers, MOG was founded in June 2005 by CEO David Hyman. David is a veteran entrepreneur, digital music pioneer, and self-proclaimed music freak, who has held key executive positions at Gracenote, MTV, and Addicted to Noise. MOG has been funded to date by Angel investors and is headquartered in Berkeley, CA»

http://mog.com/about

«"We want to be the greatest radio all around the world, broadcast or online," he said. "We think eventually that Clear Channel's ownership is going to be ours. We believe we can be there."

«The Daily: Do you worry that the end of traditional radio could also bring the end of the radio DJ personality?

TW: Yeah, but I would like to find a way to bring them into Pandora, frankly. I think those people are really important as well, and we're certainly not helping their cause.

The Daily: Does every single artist featured on Pandora get paid when their song pops up on someone's station?

TW: Yes, it's a percent of the revenue. We pay a fraction of a penny per song for publishing and performance, to the songwriters and the performers. And once our revenue grows enough, we will be paying artists whichever is higher - a certain minimum or a percent of the revenue.

The Daily: Right now Pandora is illegal to use outside of the U.S. What stands in the way of Pandora being legal everywhere?

TW: Licensing, licensing. We operate in the U.S. under a statutory law, and that is not available in any other country. So no other country has actually put that one-stop licensing in place. So as soon as they do that, we are going to be able to jump right in, hopefully this year.»

«There's no mistaking who benefited from a federal-court decision to set licensing fees that three top Web services must pay songwriters and publishers for the right to stream their music. But the question left unanswered is whether the losers also include consumers. AOL, RealNetworks, and Yahoo may end up paying the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) $100 million as a result of a decision by a U.S. district judge to set the licensing fee for streaming music at 2.5 percent of adjusted music-use revenue. "(The court's decision) is a victory for songwriters, composers, and publishers, and something they have been looking forward to for a long period," said John LoFrumento, ASCAP's chief executive. "In the past, we've settled with (Internet companies) at low rates. We wanted to encourage the growth of these businesses, but these businesses have matured...they have been using our members' music to attract people to their Web sites...it's time to compensate (our members)." »

«I’m not a typical listener: nor a typical music fan. Listen to my music choice (that’s my music collection in one big playlist), while looking at my most-played tracks of the last 3 months, and you’ll see that my most played track in that three months is The Divine Comedy’s “Absent Friends”, which I’ve played just four times. A typical commercial radio station will play their top tracks eight times a day - once every three hours. Assuming I listen to music for a total of two hours a day (in commutes and desk-bound working), commercial radio would have had me listen to that track 60 times in three months.Indeed, over the last week, my 210 different artists, and a total of 323 tracks means that, in just 18 hours, I’ve listened to more tracks than many commercial radio stations play per week. I’m singling out commercial radio here, by the way, not because of a misplaced loyalty to my employer, but that commercial radio’s music choice is, by and large, far more tightly musically formatted - and that, for whatever reason, only commercial radio runs nonstop music services.»

is all about music, James Cridland, 4/05/08)

«For those with even more free time between now and May 8, pandora.com is running two VW radio stations called, not surprisingly: ‘Music for the People.’ Listeners can vote for which artists they want to hear and Pandora will collate all requests into a democratic playlist. Selling cars used to be so much simpler.» fonte: VW polls the people 28/04/08 LA TIMes

«CONSUMERS WANT MUSIC, NOT SUBSCRIPTIONS: Music subscriptions services aren’t catching on with consumers, according to figures released by the RIAA. Subscriptions to services like Rhapsody and Napster grew from 1.7 million subscribers in 2006 to just 1.8 million in 2007 — an increase well under 1%. Revenues actually fell 2.6% over this same time span (from $206.2 million to $200.9 million). As Digital Music News reports, there are fewer companies competing in the space. Rhapsody has taken over MTV’s Urge, and RealNetworks (Rhapsody’s parent) is assuming control of Yahoo Music.» (fonte: CONSUMERS WANT MUSIC, NOT SUBSCRIPTIONS, Apr 29, 11:46 AM by: Paul Maloney»

«Major labels are now suing Project Playlist, a company that involves former MySpace executive Shawn Gold.  The suit, filed in Manhattan District Court, alleges "massive infringement" and involves majors Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, and EMI.  Project Playlist (at playlist.com) allows users to assemble and distribute personalized playlists using content hosted across the internet.
Project Playlist does not host the content within the playlists - instead, it cobbles together content from the vast storehouse of user-stored material.  That loosely resembles a model offered by Seeqpod, which allows users to search, stream and virtually assemble playlists using online-available content.  Seeqpod is currently being sued by Warner Music Group.  Project Playlist executives declined to comment on the suit.» Project Playlist Hauled Into Court; Majors Allege Massive Infringement  Digital Music News, 28/04/08

 «Project Playlist is free to users and shows advertising to pay the bills. It looks like other free streaming sites (like Last.fm, for instance) that offer similar functionality and ad-supported streaming, but in this case the labels don't see any cash. Project Playlist insists that it pays royalties to the three big US performing rights organizations, BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC. These groups represent songwriters and music publishers, but they don't cover the labels that own the copyrights in the actual sound recordings. While terrestrial radio in the US only has to pay songwriters in order to play music, other services like satellite radio and webcasters pay royalties to both groups.» (aqui)

[como reagir? como fazer melhor? como dar mais informação do que aquela que já é dada pelos canais de streaming?] «consumers, most of whom are accustomed to accessing information they want from the Internet, will expect much more from online radio stations than just audio music services.» (Evans/Smethers, 2001: 18)

O estudo RadioNext (abril 2008) mostra, para consumidores dos EUA, que «Services that allow users to customize their channels generate large, loyal audiences» (LAUNCHcast is way out front as #1service —while #3 Pandora converts most of its past year listeners (14%) to “favorites” (9%)» (slide 22); « Though streaming AM/FM signals helps to extend reach in the short run, the online audio programming that is most likely to succeed over the long term will not sound or work like AM or FM radio. As popular online services such as LAUNCHcast and Pandora demonstrate, the online audio consumer is looking for programming that realizes the possibilities offered by the Internet for personalized, customizable content.» (29) (RadioNext, 2008)

«These services are coming to mobile phones, probably in the next year we’ll all be listening to pandora or last.fm in the gym on our phone instead of our limited library on our iPod. That’s when this new form of listening is going to explode. And that’s when Apple is going to wish it had thought more about streaming and less about file based music. But you can’t feel too badly about Apple because a good number of people will be listening to pandora or last.fm on their iPhones."»

«Social networking giant MySpace has made agreements with three of the four major label groups -- Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and Sony BMG -- to form MySpace Music, spinning off the existing MySpace Music site into a separate joint venture. The service will offer free, ad-supported audio and video streaming, sales of digital-rights-management-free downloads, and a Jamba-powered storefront for mobile music. (...) "Today represents the beginning of a new chapter in the story of modern music," said MySpace co-founder and CEO Chris DeWolfe. "We're proud to announce the marriage of the world's biggest collection of music content to the world's most popular music community. Millions of diehard music fans and artists already call MySpace Music home. By partnering with these industry leaders, our vision for MySpace Music as the definitive platform for unlimited artistic expression and unrestricted user experience is finally being realized."MySpace, Labels To Launch New Music Service, radio ink, 3/04/08

«MySpace is slow, burdensome and full of advertising -- the wrong environment for the demanding and tech savvy next generation. (...)4. The labels and MySpace (owned by Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp) will split revenue from downloads, merchandise, concert tickets, advertising, etc. Such a deal -- for them. Nothing special for the consumer but pennies off an iTunes download and millions of songs they can listen to (but not own for free) on their computers. Sounds like the record industry version of win-win to me.»

«-- downloads will be DRM-free; video and audio streaming will be ad-supported

-- e-commerce will include merchandise and ticketing

-- the mobile storefront will be powered by News Corp-Verisign JV Jamba, think ringtones,. 

-- Roll out will take place over months

-- As expected, Sony (NYSE: SNE) BMG, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) are on board.»

«Only problem is, the MySpace generation also intersects with another club -- the iPod generation -- and going against Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) won't be a simple task for Rupert Murdoch and his social-networking empire. (...) Taking the crown from Apple isn't feasible, but I'll assume News Corp. isn't really gunning for Apple so much as it is attempting to ensure that MySpace remains a major player in social networking» MySpace wants to tune in to music profits Posted Apr 4th 2008

«the large record companies are also seeking to turn the Internet to their advantage by exploring links with new companies that are trying to exploit a niche in the on-line market. These are subscription-based companies, and include firms such as Listen.com, Fullaudio, OD2, DX3 and Rhapsody. Their business models vary: some permit downloading and burning, while some are merely streaming or jukebox type services. All these companies are reliant upon signing licensing deals with the major companies to ensure that they have content to offer in exchange for their monthly subscription fee. Global Records has signed numerous deals with such subscription companies, and is adopting a wait-and-see strategy to determine which business model proves most effective» (Leishon, 2005: 191)

 In August 2003, Listen.com became a subsidiary of RealNetworks, Inc., the global leader in digital media services and software for consumers and businesses

A proposito da compra pela CBS da Last.FM, uma pergunta feita por Marc Fisher no WP:

«Last.fm's great promise may lie down a path the company is not yet traveling. Will CBS use its $280 million acquisition to change some of its 140-plus AM and FM radio stations, putting listeners in charge of what music gets played?»

Ou seja, até que ponto a industria classica, passiva e secundária, estará interessada em interagir , em receber os ensinamentos, as experiencias da LastFm, que resultam directamente as experiencias dos utilizadores; o que é a LastFm depende em muito daquilo que os seus milhões de utilizadores fizeram, escolheram; a compra da Last Fm foi a primeira experiencia da industria junto dos novos operadores de streaming - simbolicamente é tambem muito importante.

1) USA Today called representatives of the four major labels, who declared Amazon to be only behind iTunes in sales.

2) USA Today believed that our subscription model was not relevant to the story they wanted to tell.

I’d like to address both of these points. First, allow me to point out that no sales or market share figures were cited in the USA Today piece. In fact, the article states that Amazon “won’t say how many songs Amazon has sold but will say that consumers love the experience.” Is that enough for USA Today to make such a bold pronouncement, particularly when there is plenty of widely available evidence to the contrary? While Amazon isn’t willing to make sales data available, we are more than happy to: eMusic sells more than 7,000,000 songs a month. Seven million tracks of independent music covering everything from Cat Power to Miles Davis. Since Amazon opened its MP3 store on September 25, 2007, eMusic has sold 40,000,000 tracks. Since November of 2003, we have sold almost 200,000,000 songs. These are huge numbers, and firmly back our claims to be the #1 site for independent music and the #2 digital music service after iTunes. Those declarations have not previously been disputed.»

The subscription vs. purchased music debate presents a false choice -- a black and white view of a world without accounting for all the mess in between. While it's true that most music consumers do just fine purchasing music a la carte through services like iTunes, Destra or eMusic, the idea of a coexisting "celestial jukebox" isn't any less potent. It's like saying the iPod and FM radio can't coexist. The concept of DRM protection for purchased music is clearly dumb (and still practiced by iTunes, by the way), but the real reason iTunes will be the last service to adopt a subscription music model is because it doesn't have to. Apple's existing music retail store is already enjoying a charmed existence without a subscription music option rocking the boat. Why the hell would Apple open up an all-you-can-eat buffet in a restaurant already raking it in on overpriced entrees?» The future of subscription music By Donald Bell on 25 March 2008

«I'm coming around to the notion that an iTunes subscription model, alongside Apple's existing system, could work quite well, especially if it's sold in conjunction with a network-ready piece of hardware. Lesser players in the digital music business such as RealNetworks (RNWK), Napster (NAPS), and Microsoft's (MSFT) Zune marketplace have embraced subscriptions. I used Rhapsody for the better part of a year and was for the most part pleased with it. For $12.99 a month, I could play music on my Mac or PC without paying for an album I ended up not liking. I could take music I was curious about for an extended test-drive. If I liked it, I'd go over to iTunes, buy it, and keep it forever. Rather than trying to compete directly with Apple, Rhapsody has gone a different route, getting itself embedded into standalone audio hardware—notably the Sonos Sound System, TiVo (TIVO) boxes, and some high-end audio gear from Denon. It is in conjunction with audio hardware that I think the subscription model makes a lot of sense. The idea is that the user buys a piece of equipment with a ready connection to an online music store and then pays a monthly subscription fee for unlimited access to many or all of the songs. Apple wouldn't be the first to try to make this work, but it could possibly do it better.» (How iTunes Subscriptions Could Succeed by Arik Hesseldahl Business Week, 28/03/08

«So who's right?  "From our perspective, money is what counts," said Mark Kirstein, a former analyst at In-Stat and iSuppli, and currently head of MultiMedia Intelligence.  Kirstein compiled a ranking based on  annual revenues, and found both Amazon and Spiralfrog in the basement.  "Amazon may be coming up now, but they certainly weren't in the running in 2007," Kirstein told Digital Music News.  "And Spiralfrog's claimed registered user base of roughly 850,000 isn't substantially monetized." But who are the top players?  Kirstein estimated annual music revenues of $1.8 billion at iTunes, $125 million at Napster, and $42 million at eMusic.  Others, including Rhapsody, Zune Marketplace,  and Musicload are all "sub-$40 million" according to the data.»

For artists and labels, building word of mouth about an album or tour is paramount. And they're tapping into the growing music-based social networking scene to spread the word. Magazine covers and TV and radio interviews don't carry the weight of the Web, and as features evolve, R.E.M.'s website and MySpace page were not enough, Downs says. Since its beginnings in summer 2006 as a social network for finding and recommending music, iLike.com has grown to 23 million members, says CEO Ali Partovi. As the community grew, iLike added features for artists to post videos and news; meanwhile, Partovi began approaching artists and labels about providing content to iLike.

One mid-November discussion Partovi had with Bono turned into a video interview in which the U2 frontman sang a just-finished song, Wave of Sorrow. Once posted, it was viewed and forwarded by more than 1 million within a week. Then Keith Urban signed on to post weekly videos and to offer tour ticket presales and fan events.

"The Internet basically empowers consumers to get exactly what they want and artists to put out exactly what they want," Partovi says.»

fonte: «Music scene finds latest hot spots on social sites», Mike Snider, USA TODAY, 24/03/08

«Other sites are always fighting for this lucrative market, each offering similar but slightly different services. There are many that work on a monthly-fee basis rather than billing by track. And a new and slightly different concept is mercora (www.mercora.com). Here you pay a small monthly fee and share tracks - you broadcast your tracks (you can make like a DJ if you want) whilst you record the tracks broadcast by others. Mercora pays a fee for broadcast rights which makes it within the law.» 

«How do I add music to Social·fm Desktop? Please select File > Add Music Files; or Please select File > Add Music Folder. You may add individual music files or folders. Simply browse your PC for the desired music file or folder, then double-click to add to Social·fm Desktop. To view all music files in Social·fm Desktop, select 'My Library' on the left-hand column of Social·fm Desktop.»

«Social·fm complies fully with non-interactive webcasting license restrictions as per the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). If you'd like more information, our legal policy is located here: Social·fm has a statutory license from SoundExchange® (the independent non-profit organization that represents over 500 music labels) for the non-interactive webcasting of digital audio as per the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), 17 U.S.C. ¤ 114 (requires Adobe Acrobat plug-in). Social·fm has musical composition performance rights through licenses with ASCAP, BMI and SESAC» (aqui)

«Last.fm's choices tend to be less logical and linear than Pandora's. There are more surprises, but I've consistently found that Last.fm provides less apt and effective suggestions. Last.fm's great promise may lie down a path the company is not yet traveling. Will CBS use its $280 million acquisition to change some of its 140-plus AM and FM radio stations, putting listeners in charge of what music gets played? Or is that really no answer to radio's woes? Does online crowd-sourcing really produce dramatically different playlists from the traditional market research that radio stations engage in and that listeners love to whine about?

fonte: Name That Tune-In: Who Will Emerge as The Future of Radio? Marc Fisher Washington Post Staff Writer March 23, 2008

«The search for a user-customized music "station" started in the early 1990s, when MIT's Media Lab created Ringo, a music recommendation engine that asked listeners to grade a few tunes and then offered them songs they might like. Now, CBS's Last.fm site has become the first of the new generation of music sources to offer free, on-demand, full-length spins of any tune you want to hear -- not just the 30-second snippets available on iTunes and most other music sites.»

fonte: Name That Tune-In: Who Will Emerge as The Future of Radio? Marc Fisher Washington Post Staff Writer March 23, 2008

«As the audience for AM and FM radio declines, start-up entrepreneurs and giant media companies alike search for the "next radio" -- a way to make money by helping listeners discover new music. Online music providers such as Pandora, Imeem and Last.fm provide an early glance at that next chapter in radio history. »

fonte: Name That Tune-In: Who Will Emerge as The Future of Radio? Marc Fisher Washington Post Staff Writer March 23, 2008

De acordo com o Digital Millenium Copyright Act, que define os royalties que os serviços musicais pagam aos artistas,as verbas em causa são mais pequenas se um serviço for considerado «web radio», em vez, por exemplo «on-demand»,o que faz com que muitos dos serviços streaming cumpram os critérios para serem considerados web radio.

Eis os varios tipos de serviços digitais previstos:

1. Unrestricted download (The basic and well-known delivery of an encoded, compressed copy of a sound recording,)  These are typically sold in pay-per-download stores that do not carry major-label music (such as EMusic or Audio Lunchbox). 

2. CD burn – this type of delivery enables the user to make a copy of a downloaded file to a recordable CD, enabling users to take the music anywhere (or even rip the music back off the CD into another portable format).  Rhapsody offers CD burning options as part of their service.  

3. Restricted download –; These downloads include DRM (Digital Rights Management) Technologies that place restrictions on copying the file. Apple iTunes, Napster, Real and most download stores with major label content put this DRM on their files.

4. Tethered download – A type of delivery similar to renting, with users having access to the file for a limited amount of time. The limits are enabled by various DRM technologies that track information such as where files are moved to and how many times they are used.  Services such as Napster and MusicNet offer this type of download. Microsoft is currently toying with this idea as well.

5. On-demand interactive streaming – streaming delivery of music over the network "on-demand," or when the user requests it. (...) the music begins playing immediately after the user clicks. On-demand streams are available from services such as Rhapsody, MusicMatch, and Napster.

6. Interactive radio – streaming delivery of music over the network like traditional radio, but allowing the user the ability to skip songs or rate tracks and artists to influence the experience. . Can be subscription or non-subscription offerings, and separate licenses that address the specific features and value provided by each product are required.

fonte: «3. Getting Paid For Your Music Online – Digital Music Rights»

On-Demand and Downloadable Music Services — By our count there are close to 150 music subscription and download services offering a wide range of digital delivery methods including on-demand streaming, CD burning, time and/or location limited (tethered) downloads, unrestricted downloads, and a variety of interactive radio options.

Interactive radio is generally a premium service that allows the listener to skip songs, rate songs to affect your playlist, build custom stations based on your artist preferences and otherwise influence the listening experience. MusicMatch, Yahoo! Launch, Rhapsody, and Napster all offer such services.

Non-interactive radio is most like the normal radio experience, just a constant stream of music that the user cannot influence, usually programmed to a specific style of your choosing. It may come with or without commercial advertising, often depending on a subscription. Most of the services mentioned above offer a non-interactive radio option, often for free, as do products such as Realplayer, Windows Media Player, Live365, and countless other independent and small webcasters. And, of course, many traditional radio stations broadcast across the Internet.

«O Napster criado em 1999 foi um serviço pioneiro de troca de arquivos que permitia aos usuários o download gratuito de músicas digitais, igual ao Kazaa ou Emule. A companhia foi processada pelas maiores gravadoras do mundo, incluindo Universal Music Group, Sony Music, BMG Entertainment, EMI Group e Warner Music. A Napster acabou sendo fechada por tribunais dos Estados Unidos em 2002 por causa de violações de direitos autorais. Os ativos da marca foram comprados pela Roxio em 2002 para criar a atual Napster Inc., um serviço legal de música online. Porém os usuários do Napster acabaram migrando para outros sites, comprovando que as grandes gravadoras além de não conseguirem deter a baixa gratuita de músicas pela internet, também perderam uma grande oportunidade de dar um salto no tempo aproveitando essa tecnologia para obter ganhos financeiros»

«Napster, the pioneer of digital music, offers the ultimate in interactive music experiences, creating better ways to discover, share, acquire and enjoy music – anytime, anywhere. The company's offerings include "Napster" (www.napster.com) – the most popular on demand music subscription service in the world; "Freenapster" (www.freenapster.com) – a unique Web experience offering free on demand music legally; and "Napster Mobile" – one of the industry's fastest growing mobile music platforms. Napster is headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in New York, Luxembourg, Frankfurt and Tokyo.» (oficial); Napster is currently available in the US, Canada, the UK, Germany and Japan.

British Internet startup Songkick launched Wednesday with a vow to inspire digital-age music lovers to reclaim the joy of hearing bands play hot in real-world venues. The London-based website debuts with a free online utility that matches people's tastes in music with the schedules of bands performing in the US or UK. (...) Songkick cofounder Ian Hogarth told AFP during an interview in San Francisco."The music industry isn't dying; it is just moving to live. People really value that real-world experience. We are focused on using the web to make people get off the web and in front of a band." Songkick's goal is to make it as simple to find live music as it is to find out which movies are playing at local theaters. (...)Songkick struck alliances with all major concert ticket vendors in the United States and United Kingdom, compiling a database of scheduled performances and getting fees for each customer sent their ways. Songkick uses "symantic web" software to scan the Internet for references to bands in blogs, social-networking pages and other online commentary. (...) For example, if a blogger likens the band Linkin Park to Limp Bizkit the software notes that for future recommendations to Songkick users that enjoy either of the groups.»

Songkick website guides music lovers to real-world concerts (AFP) SAN FRANCISCO (AFP)

«(...) there are some inherent disadvantages to these services. For starters, unless you want to take your whole computer with you, you can't take the services with you, because the playlists can't be offloaded to digital music players like iPods. “So in order for these websites to be considered web radio you can only skip a certain amount of songs, so if you don't like five songs in a row you can't just skip five songs,” said Monson. “Also, the playback order is going be randomized so you can order the songs in the order you want to play them back. You have to have at least 15 songs, so you can't just pick a playlist of five songs and play it over and over again.”

fonte: «Make your own online radio station By: Adam Balkin, NY1 18/03/08

In line with that thinking, the Playlist.com destination is peppered with iTunes buy links.  But the playlists themselves pull streaming content from all across the internet.  For example, one track within a playlist could be sourced from a music blog, another from a MySpace band profile page, and another from an artist website.  "Nothing is being hosted by us," Gold said, though he did point to ongoing label negotiations. Once a playlist is created, the distributed fun begins.  Playlists themselves are quickly turned into widgets, and can be embedded into networks like MySpace, Facebook, hi5, and Bebo.  But Gold is tying the concept more heavily into his old professional hangout, MySpace.  The networking heavyweight is actively building an integrated application component, and Playlist currently tops the list at apps.myspace.com, a beta testing ground.»

«(...) nightmare scenario painted by many Internet radio companies who have claimed that the royalty hike would kill online broadcasting in its cradle. In fact, Internet radio is far from dead. Online broadcasters like Pandora and Live365 still serve millions of listeners. But the higher rates have driven away many small online broadcasters who say they can't afford to stay in business. And even industry leader Pandora says it's in trouble. "We're at the very end of our tether," founder Tim Westergren said. "There's a very good chance that we will shut down."

Critics of the royalty system say the result is decreasing musical diversity on the Internet. They warn of an online music industry dominated by the same giant media companies that presently dominate traditional radio broadcasting. And they point to CBS Broadcasting Inc.'s recent takeover of the Internet radio operations of Time Warner Inc.'s AOL as a harbinger of an Internet radio market rendered bland and predictable.

"They'll push all of us out of business," said Johnie Floater, general manager of media for Live365. "Your Internet radio is going to sound like your AM and FM."

Thousands of Internet broadcasters, ranging from traditional radio stations to individuals who want to share their favorite tunes with the world, pay Live365 to stream their programs over the Internet. Live365 pays their music royalties out of the fees paid by its subscribers.»Internet radio firms say royalties limiting choices By Hiawatha Bray Globe Staff / March 14, 2008

«Projectplaylist.com is an information location tool similar to Google® and Yahoo!® but devoted entirely to the world of music. Our purpose is to help you find and enjoy music legally throughout the web in the same way that other search engines help you find webpages, images, and other media, but we also add a social /community twist»

«Our mission at Project Playlist, Inc. is to organize this rapidly growing abundance of legal music on the web for the benefit of the worldwide music community – artists, songwriters, music distributors, and listeners alike»

« we respect the rights of copyright holders and we insist that you do as well. We pay royalties to songwriters and music publishers, and we respect the performing artist’s choice»

«we do not host music files, nor do we make them available. We only enable users to find these files and listen to them»

«You can post your playlist on your social networking webpage or any other website, subject to the terms of use of those sites, or you can email your playlist to friends!»

Project Playlist, Inc. is a privately held company and is not currently seeking investors. If you are interested in the business of Project Playlist, Inc. or discussion of a strategic partnership or investment, then please contact:

KR Capital Partners, LLC
9300 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 200
Beverly Hills, CA 90212.

«Jeremy Riney - Friday, February 8, 2008 - 1:55pm: Just wanted to let everyone know that today is playlist.com's 2nd birthday! Also, we hit a awesome milestone today -- 20 million registered users!»

«Taking the nature side, Pandora's recommendations are based on the inherent qualities of the music. Give Pandora an artist or song, and it will find similar music in terms of melody, harmony, lyrics, orchestration, vocal character and so on. (...) On the nurture side (as in, it's all about the people around you), Last.fm is a social recommender. It knows little about songs' inherent qualities. It just assumes that if you and a group of other people enjoy many of the same artists, you will probably enjoy other artists popular with that group. Like Last.fm, most music-discovery systems have been social recommenders».

fonte: Steve KRAUSE, Pandora and Last.fm: Nature vs. Nurture in Music Recommenders, 30/01/06

Apenas musica em streaming: PANDORA ou JANGO

«Pandora and Jango, for example, are commercial-free sites that let users enter an artist's name or a song title into the search bar on the Web site. Then the site creates a "radio station" that plays similar types of music. So type Miles Davis into one of these sites, and you might hear selections from Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane. You can rate songs to fine-tune what type of music is played. Since these are free streaming sites, users can't look up a specific song title and play it. And while the songs can't be downloaded, both sites have links that will take you to Apple Inc.'s iTunes or Amazon.com Inc. to buy a particular title.»

MOTORES DE PESQUISA:  SEEQPOD, SONGZA, SKREEMR

«They look specifically for audio recordings on Web sites, including personal pages and blogs. Examples include SeeqPod, Songza and SkreemR, all of which are free.They're not the best way to discover new music, but they can help you find a song you haven't heard in a while or a title someone recommended to you. (...) The search engines seek out songs available in digital formats on Web sites. Not all the songs have the best sound quality - some are recordings taped by a concertgoer.»

PAGINAS DE REDES SOCIAIS: IMEEM, LASTFM, ILIKE, My STRANDS 

«A number of music sites are integrating social-networking functions into their sites to share music. Some of the biggest players are imeem, Last.fm, iLike and MyStrands. These sites feature libraries of music and videos that users can browse through and play. Some songs are available only in 30-second snippets, while others are full-length recordings.Like Facebook, the popular social-networking site, users at these music sites can set up profile pages, add a photo, tell a little bit about themselves and declare their musical tastes. They can also make "friends" with other site users.»

fonte: Internet making it easy for music fans to stay tuned in By Joseph De Avila , The Wall Street Journal Monday, March 10, 2008

«(...) the music industry is at a critical juncture: adapt or die. We7 is a music download website that hopes to set the tone for the music industry in the 21^st century. It thinks it has found a way to make music available for free and yet still generate revenue for record companies and artists. People want to be able to access and use music in an ever greater number of ways, while artists and record companies want to ensure that they get paid when people use their product. It is now accepted that DRM is too restrictive and impractical to manage, so a new way is needed. (...) We7 was founded less than a year ago, when [steve] Purdham was exploring an investment in music download company OD2. He found himself in a room with VC John Tatham (who’s idea We7 originally was) and musician Peter Gabriel, who had founded OD2 back in 1999. (...) The turning point was last Christmas, when the majors realised that DRM was dead,' said Purdham. ‘Most tracks aren’t DRM protected anyway, with CDs and BitTorrent-type downloads being the source of the majority of music.’ (...) So if you can’t make people pay for music, how do you make money out of it? 'It’s all about choice,' says Purdham. 'Our philosophy is: come to the site, listen to the track and then decide how you want to pay for it. 'We have an ad-funded alternative, which allows us to target advertising at our users, who have to register in order to access our services. This ability to target is very valuable to advertisers. We can also dynamically graft audio ads to the start of the music file, which stay with you when you download it.' Of course, HEXUS.channel wasn’t about to just take Purdham’s word for it so we created an account and downloaded BB King’s Woke Up This Morning. On playing the MP3, we had to sit through a ten second audio ad for Altec Lansing speakers and then it was straight on to BB. We have to report that we were unable to make the streaming function work, but it’s unclear where the fault lies for that. »

fonte: «Is We7 the future of the music industry? Hexus Channel Scott Bicheno - 12 Mar 08

«Digital distribution industry leader finetunes and Qtrax, the world's first free and legal peer-to-peer (P2P) music service, today announce that they have signed a digital licensing agreement. For more than four years, finetunes has been a pioneer in creating opportunities for independent labels in the digital music markets. Initially focused on providing digital solutions for the German independent labels, the Hamburg-based company now represents more than 1,000 record labels from around the world.» CNN Money.com, finetunes and Qtrax Sign Digital Licensing Agreement March 12, 2008

«Assuming our previous conclusion about that labels are asking for more per track than ads can realistically provide is correct then one of three things is happening.  Either the labels are lowering their expectations, Myspace is planning to subsidise their music service, or Myspace believes they can monetise the ads better than We7, QTrax, Imeem and the other providers in this market. I really hope it is the first of these.  Myspace subsidising the market might be good in the short term for consumers, but would be bad for the medium term health of both the music and social networking industries.  Similarly - if they are being more aggressive in their monetisation assumptions I would worry that they may end up losing money. (...)The best I have seen so far, by a mile, is Sweden’s Spotify - a company I haven’t talked about much here because they are somewhat in stealth mode.  The cat seems to be increasingly out of the bag now though.  This post from Varsavsky waxes lyrical about how great their service is. (fonte: Free ad-supported music coming closer to reality, 10/03/08)

«In this study, we use the term "streaming" to represent listening to music through a live stream on the Internet as well as to represent Internet or online-only radio stations. Therefore, the term streaming covers listening to music via the Internet regardless of the source.» (Albarran, 2007 100) 

As you might imagine, the difference in the cost of broadcasting a song on-demand and downloading the same song is striking. The RIAA recently increased the fee for online broadcasts to $.0019 per performance of a song. Compare this with an estimated $.75 that labels are receiving from iTunes for a download. Now I know broadcast music licenses are a complicated business, and the fee structures are never as simple as they appear. No doubt News Corp has been negotiating the finer points of their deal directly with labels, and we have no way of knowing what the final number is. But regardless, the big picture is clear… streaming a song is relatively cheap compared to downloading.»

fonte: MySpace Ad-Supported Music: Feasible or Fiasco?, 22/02/08, Theseminal.com

The most obvious difference is that everyone has access to the service called Deezer which does not only provide custom radio stations with music that you (could) like but also ways to search for bands or songs and play them right in the browser. All of that is possible without creating an account at Deezer.

You will need an account however if you want to create playlists, upload an unlimited amount of mp3 that you can listen to online or participate in community matters.

Information are easily accessible. While listening to the Smart Radio feature you can open a band’s discography page which does not interrupt the music. There you have access to information about albums, related artists and community members who share your taste. Only albums with tracks available will be shown.

I had troubles creating a playlist though. The system accepted my input but did not add the playlist to the menu. Deezer is nevertheless a brilliant better Pandora.» Deezer offers what Pandora does not, 6/3/08

Since Jango follows restrictions defined by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act - and pays royalties to labels and artists - the site is perfectly legal. Jango makes money when you click on links to buy music through its partners as well as through advertising.

Jango's real prowess lies in its social-networking features, which help you hook up with people who have the same good (or bad) taste as you when you create a Jango profile. The Jango player (located at the upper-right of the Jango browser window) displays alternate songs by the currently playing artist, as well as users who are listening to the same performer or similar artists.

Clicking on a song takes you to the station that's playing it; selecting a user takes you to their Jango profile page, where you can check out that person's stations and other information (birth date, location and favorite books and movies, for example) that they have chosen to share. »

March 5, 2008 Jango beta internet radio site review, PC Adviser

« Jango.com launched in July with a preview of a social network wrapped around a personalized webcasting service. Within two months of its formal debut in November, it had attracted 1 million listeners who created 3 million customized stations. Chief Executive Dan Kaufman says he expects to reach 2.5 million unique listeners this month. An audience that size can run up big royalty bills in a hurry -- more than $50,000 per collective hour of music played. (...) "We have, I don't know, 500%, 1,000% more opportunities to show a visual ad than Pandora or Yahoo or AOL," Kaufman said. "Even with a very low CPM [the fee charged advertisers each time their pitch is seen], we break even with a very small number of users, relative to the other guys." Jango's approach reflects one vision for the future of the music business. It's not about selling recordings; it's about monetizing the time people spend listening to music.
That's why Jango surrounds its webcast with social features, such as the ability to find people with similar musical tastes and listen to the stations they designed. It has many of the usual elements, such as the ability to send instant messages to friends and e-mail to other users. But it also has some nifty little touches -- for example, prompting users to send thank-you notes electronically when they stop listening to someone else's station. It also tries to keep people interacting with the site's musical content by rating songs, reading about artists, creating new stations and recommending their creations to friends. (...)Just to cover royalties obligations, a music webcaster has to generate a little more than 2 cents per user per hour this year (assuming it plays 15 songs per hour). That number, which rises to 2.85 cents by 2010, seems minuscule, but webcasters say they raise only 1.5 cents to 2.5 cents per listener per hour on average.» fonte: How to get ahead in webcasting By Jon Healey Los ANgeles Times March 21, 2008

«Facebook is reaching out to the major labels and scheduling meetings to discuss the potential implementation of a music acquisition service with the popular social networking site, Billboard.biz has learned.

Sources at multiple major labels say discussions and meetings regarding the potential service are taking place this week. The sources said they expect something similar to the music service MySpace reportedly is working on, though details of Facebook's proposal remain unclear at this point. (...) Facebook's 66 million-strong members and open development platform -- which allows virtually anybody to create an application (or widget) that pulls data from user profiles to use with it -- have attracted more than 16,000 developers to the network. Just under 1,000 are music specific, including iLike, Imeem, Last.fm, Pandora, Qloud and RealNetwork's Rhapsody.

Facebook will have to be careful how it positions its own music service against these others, as well as determine how to integrate third-party music apps with whatever it comes up with. (...) "The logical conclusion of setting music free of DRM is that every profile page on MySpace or Facebook immediately becomes a music store where friends sell friends their favorite tracks," he wrote in the report.»

fonte: Facebook music service in works», Hollywood reporter, By Antony Bruno, Billboard March 6, 2008

Wired's Listening Post scored an exclusive scoop on the Service That Embarrassed Itself, and reported that Qtrax has succeeded in signing up EMI, Sony/ATV Music Publishing and TVT Records. Not quite the big four as first claimed, but it's a good start for what's essentially a legal BitTorrent.

The files contain DRM, however can be loaded onto PMPs compatible with WMDRM, excluding iPods at this stage.

fonte: «After a wobbly start, Qtrax announces licensing deals with EMI, Sony and TVT Records», Tech digest, 4/03/08

Mais: «New York-based Qtrax generated some controversy when it claimed at the MIDEM conference in January that it would launch its service with over 25 million tracks, but later conceded that it had not yet obtained the requisite licenses from the major labels to offer their catalogs»

SpiralFrog and Qtrax are building a reputation for delivering free, downloaded tracks, with the cost recouped through advertising revenues. I've had some previous thoughts on the subject. It would take more than traditional ad revenues to support the cost of music given the price points set by labels.

But the MySpace story is different, and raises two questions. Can MySpace actually provide even a streaming service supported by advertising when great services like Pandora and Live365 have stumbled. And even if MySpace can, who cares?»

MySpace Ad-Supported Music: Feasible or Fiasco? 22/02/08

A unique and engaging social music service, Social.FM allows wireless customers to enjoy their favorite music anytime, anywhere, directly from their mobile phones. Social.FM is the only social music service which leverages user-contributed content, social discovery and recommendations, and 3G-optimized media streaming to deliver the ultimate music experience across the mobile and web environments. (...) Social.FM is defining the future of social media consumption by building innovative products and services that leverage social broadcasting, social networking and user-contributed content to enable consumers to enjoy their favorite media anytime, anywhere and from anyone. Founded in 2003 by McAfee.com (NASDAQ:MCAF) founder and CEO Srivats Sampath, Social.FM is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, USA. For more information, please visit us on the web at www.social.fm.

Social.FM and Mercora are all trademarks or registered trademarks of Mercora, Inc. Handmark, Pocket Express, and the distinctive hand design are registered trademarks of Handmark, Inc. in the U.S. and other territories»

fonte: «Social.FM and Handmark Sign Global Distribution Partnership » 3/03/08

«(...)  is now offering Finetune – a premium digital music service that lets anyone create their own playlists and discover new music through one of the largest online catalogs of licensed major and indie labels – to iQ Music System customers running version 4.6 software. A one year subscription is available for $150 in the USA only.
With a library of more than 2 million songs and compositions, compiled from major and independent music labels is available through Finetune. Finetune delivers powerful yet virtually effortless customization that empowers listeners to “fine tune” their streaming listening experience with impressive quality and total freedom from commercials, DJs, or interruptions.
“Finetune is a powerful new value-added feature that can only help to further ReQuest’s position in the whole house audio world,” says V.P. Sales & Marketing Bill McKiegan. “Now a customer can manage their own collection plus have access to millions of additional songs.”
Subscribers can easily create individual playlists, discover new music and revisit well-loved classics with equal ease through one of the world’s largest licensed online music catalogs. Unprecedented in the industry, Finetune also offers expert-guided editorial recommendations with community-driven suggestions further enhancing the music experience for every individual music lover, driven entirely by personal tastes. The Finetune discovery engine incorporates accumulated listener data, almost 200 million listener hours and over 600,000 user-created playlists.
(...) Finetune is the ultimate digital music service – two parts personal player, one part social network. Create your own playlists and discover new music through one of the largest online catalogs of licensed major and indie labels. Music you didn’t know you love is just seconds away through Finetune’s expert- and community-driven discovery engine. Never complicated and always free, Finetune comes with no strings attached. No downloads. No questionnaires. Lean back and listen, or sit up, spin and share. Just type in an artist and the experience begins – on your browser, on your desktop, on your blog, and beyond. What music do you love?»

fonte: ReQuest to Offer Finetune Digital Streaming Music Service for iQ Music Systems, Nicoll Public Relations, Inc. on Friday, February 29, 2008

«La promesa eran 30 millones de canciones gratis compatibles con todos los reproductores de música digital y procedentes de los catálogos de las cuatro grandes: Sony BMG, Warner Music, Universal y EMI. Pero, de momento, el lanzamiento de la web Qtrax, en la que desde ayer se iban a ofrecer los catálogos de dichas discográficas con el único peaje para el usuario de aguantar la publicidad previa a la bajada de cada canción y con código antipiratería DRM (digital right management), ha quedado en el limbo»

http://www.qtrax.com/

http://www.qtrax.com/download.html

«But there are some inherent disadvantages to these services. For starters, unless you want to take your whole computer with you, you can't take the services with you, because the playlists can't be offloaded to digital music players like iPods.  “So in order for these websites to be considered web radio you can only skip a certain amount of songs, so if you don't like five songs in a row you can't just skip five songs,” said Monson. “Also, the playback order is going be randomized so you can order the songs in the order you want to play them back. You have to have at least 15 songs, so you can't just pick a playlist of five songs and play it over and over again.”

fonte: News 10 now, Make your own free online radio station 29/02/08 Adam Balkin

When you enter the name of an artist, the site creates a radio station centered on that artist. (Unlike Pandora, it won't let you enter a song title.) Jango also adds other tunes it thinks you'll enjoy based on a number of criteria.(...) Jango saves an unlimited number of stations to your profile, and it allows you several ways to customize them. You can add multiple artists to a station (Jango provides suggestions, or you can plug in your own), ban certain musicians, or choose whether you want it to play popular songs, more obscure music, or something in between the two. You can also rate songs so the site knows whether or not to bother you with them.

Customizing stations certainly helped me shape the song selections more to my liking, though with only 15,000 artists and 200,000 songs in rotation, the service has limits to what it can play. (...) Since Jango follows restrictions defined by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act--and pays royalties to labels and artists--the site is perfectly legal. Jango makes money when you click on links to buy music through its partners (like the iTunes Store and Amazon.com) as well as through advertising.

Jango's real prowess lies in its social networking features, which help you hook up with people who have the same good (or bad) taste as you when you create a Jango profile. (...)Despite a few minor snarls like these, Jango is more than solid. If you dig the whole social networking scene--and want to see how it can expand your musical universe--then Jango is worth a spin.»

fonte: «Jango (Beta) Internet Radio Site» PCWorld, 27/02/08

«If you're not living in an Apple-centric musical world, the chances are good that you get your tunes from an online subscription music service. But what about when you're not at your PC? Slowly but surely, manufacturers are rolling out portable media players (PMPs) to work with these services so you can enjoy an on-the-go listening experience. Rhapsody and Slacker have recently released innovative PMP companions that are worth a look if you're a fan of either service. If you're not familiar with them, Rhapsody is subscription-based and you pay a monthly fee for tunes (instead of by the song). Slacker is a free Internet radio site that programs stations for you based on your musical tastes. For a $7.50 per month upgrade, you can get unlimited song skipping and avoid the occasional commercial you'll hear in between tunes with the free version. Regardless of which service you prefer, it's now possible to take your accounts on the road with you with these PMPs.

fonte: «The Best Subscription MP3 Players 02.28.08 by Tim Gideon PC Magazine

«There's not much serendipity left in music today. Commercial radio stations play the same top 40 songs over and over. iPods are great, but unless you are listening to somebody else's, you won't hear any new artists. Even satellite radio channels can be redundant.
Two free Internet radio services, Last.fm and Pandora.com, aim to re-create the joy of discovering new artists -- without the pain of having to sit through songs you don't like.
Both use the music you know you like in order to select and play new music they think you will like. Both do a good job, but depending on your comfort with technology and your habits, one may be better for you.
Pandora's interface is easier to use and you don't have to download anything. It's best for people who don't have a lot of music saved on their computers and want to quickly and easily find something new.
Last.fm is great if you have a huge digital-music collection or are a heavy iPod user. It does a better job connecting you with friends or people who share your taste in music. Only Last.fm lets you type in a song and listen to it instantly.

You can add friends on Last.fm just as you would on Facebook or MySpace and listen to their personalized music. Pandora also lets you listen to other people's music.
When you listen to new music on Last.fm, you can enhance your profile by expressing your love or hatred for individual songs, just as you can on Pandora.
You can use Last.fm without downloading the program but the recommendations won't be as good. That's a key difference between it and Pandora.»

fonte: «Internet radio services help you discover new artists Etan Horowitz | Orlando Sentinel, February 23, 2008

Napster.co.uk, which offers subscription services as well as pay-per-track, is iTunes’ best-known rival. Tracks cost 79p on Napster Light, a pay-per-listen service, and albums from £7.95. The songs are yours to keep and you can transfer them to more than 75 compatible MP3 players. Alternatively, Napster Membership costs £9.99 a month and gives you access to Napster’s catalogue of four million tracks to play on your PC. If you want to transfer the tracks on to another device, such as an MP3 player, you will need Napster-To-Go, which costs £14.95 a month. (...)

Peter Ruppert, founder of Entertainment Media Research, says eMusic.com is probably the cheapest site at £8.99 for 30 downloads – or about 30p for each track. “The disadvantage is that it is a subscription service and they have a limited repertoire,” he says. “They won’t let you browse before agreeing to a trial subscription, so there is a bit of an anticlimax. “Don’t expect too many major hits, but an indie fan could probably be happy here. The advantage is that they deliver tracks in MP3 format without DRM.”Meanwhile, Tescodownloads.com charges 79p a track, Wippit.com anything from 29p to 75p a song, Easy-music.com between 25p and 95p, and Woolworths.co.uk 59p to 79p. Album prices vary from site to site and by artist – current chart toppers are more expensive. »

fonte: «How to buy music online, Times, Emma Lunn February 23, 2008

«Nicholas Negroponte, el segundo gran utopista contemporáneo citado, cofundador y columnista de Wired, la revista emblemática de la utopía encarnada en Internet, y Director del Media Lab del MIT, sostiene también que el mundo digital trae consigo una 'era de optimismo". Una era que "no podemos negar o interrumpir", porque posee cualidades muy poderosas que la harán triunfar: " es descentralizadora, globalizadora, armonizajora y permisiva". Además, los monopolios y los imperios mediáticos nada tienen que hacer, puesto que se están disolviendo en una serie de empresas locales", de la misma forma que se están disolviendo en una serie de empresas locales", de la misma forma que en el conjunto del "negocio del bit" el reino será de las pequeñas empresas. En ese camino hacia una "estructura socIal global, totalmente nueva" las fuerzas dominantes no son sociales, raciales o económicas "sino generacionales". En consecuencia, hace falta menos regulación y menos legislación anti-concentración para garantizar la pluralidad (Negroponte, 1995).» (Bustamante, 35-36)  

«I'll start with AOL, the portal I've been most impressed with because its music offerings are the best of the bunch. AOL has a link to XM Satellite Radio, where I've been listening, for free, to the best and most reliable Internet music stream I've heard. (...)
At MSN, the home page is exceptionally busy, so quickly navigating the site to find music or radio was an unnecessary challenge.
MSN has a deal with Pandora, an Internet radio service that allows people to build a music playlist based on preferences. It's similar to what you can do at other music sites, such as Last.fm, and it's the type of service I enjoy since I usually hear something from an unknown-to-me musician I'm inclined to like. Unfortunately, I could not get Pandora to play properly on my office computer. (...)At Yahoo, the radio could be customized for one's preferences, too, but it was the only portal that asked the user to register. That's not a plus. However, the radio feed worked well.
Then I downloaded the Yahoo Jukebox application. This is a robust media player that I could probably write a single column on because it is excellent. The sound is very clear, the radio stations, which I can also customize based on my preferences, come through without buffering, and the Jukebox can be synced to a digital music player and Yahoo's subscription music service.

I really like Jukebox, but Yahoo's insistence I use its other products is grating.
The bottom line: AOL impressed me the most, MSN the least, and Yahoo needs an attitude adjustment.»

fonte: Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft find ways to stay relevant, Chicago Tribune, Eric Benderoff | February 18, 2008

«CBS' social networking site Last.fm is the fastest-growing online music network in the U.S., according to new stats. Last.fm features a free-on-demand music service, which has seen a 92% increase in the number of unique listeners since it was launched four weeks ago. CBS says the site got a "tremendous boost" after Last.fm received on- air promotional exposure during the Grammy Awards and a Garth Brooks concert on CBS-TV.» CBS owns the fastest-growing online music site. Inside Radio 23 (22?)/02/08

«Music recommendation website Last.fm has seen its user numbers rise by 59% after introducing a free streaming service, the CBS-owned web company claimed today. Last.fm said its new on-demand music service has been a major driver of traffic growth in the US where the site is not as well known as in Europe. The free Last.fm service was launched last month through deals with the four major music labels - Universal, Sony BMG, EMI and Warner Music Group. Last.fm now has 21 million unique users each month, based on its internal traffic figures for the last four weeks, and has seen the number of people listening to music on the site increase by 92% in one month. The site does not sell music directly, but links to services including 7digital and Amazon that allow users to buy downloads.»

«Web-based music radio services generated 4.85 billion total listening hours in 2007, a 26% increase over 2006, according to a report from AccuStream iMedia Research.Total listening hours averaged 404.2 million hours per month, compared to a 320.5 million hour average in 2006.
AOL's Shoutcast remained the top platform for Internet music radio, claiming 48% of total listening hours for the year, and was followed by Clear Channel Online, Yahoo Music, AOL Radio Networks and Pandora.
The Internet music radio ad market was worth approximately $92 million in 2007, including $80 million in audio ads -- a 194% increase from 2006 -- and another $12-$15 million generated through video ads placed within radio sites.
AccuStream credited online commitments from terrestrial broadcasters such as Clear Channel and Citadel Broadcasting in part for the improved ad market for the medium, but noted that the top ten radio sites still captured over 90% of total listening hours monthly. »

fonte: «Report: Web Music Radio Listening Up 26% in 2007», Digital Media Wire Mark Hefflinger on February 20, 2008

«Beware, SpiralFrog and Imeem. A powerful new player is eyeing your ad-supported music turf. MySpace.com is in talks with the four major record labels about starting a free-to-consumer music service, a source with knowledge of the talks told CNET News.com on Monday night. So far MySpace and the labels are just talking, the source said, but PaidContent, the blog that broke the news, reported that the music companies are being offered an equity stake in the News Corp.-backed start-up. A MySpace spokeswoman declined to comment Monday evening. There are conflicting reports about whether the new music service would offer downloads or stream music to PCs. PaidContent reported that it's downloads, but Silicon Alley Insider reported that its sources said the site would stream songs»

fonte: «MySpace's music plan likely to be streaming service», Greg Sandoval, CNET February 18, 2008

«Personalised Online Radio is an online service that uses a music recommendation system. Intelligent software selects music for listeners based on their personal likes and dislikes. Some of the better known examples are LastFM and Pandora. Asked if they were aware of such services, 30% of Internet radio listeners (3.97 million) said that they were.

People who said they were aware of POR were asked how often they used it. Almost a quarter of a million people (247,000) use a POR service everyday, and nearly a million people are weekly users (973,000). (...)

All users were asked if POR had changed how much conventional radio they listened to.

The table shows a marginal negative effect, which is understandable given that POR is positioned as "personalised radio". However, for 78% of users, POR has not eroded their traditional radio listening, and only 6% admitted that it had made a significant difference – 2.8% listening to much more and 3.2% to much less. »

o estudo: Podcasting and Radio Listening via Internet Survey RAJAR January 2008

Jango, TheSixtyOne, Musicovery, BoomShuffle, finetune, last.fm, Pandora, Slacker, Skreemr, Songza, MySpace, and imeem.

«Free, legal music has existed forever—or at least since the invention of the radio (...) These days, a good radio station is hard to come by and CDs are $20 a pop. So, what's a music lover to do? Turn to the Internet, of course, where you can find music-streaming services that are not only free and legal (like all radio) but customizable. There are plenty of services out there that offer either loose customization or full-blown playlist building. Services like Pandora, Slacker, and Jango let you enter the name of an artist or artists and listen to a stream of songs tailored specifically to your tastes. Other music sites like BoomShuffle and finetune allow you to pick the actual songs you'll hear; once you've added X number of songs, your playlist is treated as a full-fledged Web radio station and you can listen to it as often as you like, pass it around the Web, and embed it on a blog or social network. As with anything free, there are some caveats. In order to get the blessing of the music industry, these music sites can't just let you play any old song you want, whenever you want. The playlists you build and the streams you customize need to be considered Web radio stations. Here are some of the conditions that have to be met to be considered Web radio:

• Any playlist you build must include songs from at least 15 different artists
• The playlist order is randomized
• The listener can only skip a certain number of songs per listening session
• The site—not the user—must make royalty payments

These are minor hang-ups—after all, the payoff is that you get to listen to free music legally—but they're worth mentioning. These sites are a perfect match for a certain type of music listener: the kind who wants a little more control than typical Web radio affords, but who also wants to listen to new music that might not be in his or her iTunes folder. They're also perfect for office workers who can't store their personal music libraries on work machines but go crazy in their cubicles without tunes. Even better, they're all free, and you won't get sued for using any of them. So what are you waiting for?»

Os doze sites em revista

fonte: Get Free Music! PC Mag, Kyle Monson 02.15.08

Imeem and Last.fm are positioned as music communities, where friends tell each other about what songs and artists they like. Since the sites have licensing agreements with the four major labels, fans can share songs and playlists with each other. Last.fm restricts users to listening to a song just three times, while Imeem has no restrictions. Both services are online radio stations, but they are different from competitors Pandora or Slacker, which create personalized stations based on your musical tastes. Here, you pick the songs and the artists, or choose music based on recommendations from peers. "Friends pay a lot more attention to what their peers say than music reviewers," says Mike McGuire, an analyst with Gartner.  The sites also differ from social networks like MySpace and Facebook in that "our audience isn't looking for dates," says Steve Jang, Imeem's chief marketing officer.» (fonte: «Music websites are fighting to be free, 5/02/08, USA Today)

«There’s now a bevy of free, ad-supported music services emerging, including CBS' Last.fm, Spiralfrog, imeem and Qtrax. The message to consumers is clear: Music is an add-on; it has no retail value of its own. With each new service, the $0 price point is reinforced and music becomes swag – like logo embossed ballpoint pens or branded refrigerator magnets.   

Maybe this evolution is natural – after all, it’s often been pointed out that recorded music has a zero marginal cost to produce (meaning that every additional MP3 produced by a record label costs no more than the original recorded track.)  Proof of exactly how cheap it is to produce music is the billion MP3 files each month that are created via P2P sites, mostly illegal.  How can consumers really be expected to pay $1 for a product they know costs nothing to produce?» (The Brooding Savage, 7/02/08)  

Songerize promete muito; mas «Sorry, couldn't find song» é a expressão que mais vezes aparece...

«If you want to influence what gets played on traditional radio you have the option of calling in a song request to the disc jockey (DJ). Or, if the station is more technically savvy, you can send requests by fax, e-mail, or instant messenger. This, of course, presumes that the show is live and the DJ is available to review your request—which is often not the case. Most Internet radio stations are similar in this regard: your ability to influence the playlist is limited, and your main choice is whether to listen or not. The Internet is a two-way medium, however, and a number of services have emerged to exploit this fact. As a listener you get some control over the broadcast. At its most basic, this control includes the ability to skip or pause songs that you are listening to. At its most sophisticated, personalized radio allows you to fine tune a broadcast based on your musical preferences. This can range from genre preferences (I like Classical but I don’t like Rap) to artist and album preferences (I like David Bowie but not his latest album), and song preferences (I like the original version of The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down). While personalized radio does not allow you to control the exact composition or sequence of your playlist—for this you need a true on-demand music service— it does help you control the content of your station. In many situations this is all you need—especially if your intent is to discover new music. Personalized radio gives you the means to follow a musical trail—using favored songs or artists as “scent.”»

fonte: BREEDING, Andy (2004), Internet Music Services, MA: Giant Path, pag 33

Da leitura de mais um relatorio da JPMorgan sobre audiencias na net, o que mais impressiona é, por um lado, a incompatibilidade entre aquilo ali é designado por terresterial radio operators online (ou seja, a industria de rádio que tambem tem streaming) e os internet radio providers (canais de streaming neste giria) e o desinteresse destes por aqueles.  Ou seja, a industria de rádio não se interessou em lançar canais autonomos de streaming e as empresas que os têm tambem não pensam em emissão hertziana. (a excepção é a Last.Fm e a CBS)

Por curiosidade: «Terrestrial radio operators online include Beasley Broadcasting, CCU, CBS Radio & Last.fm, CDL, CXR, Educational Media Foundation, ETM, EMMS, Greater Media, Maranatha Broadcasting, Midwest Communications, NPR , Radio Disney, Radio One, Regent Communications, and Spanish Broadcasting, as well as the individual website metrics for wbal (HTV), wgn (TRB), and wtmx (Bonneville). Internet radio providers include, AOL Radio, Yahoo! Music, MSN Radio, Pandora.com, social.com, windowsmedia.com music, LIVE365.com, Accuradio, accutunes, BigRRadio, 181.fm, Lucksysevenradio.com, orsradio.com, Sky.fm, 1club.fm, di.fm, rock.com, 1.fm, gotradio.com, broadcasturban.net, and 202online.com. Also, getnetradio.com, and myclubradio.com, were included in all months until June 2007 when comScore stopped reporting their metrics.»

Table 4: Unique Visitors to Pure Play Internet Radio's Websites, Dec. 2007 vs. Nov. 2007

Nov-07 Dec-07 Sequential Growth

Yahoo! Music 21,546 20,685 (4.0%)

Windowsmedia.com Music 3,721 4,086 9.8%

AOL Radio 3,353 3,680 9.7%

Pandora.com 3,774 3,957 4.9%

LIVE365.COM 905 1,069 18.2%

Social.fm 22 NM NM

Accuradio 154 NM NM

181.fm 231 351 51.5%

Luckysevenradio.com 280 173 (38.3%)

«Existem três conceitos fundamentais para compreender o sucesso das novas tecnologias: autonomia, domínio e rapidez. Cada um pode agir, sem intermediário, quando quiser, sem filtro nem hierarquia e, o que é mais importante, em tempo real. Não se tem que esperar, age-se e o resuItado é imediato. Isto confere um sentimento de liberdade absoluta, e mesmo de poder, que se manifesta na expressão "surfar na Net". Este tempo real que desarruma as escalas habituais do tempo e da comunicação é provavelmente um factor de sedução essencial. » (Wolton, 2000: 77)

«Um outro aspecto positivo diz respeito ao facto de as novas tecnoIogias satisfazerem a necessidade de agir. É a filosofia "do it yourself', que se encontra um pouco por todas as esferas da vida prática. A necessidade de agir e a capacidade para a interacção que caracterizam os indivíduos da sociedade moderna encontram aquI terreno propício ao seu desenvolvimento. É bom de ver que o acesso a máquinas semelhantes não reduz por si só as desigualdades sociais, mas pelo menos confere a alguns um sentimento real de que é possível operar uma revolução. Ora, isso permite ao jogo social renovar-se, sendo indispensável a cada geração para compensar uma outra percepção, por vezes bem real, a de que "isto é que vai uma crise!" (...) Se, por um lado, é indispensável não confundir nova tecnologia com nova cultura, por outro lado, pode-se, no mínimo, sublinhar que este novo suporte facilita uma determinada expressão cultural e linguagens ainda em gestação, embora seja ainda demasiado cedo para saber se, a prazo, representarão uma ruptura cultural relevante» (Wolton, 2000: 79) 

«(...) Especially among 15- to 25-year-olds, people seem to need their peers to validate their musical tastes, making the Internet a perfect medium for the intersection of MP3s and mob psychology. (...) Imeem and Bebo are two Web sites trading on the idea that music is a social phenomenon, and that the Internet is the place to be to gather around it. Imeem asks, "What's on your playlist?," while Bebo calls itself a "social media network." Imeem draws 20 million visitors a month by specializing in free streaming music and music-video playlists that you can customize. The offerings are surrounded by information about the artists, rankings, related songs, polls, and profiles of other fans. (...)"We can target to hip-hop fans in L.A. who are also into indie films," said Steve Jang, Imeem's chief marketing officer. The most successful sites in any category, Jang maintains, are not the ones with the most money or the best technology, but the ones with the best "user experience," like the simple interface that Google started out with.The recent wave of social music sites that Imeem is a part of is showing the music industry that a free, open, ad-supported system is better than tying down digital songs with software that limits their playability, Jang said. Just look at radio and MTV, which have been sustained by advertising for years, he said. (...)Like Imeem, Bebo surrounds its offerings with extras: fan groups, artist information, concert dates and charts. Bebo, which has 40 million registered users and drew 11 million visitors last month from Britain alone, also lets its users bring in music and other media from Web sites like YouTube by using "widgets" that can be dropped on to personal pages. (...) Shields acknowledges that teenagers, the age group most attached to socializing around entertainment, do not have the kind of income that many advertisers would like to attract. But they make up for it with loyalty. As a testament to how attached Bebo users are, the average time spent on the site per session is 40 minutes - an eternity by Internet social-networking standards.»

fonte: «Could social networking sites save the music industry?», Victoria Shannon, IHT, 30/01/08

«French telecom Orange has partnered with Lagardere Active and music service provider Yacast, to launch a new ad-supported streaming music service in France called Musiline, Billboard reported. Available for free to Orange France's 7 million broadband subscribers, the personalized radio service also offers paid downloads for about $1.45 per track.»

fonte: «Orange Debuts Ad-Supported Web Radio Service in France», 22/01/08

«Ruckus is a completely legal and advertising supported music service geared exclusively to the college community. All students with a valid school email (.edu) have free unlimited access to the entire Ruckus music library.  Why Sign Up?   Free unlimited download access
   Download full albums in under a minute
   New music every week
   Create and share your playlists
   It's 100% Free!»

«The company supports itself through advertisements on the Web site.
Students can choose from a database of over 3.2 million songs to download, which are completely legal and virus free, according to Ruckus' Web site.
"The downside is that unless you buy an MP3 player from (Ruckus), you can't download music to (other MP3 players)," he said. Students with iPods, for instance, wouldn't be able to use music from Ruckus on that player.
Students interested in using Ruckus can download it at Ruckusnetworks.com using their student e-mail account».

You need a school email address that ends in .edu to register as a student or faculty with Ruckus. However, you can still register as an alumni and pay a small fee to access our music catalog. Keep in mind only students with .edu email addresses get Ruckus music for free.

«"We have created the world's biggest free jukebox," said Richard Jones, one of Last.fm's three founders. "People love our recommendation service but they also want to cherry pick songs and now we can offer both."» 

«O site de música Last.fm vai passar a oferecer a seus usuários a possibilidade de escolher a canção que deseja ouvir após fechar acordo com as quatro grandes gravadoras, informou a agência de notícias Reuters esta quarta-feira (23). Até então, o site vinha funcionando como uma espécie de rádio on-line na qual o internauta pode escolher o estilo das músicas que gosta, mas não faixas individuais para audição. A mudança, por enquanto, valerá apenas para usuários dos Estados Unidos, Reino Unido e Alemanha. O serviço será gratuito para ouvir as faixas em streaming, mas oferecerá também a opção de download pago em MP3, em parceria com o site Amazon.com. A possibilidade de ouvir músicas via rádio em streaming, com seleções randômicas baseadas no gosto do usuário, continua para todos os usuários internacionais. De acordo com a Last.fm, fundada há seis anos, a oferta se tornou possível graças à receita obtida com a venda de anúncios em seu site. A rede americana CBS comprou a Last.fm em maio passado pela quantia de US$ 280 milhões.»

«Asked how Last.fm was able to make its ad-funded operation economically viable, Jones said that Pandora operated purely as an internet radio station, while his company had a diverse offering including social networking and music recommendation.He added that the company had always enjoyed "good industry relations" and had been paying artists and licence fees since 2002.Last year saw the launch of Spiral Frog, an ad-funded online music service that forces users to listen to an ad before being able to access the music track.»

«Até aqui, o modelo do Last.fm era baseado na oferta da audição linear de música através de acordos com estações de rádio e do seu serviço de recomendação de música. As faixas não estarão, contudo, disponíveis para download, o que quer dizer que os utilizadores não poderão transferir a música para um leitor de MP3. Depois de ouvirem as faixas, os utilizadores terão a possibilidade de fazer a compra a partir de uma das plataformas parceiras como o iTunes, o Amazon ou o 7 Digital.»

«(...) last.fm would make an announcement which might radically shape the way we consume music, and certainly makes Pandora look a bit old hat. (...) this puts last.fm right up there with MySpace as a place to hear tracks by, well, most bands you'd care to mention. (...) But last.fm are clearly on the right track, here. OK, there are caveats; individual tracks can only be played three times by each user, although they state that they're aiming to increase this number. Beyond three plays, a subscription service will allow you to listen to each track an unlimited number of times. But, crucially, it's taking the element of "ownership" of the music out of the equation. Traditional subscription models, such as the ones run by Napster, where you "rent" your mp3 files for the duration of your subscription, now look increasingly under threat. last.fm store the music, and they let you listen to it when you like. And as mobile phones, mp3 players and living room hi-fis become net-savvy, it's going to be something more and more people turn to.»

Cada vez mais o Pandora - e outros serviços semelhantes - se constituem como alternativa à rádio (convencional) musical. Esta noticia de que o Pandora vai passar a ser recebido em receptores on line é prova disso.

«Os rádios da Reciva permitem que os usuários fácil e convenientemente acessem as estações de rádio ao vivo espalhadas pelo mundo sem a necessidade de um PC. Estes são na maior parte radiodifusores terrestres que irradiam seu sinal de transmissão pela Internet em um processo conhecido como "simulcasting". A inclusão da Pandora à plataforma da Reciva adiciona um serviço original e altamente personalizado que é individualizado às preferências do usuário.

Os usuários podem avaliar as músicas em Pandora através da tecla "Reply" em cada Rádio da Reciva via Internet com o "thumbs up" ou o "thumbs down" dessa forma, Pandora pode imediatamente ajustar a programação da estação, e podem pausar uma canção bem como saltar uma fuma música a que eles não queiram ouvir. Usando a tecla "Reply", os ouvintes podem igualmente adicionar aos favoritos uma música, e o nome da música e o artista serão salvos.»

Não sei quanto tempo vai durar, mas aqui fica o endereço:

https://www.pandora.com/radio/tuner_8_2_0_1_pandora.swf

Devo dizer que o serviço é fraco: lento, com paragens

OUTRA HIPOTESE:

«The usual method to access Pandora is to use a proxy that is located in the United States so that Pandora believes that you are from there to. A far better solution was posted in the comments of this blog yesterday. Global Pandora offers the Pandora interface on a independent website that requires no registration. Just enter a song or artist and a radio station will be build and you can listen to it. All without using a proxy, hiding your real IP or registration.»

(http://www.ghacks.net/2008/01/12/access-pandora-without-a-proxy/)

AINDA MAIS: «How to: access Pandora from outside the US»

OU «Well, here’s the good alternative to all non-US residents. The box is open! You can now listen to your favorite songs through GlobalPandora.»

REACÇÃO: «Westergren also noted that Pandora “must abide by the many copyright laws around the world – that includes making commercially reasonable efforts to prevent unauthorized use of Pandora.” He said that Pandora would not be able to support applications like globalPandora, and in fact “must periodically actively break them when we can.”  “I sure hope the record labels wise up soon,” Westergren closed. “[T]heir strategy (if there actually is one) is disastrous for artists.” Being in the U.S., we aren’t able to test the effectiveness of this work-around ourselves. However it does appear that, at least for the time being, international listeners have their Pandora back.»

OU: «Since Pandora started blocking users outside US some solutions where proposed, but only one made to the top - Tor.
Tor can help you anonymize web browsing, by bouncing communication around a distributed network of servers called onion routers.
This is nice, but how this helps?
If the communication is bounced over network of servers and the last server that forwards communication located in US, Pandora will think that the user himself is located in US and will not block him.» (aqui)

LastFM lidera com grande destaque, mas o braço de ferro entre Jango e Slacker promete continuar!

Date: 11/2007	People	Month Δ	Year Δ
jango.com	244,522	79.0%	48129.2%
slacker.com	329,310	19.7%	10644.2%
last.fm	1,372,691	36.4%	34.1%

«According to Compete.com, in the month of November Jango had 244,522 users compared to FineTune who had 149,106. Slacker garnered 329, 310 while last.fm and Pandora raked in roughly 1.4 million each. They obviously have a ways to go to catch up with the big dogs, but that’s not too shabby considering they’ve been out of Beta for just over a month.

«Listen to millions of songs without paying per track. Play all the music you want for one low monthly price. Rhapsody memberships start at just $12.99/month» . Rhapsody is a digital music service that lets you listen to whatever you want, whenever you want it. With online music stores, you pay for every track or album, but Rhapsody lets you listen to everything we've got for one low monthly price» «How is Rhapsody different? Unlike other music services that charge you every time you download a song, Rhapsody allows you to listen to as much music as you want for one low monthly fee (starting at $12.99/month, less than the cost of a CD). Our all-you-can-eat plans allow you to explore all the music you want without having to pay for every single track or album»

«There are two types of membership:

• Rhapsody to Go ($14.99/month) (available on Windows PCs only) allows you to listen to all the music you like, and to transfer all the music you want to supported MP3 players, such as the Sansa e200R Rhapsody.
• Rhapsody Unlimited membership ($12.99/month) (available on Windows, Mac and Linux computers) allows you to listen to unlimited music on your computer.

If you're not ready for membership, you can try Rhapsody for free.  (Free Account:Play 25 tracks for free each month, no credit card required). Sorry, we are only able to offer Rhapsody^® to US customers at this time.

Rhapsody® Unlimited Offer Terms

Access begins at sign-up. You will be charged US$12.99 each month hereafter. For subscription information, including how to cancel your subscription, visit the My Account area. For technical support, please visit customer support. Also please note: U.S. residents only.

»

A Rhapsody tambem trabalha com receptores/aparelhos dedicados.

«Rhapsody, the music service, just introduced its Facebook application. It’s easy to skip past this, because everybody has a Facebook app these days. But it’s worth a look because the experience shows that an application on Facebook can have much more usefulness than Zombies and SuperPoke. Rhapsody isn’t changing its economic model for Facebook. It lets users stream up to 25 songs a month on their computers free. People who want to listen to more music or download tracks to portable devices have to pay $10 to $15 a month. (I think the 25-free-song limit is silly, but that’s not what I’m writing about today.) What’s important is how integrating with Facebook makes some key aspects of using Rhapsody and connecting to friends easier. Once you log onto Facebook, you don’t have to log on separately to Rhapsody or load any other software.» (fonte: Beyond Sheep-Throwing: Rhapsody on Facebook, By Saul Hansell,  17/12/07, NYT)

«(...) changing consumer behavior is giving subscription advocates new hope. Members of the Facebook Generation are bombarded with music recommendations every day, and don't necessarily want to pay a buck to check each one out. And since people are used to getting e-mail, appointments, and news feeds streamed to smartphones and other devices, many industry watchers assume they'll want the same for music. "If I can access whatever I want whenever I want," says Ted Cohen, who led EMI's digital music efforts and now runs an entertainment consultancy called TAG Strategic, "why do I need to own it?"»

fonte: «Stars Are Aligning for Subscription Music», Business Week, 6/12/07 by Peter Burrows

«I’ve “discovered” the new Internet radio: specifically Pandora. I love this! Nothing to download, it’s intuitive to use, I choose the tracks I want, I choose the artists, I choose the order, I can make a mix. It’s wonderful! 'But now Internet radio is back in a different form; some don’t call it radio but rather “music discovery” or “social radio.” For me it has taken the place of the staticky old box. Traditional radio was always hit-or-miss for hearing music that I liked, but these services have made it so much easier, as they allow you to filter out what you don’t want to hear and discover new things you might not ever hear on the radio.'» (I Just Discovered the “New” Internet Radio)

«not only is online radio inexpensive to target (in some cases as easy as downloading a submission form, as is the case with Pandora), but it brings excitement, variety, and most importantly, NEW MUSIC into a medium that has exposed the public to less and less new music for years (I am speaking primarily of commercial radio). Online radio is a medium that is continuing to gain momentum and listeners, which means, of course, that the labels are looking for their cut of the profits. In March, the United States Copyright Royalty Board announced new royalty rates for webcasts, effective to 2010. The CRB endorsed the proposal of the RIAA-associated Sound Exchange royalty organization, which represents the major and some indie labels. The new rates would force webcasters to pay for each song streamed to each user, and increase over the next few years as follows: (details from Wired magazine)

2007: $.0011 to stream one song to one listener
2008: $.0014
2009: $.0018
2010: $.0019

These rates would put the smaller Webcasters that do not have significant advertising revenue out of business. And last week, Bloomberg announced that Yahoo and AOL may abandon Web radio as well with the raise in rates (“We’re not going to stay in the business if cost is more than we make long term,” Ian Rogers, general manager at Yahoo’s music unit, said in an interview). The rate increase is not a done deal, however. Webcasters have launched an appeal of the rates, which begins in February.

I’m all for musicians being paid fairly and taking advantage of all revenue streams, but from a marketing standpoint, does it really make sense to impose rates on a developing outlet like this that will essentially kill all but the largest players? Check out more opinions here. »

fonte: KING, Michael, The Trouble with the Future of Radio, 3/12/07

Jango's personalized stations

The music matching system on Jango is okay, but it could use some work. For instance, it seems to think because I like Steely Dan and James Taylor, I’ll also like the Beach Boys. No. And while I am a frequent listener of Mary J. Blige, I want R. Kelly out of the mix. Unfortunately, even though I click on the sad face to tell Jango never to play the offending song again, “Trapped in the Closet” continues to haunt me.» (fonte: «Last.FM, Jango, Pandora Trounce Music Discovery via Radio», 29/12/07

«(...) My second try was with the excellent Secure Tunnel solution which I use for some time now that allowed me to watch Hulu and download from NBC Direct as well. I activated Secure Tunnel in Opera and Pandora would load and play fine as if I was a user from the United States»

Sobre a Secure Tunnel solution

Tem origem em Israel, está em versão beta e chama-se Meemix. É apenas destinado a utilizadores dos EUA.

«Imagine a world of music - sorted by the songs you love. Imagine broadcasting the soundtrack of your life to an audience around the globe. Feel the magic and find your rhythm at MeeMix. Internet radio that gets you»

«Does the "social radio" market -- which features well-established players like Pandora and Last.fm -- need another entrant? The gang behind Jango seem to think so. The site, which has been in beta for the past few months, opened up for full access Monday, and says it has 70,000 users already. Co-founder and CEO Dan Kaufman is the former CEO of Dash, a mobile-shopping startup that flamed out in 2001 (not that we should hold that against him, of course). I have to say one thing about Jango.com: it's pretty simple to use. When you hit the site you get a search box and a list of "stations." You can choose a station, which is a pre-mixed selection of artists, or you can type in an artist's name  -- at which point you are taken to a user page, without even having to sign up (you can create an account from the user page by just typing in your email and a password). My page is here.  By choosing an artist's name, you effectively create a "station" based around them, which can be made up solely of that artist, or artists that are similar. Jango suggests musicians and bands that it thinks you might like based on your choice, and then you get to choose from Jango's list and add that artist to your station -- or you can type in your own choice and add that. And that's about it. You can click to buy a track through Amazon, and you can see who else is listening to a particular artist or station. The site doesn't have some things that Last.fm and Pandora do. It doesn't have a widget, for example (like the one I have in my sidebar), although the company said that's coming. But it is far easier to figure out and use than Last.fm, I think, which I find confusing and non-intuitive. And when it gets right down to it, one of the keys to such a site is the music recommendation part: in other words, how does it do in terms of suggesting related songs or artists you might want to listen to? (...) And when it comes to competing with Pandora at least, Jango has one killer feature: it's available to Canadians, whereas Pandora is not -- it cut off access to Canuck users earlier this year because it hadn't acquired the appropriate licenses.»

fonte: «Jango joins the "social radio" scene», Globe and mail, Mathew Ingram, November 13, 2007

Curiosa definição: já não somos nós que ouvimos a rádio, é a rádio que nos ouve (Pandora...):

«Pandora: Web Radio That Listens to You»: «The magic of Pandora derives from a simple principle: a song listeners enjoy should lead to other songs they'll enjoy. Pandora is an Internet music service with an unusual twist: you merely select a song or artist you like and the system builds a playlist of additional songs based on those musical characteristics.»

Ad revenue for Net radio will top $50 million this year, according to JPMorgan. That doesn't include traditional radio broadcasters who also webcast. Net radio's future, which looked dismal earlier in the year after new copyright royalties were instituted, is apparently back on track. The proposed fees were so high many stations said they would be forced to go out of business. But Hansen says stations and record labels have been negotiating a settlement and are close to coming to terms.Pandora, one of the Net broadcasters that said it couldn't continue under the new rules, is still at it, pumping out music based on a listener's taste. "We believe it's going to be fixed," founder Tim Westergren says of the royalty dispute.

Pandora attracted 3.3 million Internet listeners in October, according to measurement service ComScore Media Metrix. It expanded to Sprint phones in the spring with a low-key offering that is barely mentioned on Sprint's website. AT&T is offering the same low-key approach, with little marketing on the Web but instead an offer on the phone itself to sign up. Westergren says the carriers are treading cautiously to make sure the phones work well with Pandora.

"When you get personalized radio wherever you are, that's when we're able to redefine radio," Westergren says.

Moving personalized radio off the PC is in its early days. Beyond Pandora and Slacker, SanDisk's (SNDK) $149 Sansa Connect player offers Net radio from Yahoo, available anywhere there's a Wi-Fi connection. Slacker CEO Dennis Mudd didn't want to go the Wi-Fi route. Instead, a selection of songs from your favorite artists is transferred to the Slacker portable player from your PC. New songs are added every time the player is hooked up. They are stored on the player, so you don't need an Internet connection to listen. You have little control over what Slacker selects, beyond identifying what artists you like. That may not sound like true Net radio, but Mudd says consumers don't care. "Being connected to Wi-Fi isn't the way to go. There could be static, or you might lose the signal. This way the music is always there."The Slacker Portable has a 4-inch screen, larger than most iPod screens. You can personalize selections, to a degree, by clicking on "heart" and "ban" buttons that help Slacker figure out your tastes. An ad-supported version of the service is free; $7.95 monthly without ads. The device starts at $199.99 with 2 GB of storage (roughly 1,000 songs) and 15 stations, or $249.99 for 4 GB and 25 stations. The entry-level iPod Nano, by comparison, is $149 and has 4 GB of storage. Why spend the extra bucks? With the automatic refresh of new songs, "You get a far richer, deeper music experience," Mudd says. "Most people end up with the same old playlists to listen to, week after week, because they don't have the time to do research and get new music."

Newsletter editor Hanson says taking Slacker and Pandora away from the computer is a great idea, but, "The question is whether they can progress quickly and beat the tsunami of every device and webcaster that's headed in this direction. Because they won't be alone a year from now."»

fonte: «Now you can rock 'n' go with personalized Internet radio», USA Today, Jefferson Graham

Ramsey tem duvidas sobre a viabilidade futura do aparelho da Slacker. Mas não deixa de reflectir sobre o que significa: «(...) Note that the "free" version of the service includes commercials - just like radio. But they're commercials peppered between content customized BY you and FOR you. In the long run, will people buy a device to provide this service? Or will their mobile phones be "Slacker-powered," thus bringing the technology to the masses rather than the other way around. I'll give you one guess. Honestly, I don't know why Slacker is bothering with their own device as anything other than a proof of concept. When listeners can easily customize their radio experience and do it with a portable device - especially one that's ubiquitous, how do you think that will impact their listening to your station, which plays the music most people like most of the time, rather than the music I like right now? And - more importantly - what will it mean for what goes between your records?»

Etiquetas: Slacker

«Tim Westergren, chief strategy officer and founder of Pandora, stopped by Portfolio yesterday and talked to our staff about the future of his online radio company. He's working to eventually take Pandora public and describes its growth as linear, with half a million new users each month, capturing a total of .2% of radio listeners in the U.S. Pandora sets itself apart from other internet radio sites by allowing users to personalize their own radio stations through a 'music genome' that analyzes songs for rhythm, lyrics, genre, etc. and then feeds similar songs into the user's play list. Though this is a great way to discover new artists and appreciate ones you never thought you would, as one Portfolio staffer pointed out, play lists can tend to sound homogeneous sometimes. But Westergren assures that there are ways of mixing up one's radio selection. "The secret sauce is that people interact a lot with Pandora."

Users can give a recommended tune a thumb up or a thumb down, and they can also learn how their play list was selected for them. To expand on the user interaction the company right now is considering ways to incorporate into the site elements of online social-networking.
(...) By using Pandora, bands can find out where people live who listen to their music and send out alerts notifying them of tour dates and performances. Westergren even noted how hobbyists who mailed CDs into Pandora got their music included in the site's massive library of songs. It's one big free for all for artists and fans alike and the number of songs and genres available on Pandora keeps on growing; classical music will soon be available in the coming weeks.

Profits for the site come from visual advertising. "Music is not a subscription business," says Westergren. He emphasized the shift of advertising money to the internet and how it's changing the music industry. He even predicts that soon Clear Channel, with its monopoly on traditional radio stations, will soon get a rude awakening with the advance of internet radio. Pandora doesn't do any of its own advertising, and Westergren credits the half a million new users a month to word of mouth and the blogosphere. "Catch a wave of the bloggers and it explodes from there."

To grow Pandora right now the company has a partnership with Sprint to provide its service on Sprint cell phones for $2.99 a month and more deals with major cell phone companies are in the works. With its growing success, Pandora continues to stand by its original intent: support the music industry by giving air time to all kinds of artists. But it suffered a major hiccup with the Copyright Royalty Board ruling on content licensing and now can only provide service to users in the U.S., enforcing this by checking zipcodes against a user's IP address. Westergren's solution to fight illegal downloading? "If you give someone a service that satisfies and gives them what they want, they won't steal." » (fonte: «Pandora Will Rock Radio As We Know It», Portfolio.com, Maney e Lenzo, 11/10/07

«That's the word from Pandora's founder, Tim Westergren. Pandora is a web radio service that learns what you like as you listen more. Westergren was interviewed at dailytech.com by Tom Corelis: "The new rates would bankrupt us, along with every other webcaster in currently in operation. Without a doubt, for us it’s a really misguided decision...These rates essentially don’t rely on the understanding of the economics of web radio."»

fonte. «Pandora Founder: New Webcasting Royalty Rates "Would Bankrupt Us"», RadioABout.com

«(...) digital technology is creating an iPod generation who see radio, and content, as something they can create and control themselves and is fuelling a wildfire global network of niche, net-based ‘radio’ channels» (Shaw, 2005: 2)

«(...) hoje, a rádio já não é o único meio de lançar esses novos artistas. Assim, enquanto preparava a sua estreia na rádio, a Reprise pré-lançou várias faixas em sites de música na Internet, incluindo no Yahoo!, que oferece um serviço gratuito de rádio online chamado LAUNCHcast. Uma das características mais populares do LAUNCHcast é a sua estação de rádio personalizada, que permite que os seus milhões de utilizadores seleccionem os grupos e géneros musicais favoritos e depois oiçam gratuitamente essas bandas e outras semelhantes. A Reprise decidiu analisar se aquela audiência poderia ajudá-la a descobrir onde é que McKee se encaixava.

O LAUNCHcast está alicerçado em torno de um sistema de recomendação "ajustável' que selecciona, com base nas nossas preferências, que outras músicas poderão agradar-nos. Enquanto passa cada música, uma pequena janela incentiva-nos a atribuirmos uma classificação à canção, ao artista e ao álbum, numa escala de uma a cinco estrelas, que varia desde "Nunca mais quero ouvir esta" a "Não consigo cansar-me de ouvir isto", Enquanto ouvimos música e a avaliamos, o software da Yahoo! vai-nos conhecendo melhor e modificando a lista de canções que se seguem em consonância com essa percepção» (Anderson, 2007: 105) 

Since its launch last Thursday, the service has attracted more than 3,700 users who have uploaded more than 265,000 songs. It competes with Pandora and Last.fm, which was recently acquired by CBS. It is currently partnering with GarageBand.com, the independent online music service from Seattle's iLike.

Anywhere.FM also is similar to Melodeo's new music service, nuTsie, which allows people to access random mixes of their iTunes collections either on the Web or a mobile device.

At this time, Anywhere.FM co-founder Sachin Rekhi said their focus is to build "a digital music locker service that not only lets you play your music through any browser, but makes it really easy to share and discover music through friends." However, he didn't rule out the possibility of creating a mobile application to compete head-to-head with Melodeo.»

fonte: COOK, John, «Anywhere.FM goes after online radio», John Cook's Venture Blog, 06/08/07

fonte: McBRIDE, SArah, «Internet Radio Races To Break Free of the PC»,, WSJ, 18/06/07  

http://www.kurthanson.com/archive/news/061807/index.shtml,

O comentário de Kurt Hanson: «It surprises me — I guess pleasantly — that this is such a big story that it warrants being the lead story in the Wall Street Journal today. The thing is Internet radio is already mobile! Any consumer with a Palm OS device or a Windows Mobile device can download a music player than can handle the streaming MP3 format. Once they do, they've got access to thousands of Internet radio stations. And a $5 adapter from RadioShack will feed the signal from your mobile device into your car stereo system. So, basically, mobile Internet radio is here already! From now on, it's just a matter of improving and fine-tuning the details. -- KH» 

«Com apenas 8 meses de vida, o Palco Principal está rapidamente a conquistar o título de principal espaço de música portuguesa na Internet. Hoje já agrupa uma comunidade de mais de 15 mil utilizadores regulares (entre músicos e ouvintes). Só em Abril de 2007, acederam ao sítio Web (www.palcoprincipal.com) mais de 300 mil visitantes, ultrapassando as 3 milhões de «page views». Criado por iniciativa de João Carvalho, um jovem músico e engenheiro formado na Universidade do Porto, o Palco Principal aloja hoje mais de 3700 projectos musicais, agrupados em 16 estilos diferentes. E tem também à disposição mais de 10.000 bandas «mainstream», permitindo o acesso a alguns vídeos de concertos, «videoclips» ou entrevistas. Ao mesmo tempo, os internautas podem alojar músicas (para audição e «download»), colocar álbuns de fotografias ou inventar blogues. “O Palco Principal integra-se na corrente da chamada Web 2.0 ou Web social, que privilegia a Internet como espaço de encontro”, explica João Carvalho, adiantando que o objectivo do projecto é “mobilizar a comunidade que cria e partilha conteúdos e gera transacções”.»

fonte: RAMOS; João, «O palco musical da web», Expresso/EConomia, 02/06/07

Late last month, CBS said it had paid $280 million to acquire Last FM (last.fm), a popular Web radio service where listeners can customize stations based on their personal taste, and also explore other users’ playlists. And Clear Channel, the biggest radio corporation, with a stable of more than 800 stations, has built miniature social networks into the Web sites of Hot 99.5 (hot995.com) and 7 other pop-music stations in major markets in the latest step in an ambitious digital initiative (...).

Broadcast radio still commands a massive audience: An estimated 230 million people tune in each week. The trick for the big radio corporations, though, is that pursuing listeners online may mean developing a wholly different approach to programming. Many Internet-based stations say their medium allows them to offer an abundance of genres far outside the boundaries of traditional over-the-air music stations, often with playlists that can be tailored to the taste of the individual listener. Pandora (pandora.com), one of the most popular Internet radio services with roughly seven million users, creates personalized stations based on the characteristics of users’ favorite songs. Live 365 (live365.com), which says it has four million listeners a month, is a searchable portal to thousands of tiny stations playing genres ranging from neo-soul to Christian blues. Given the proliferation of wireless Internet access, many of the fledgling radio services hope that fans will soon be able to flip on an online radio stream while driving to work instead of tuning into the local morning radio D.J. “It’s just a matter of time before you can get Internet streams wherever you are,” said Tim Westergren, a co-founder of Pandora.

Broadcast radio still commands a massive audience: An estimated 230 million people tune in each week. The trick for the big radio corporations, though, is that pursuing listeners online may mean developing a wholly different approach to programming.

Many Internet-based stations say their medium allows them to offer an abundance of genres far outside the boundaries of traditional over-the-air music stations, often with playlists that can be tailored to the taste of the individual listener. Pandora (pandora.com), one of the most popular Internet radio services with roughly seven million users, creates personalized stations based on the characteristics of users’ favorite songs. Live 365 (live365.com), which says it has four million listeners a month, is a searchable portal to thousands of tiny stations playing genres ranging from neo-soul to Christian blues.

Given the proliferation of wireless Internet access, many of the fledgling radio services hope that fans will soon be able to flip on an online radio stream while driving to work instead of tuning into the local morning radio D.J. “It’s just a matter of time before you can get Internet streams wherever you are,” said Tim Westergren, a co-founder of Pandora»

fonte: «Big Radio Makes a Grab for Internet Listeners»; The New York Times, JEFF LEEDS, Published: June 12, 2007

That could change if the pioneers behind personalized radio continue to win over music lovers who are burned out on regular radio but can't be bothered to constantly refresh their iPods with 99¢ iTunes. On websites such as Last.fm, Pandora.com and the new Slacker.com personalized radio lets you train it to understand your tastes. You can, of course, just listen to the music passively as it plays on your computer. But it's even better when you make it your own, by marking each song as a favorite, skipping past it or banishing it from the station's playlist altogether. (See chart below for more details on how personalized radio works.) And despite growing concern about how proposed new royalty fees for Internet radio stations could hamper the industry's growth, on May 23 Sprint became the first wireless carrier to offer personalized radio on its phones.»

fonte: «Learning to Love Radio Again», By Anita Hamilton, Time Magazine, 29/05/07

«A rádio virtual Last.fm foi comprada pela CBS, gigante da mídia norte-americana, por US$ 280 milhões (cerca de R$ 560 milhões). A rede online foi criada na Inglaterra há cinco anos e hoje tem mais de 15 milhões de usuários. Ela permite que um internauta se conecte a outros com gostos musicais semelhantes, possibilitando a criação de estações personalizadas. O fundador da Last.fm, Martin Stiksel, disse ao site da rede inglesa BBC que foi uma “oportunidade empolgante”. O acordo prevê que a equipe será mantida e a identidade visual também.
“A parceria vai permitir que todas as músicas já gravadas e todos os videoclipes já feitos estejam na Last.fm”, disse Stiksel. “Com um parceiro forte como a CBS, agora isso está ao nosso alcance.”
A CBS é o maior grupo de rádio dos Estados Unidos, com 179 estações de notícias e música. O presidente e CEO da corporação, Leslie Moonves, disse que “a Last.fm é uma das comunidades virtuais que estão crescendo mais rápido. A aquisição se encaixa no objetivo da CBS de atrair público jovem e ouvintes de outras áreas.”
A CBS não é a primeira mega-empresa a adquirir websites em ascendência por milhões e até bilhões de dólares, impulsionando o que se chamou de “segundo boom das pontocom”. Em 2005, a News Corp., de Rupert Murdoch, arrematou o site MySpace por US$ 580 milhões. No ano passado, o Google pagou U$S 1,65 bilhão pelo YouTube.
Stiksel disse que os usuários da Last.fm não vão ficar desapontados pelo fato de o site ter sido comprado por um grande grupo. “Quando falamos sobre revolução queremos dizer isso – os usuários estão no comando. A CBS entende que os padrões de consumo de informação estão mudando.” Antes de ser adquirida pela CBS, a Last.fm não cobrava por seus serviços. Resta saber, agora, se a aquisição vai mexer com o bolso dos usuários.»

fobte: «Rádio online Last.fm comprada pela CBS», Globo.com, 30/05/07

O comentário do guru Ramsey: «It is inevitable that radio - or aspects of radio - will become personalized. If personalizing advertising makes Google virtually priceless, what effect on listeners does personalizing radio have for CBS? All of this is theoretical at this stage, of course, and I don't mean to sound breathless. But this is where I think things are headed. Instantly, the value of a huge "variety" of channels or stations will be obliterated. Because ultimately nobody wants a hundred diverse channels or stations. They want THEIR one or two or three diverse channels or stations. A hundred stations is what you provide when technology limits you from doing better. Now you can do better. Bad news for HD. Bad news for satellite. And bad news for you if you expect your station's future to be strictly tied to terrestrial broadcast.» («CBS buys Last.fm - and what it means», 30/05/07)

«Of everything that’s been written about last.fm’s sale, one point has been missed, apparently: the not insubstantial point that the company has made it’s fortune by not playing by the rules.

Commercial radio doesn’t have “listen again”, the main point of the impressive BBC Radio Player. If you’re a fan of The Geoff Show, you can only listen to the podcast, and not the entire show, music and all. And, that’s been the case with virtually every single commercial radio station. There’s no licence arranged with the RadioCentre, unlike with podcasting, so therefore it’s difficult and arguably even impossible for each radio company to pursue a separate deal. And, because there is no deal, there’s no way to “listen again” to the wealth and breadth of commercial radio output - leaving that to the BBC to exploit. This isn’t through lack of trying, I should add» (Screw it, lets do it, James Cridland blog, 1/06/07)

Mark Ramsey é taxativo:

«It's not radio, it's not satellite radio, and it's not Internet radio - it's all of the above, and it's personalized. That's the best way to describe Slacker.com, the transformational new radio experience that will rock the world of radio starting this summer (...) because it is going to change everything.»

fonte: «Slacker.com: The radio revolution arrives this summer», Hear2.0, 18/4/07

«Mobile audio is a promising opportunity that has not yet been fully exploited. That’s the conclusion of a study by Arbitron and Telephia that examines the evolving market for mobile audio services from the consumer point of view. One in 16 mobile phone subscribers (6%) report using one or more mobile audio features in the last 30 days.  Downloading music over-the-air has the highest awareness among the general mobile population. Listening to music transferred from another device is the most commonly used way of accessing mobile audio. The companies said mobile audio users spend more time than the general wireless population on “nearly every media and entertainment activity.”»

fonte: «Study: Mobile Audio Is a ‘Significant’ Growth Opportunity», RWONline, 4.06.2007

«Slacker is the latest in personalized internet radio. Last FM is out there along with Pandora and a few others. The list is growing, and folks are tuning in because it gives "control" to the user. About Slacker, it does do a few extra neat tricks such as getting internet radio stations away from the computer - via a Wi-Fi refreshed portable unit that fits in your pocket. Now that personalized radio is becoming portable, look for these internet radio stations to start gaining audience, quickly, especially with youth. (...) The start thinking how it's nearly a sure bet that we'll be hearing broadcast stations start making some reference to personlizing the station or listening experience. So, here's the bet now. What are the odds that in the next few years the perception that a playlist tailored to your taste will be the main reason a person chooses a station? My thoughts, pretty good. And, getting back to our earlier bet about broadcast radio, any takers that we'll start hearing personalized references on terrestrial radio within two months? (fonte: «Personalized" Radio is Industry's Next Hurdle» Audio Graphics, 15/03/07)

«Here's how it works: Users who log on to Slacker can begin listening to music from more than 10,000 stations that are built around specific artists and preprogrammed genres. Users also can create their own stations by indicating what types of songs they want and letting the Slacker "DJ" -- a mostly automated system based on complicated algorithms -- fill out the station program with more content.Customization adjustments to stations include choosing "more popular" versus "more eclectic," or newer versus older music. Users can click on a button to ban a certain song. Clicking on a "heart" button will mark the track as a favorite and cause the song to be played more often on that station»

(dir-se-ia que pagar para ouvir rádio através de streaming nos telemóveis, como um serviço da assinatura internet, não faria sentido, mas é preciso não esquecer que a rádio via streaming não tem fronteiras nem limites geográficos)

«Clear Channel Radio and mSpot said music programming from 10 Clear Channel stations can be heard on mSpot’s radio services over cell phones. Next month, mSpot expects to distribute live broadcasts from about 100 Clear Channel stations. The agreements broaden Clear Channel’s mobile content portfolio and expose it to subscribers of mSpot’s operator customers. Clear Channel Radio is providing CHR and urban programming from five stations. MSpot offers mobile music, radio and movie services to wireless carriers»

fonte: «Clear Channel Adds Music Channels to Cell Phones With mSpot Radio, Radio World, 30/3/07

MAIS:

«The BBC is to trial the broadcasting of up to eight of its national radio stations via 3G mobile phones. Radio 1, 1Xtra, Radio 2, Radio 3, Radio 4, 6 Music, BBC7 and the Asian Network will be available within a month to Vodafone, Orange and 3 customers who subscribe to their network's TV service. Radio 5 Live will not be available.
Mobile phone and handheld computer users have viewed almost 90 million pages since the BBC's WAP services were introduced and the corporation believes accessing radio over 3G is a natural progression.
Richard Halton, BBC Controller of Business Strategy, who was speaking at the Broadcast Mobile TV Congress today, said: "The BBC constantly aims to make its content available to as many people in as many ways as possible. "The mobile platform is a great opportunity for us to reach existing users in a new way and connect better with people who are not currently big users of the BBC."
Customers of 3 can access the channels free for a month after which the network charges £5 a month.

fonte: Radio Today, BBC digital radio via 3G, Thursday 29 March 2007

Etiquetas: telemoveis

«(...)The ad-driven beta program at www.slacker.com resembles Pandora. But when the full-fledged release becomes available in early summer, Slacker will have several components. Slacker was founded by former chief executives of Musicmatch and Rio, so it is only fitting that Slacker will offer a free software player, like the once-popular Musicmatch Jukebox, and sell a portable iPod-like device, like those Rio made. One twist is that, like Last.fm, the Slacker jukebox will enhance the radio stream by paying attention to the songs you choose. (D.J.’s will aid in programming as well.) Another twist is that, in addition to MP3s, the portable player will carry personalized radio streams that will be automatically freshened. For $7.50 a month, users get access to more features, but even if you do not pay, you will be able to buy the portable device and have access to free — though ad-rich — radio streams. Most radically, sometime this year Slacker says it will introduce a satellite receiver dock for the portable player. The Slacker team plans to blast individual song files to listeners from a satellite several times an hour. As each song is sent, the player itself will determine whether the song is a good fit for its particular user. If so, it will be saved. If not, it will be rejected. Because of the controversy over royalty rates, and because of its unique portable properties, Slacker made its own licensing deals directly with the four major music groups plus several hundred independent labels. Last.fm recently announced content deals with the Warner Music Group and EMI for tracks on its new, ad-free $3-a-month premium radio service.»

fonte: «A Radio Station Just for You», NYT, By WILSON ROTHMAN, March 29, 2007

«Web sites like Pandora.com personalize the music you stream to your desk, while satellite radio offers portable listening but little personalized track choice. Slacker, a music service unveiled this week, hopes to merge the two concepts into something new: personal portable radio for the computer, car and coat pocket. Aimed in name and concept at the music lover who does not want to fritter away hours creating playlists, Slacker offers millions of songs grouped into radio stations by genre or artist. Music can be streamed on the Web using the company’s music player at www.slacker.com. To indicate their preferred types of music and bands, listeners can flag tracks they like and dislike. Slacker has a free version of the service with advertising, as well as an ad-free edition with enhanced personalization for $7.50 a month. It plans to release hardware offerings later this year. Portable devices will download songs over a Wi-Fi connection and store them for later playback, while car stereo units will receive music over a satellite link. The standard buck-a-song downloads are on the way as well.»

fonte: New York Times, «Now, a Radio Station for (Your Name Here)»,  J. D. BIERSDORFER, 15/07/07

«Slacker will release an iPod-like device this summer that will let you take your favorites with you — it stores a certain number of songs on the player. In the second half of the year, a car dock will go on sale that will receive updated radio information for the player via satellite signals. Because the online service is free, there are commercials and you can’t skip more than six songs. If you want total control and no ads, that’ll cost $7.50 a month, well below the $12.95 Sirius and XM charge. The company says it can afford the price because it isn’t paying for a dedicated satellite, like the other two. We’ve been listening to Slacker pretty much non-stop for the past day and love the song selection, channel choices and customization. The quality is about MP3 level, but much better than FM, and we didn’t experience any skipping or technical snags.

Continuam as ondas de choque provocadas pelo anuncio de novas tabelas no pagamento de direitos de autor para os canais de streaming (basicamente: os aumentos podem chegar a mais de 100 por cento; antes o valor era calculado por uma lei de 2002, cada rádio na net pagava, por musica e por ouvinte, 0,07 centimos; lei essa que deixou de valer em 2005; a nova proposta fala em aumentos -retroactivos - de 00,7 para 0,08 centimos de dolar, crescendo até atingir os 0,19 centimos em 2010; mais a taxa fixa anual minima de 500 dolares; é citado o exemplo da AccuRadio, com mais de 300 estações, que gerou em 2006 receitas de 400 mil dolares; terá de com esta proposta de lei 600 mil dolares em direitos)

Há que os que resistem, para contrariar: «Faced with last week's Copyright Royalty Board decision, which threatens to shutter the huge majority of Internet radio operations in the U.S., webcast audiences are rushing to respond, signing online petitions and calling the attention of their elected officials to the Webcasters' struggle. There are already a number of destinations for Internet radio listeners to support Webcasters in their fight against this latest ruling. Below is a list of sites where Webcasters and audiences alike can discuss the ruling, contact members of Congress, and generally contribute to helping to keep Internet radio online» e há os que fazem contas: «Larger services that offer thousands of channels, such as the free Pandora, are also facing a huge spike in royalty costs. Kurt Hanson, publisher of RAIN and CEO of AccuRadio, went so far as to speculate that Pandora, which is based in the United States, could "disappear" as a result of the new rates. Overseas competitors like Last.fm, which is based in London and removed from the board's restrictions, could easily claim Pandora's market share» (fonte: Wired News, By Eliot Van Buskirk 08:00 AM Mar, 06, 2007)

Na Business Week: «The decision, due to take effect sometime during the next two months, could raise royalty fees paid by some online radio stations more than tenfold—enough to put many smaller stations out of business, Hanson says. Currently, most small Webcasters have paid royalties calculated as a percentage of revenue. Under the new rule, those outfits will begin paying on a per-song, per-listener basis. "The more intensively an individual service is used and consequently the more the rights being licensed are used, the more the service pays, and in direct proportion to the usage," according to the 115-page ruling.  Here's what the change will mean for AccuRadio. The station employs six full-time staff members and records about $500,000 in annual sales, mostly from advertising. Of that, Hanson pays record labels about $50,000 in royalty fees. The rule change, which will impose fees retroactively, will jack up royalty fees to more than $600,000 for 2006. Other Webcasters will be in the same boat. "I don't think any of the operators would break even," Hanson says. "Internet radio is in danger of becoming extinct," shouts a headline posted on the company's Web site, urging listeners to sign a petition or send a message to Congress. "The rates are so high that they exceed 100% of most Webcasters' total revenues!"»

«So we have companies like Pandora, seeking to, as its founder, Tim Westergren, puts it, "understand the DNA of music'. His company, which now contracts with Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, AOL, and Tower Records to make music recommendations for their custamers, employs thirty "music analysts" with a minimum requirement of a four-year degree in music theory. Every time a song arrives in this musical DNA shop, an analyst will devote twenty to thirty minutes of intense concentration to identifying as many as our hundred distinct variables, or "genes". Just to capture the emotional metrics of the singing voice, there are thirty-two variables: things like timbre, vibrato, pitch, and range. "Any voice can be understood as the combination of these genes", says Westergren. When this system is applied to all the instruments as well as the traits of the song - tempo, amplitude, etc. - the analyst produces a précis. If done right, says Westergren, another analyst can look at and virtually play the whole song in his or her head. More to the point, using this Music Genome Project, you can automate what a disk jockey does to customize a set according to your tastes» (levy, 2006: 252) 

«And for people who don't have the time to go out and find music? There's Pandora, an online streaming music service that suggests new songs based on ones you already like. "We would like to be the best radio station in the world for everybody," claims Tim Westergren, the founder. Professional musicians at Pandora have spent the last six years analyzing songs based on 400 different musical attributes called the music genome project. "We have this DNA of music and when you come to Pandora you type in the name of a song you like. Pandora takes a looks at that song's DNA and tried to find musical neighbours."» (http://www.cbc.ca/theend/radio.html)

«The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) has announced its decision on Internet radio royalty rates, rejecting all of the arguments made by Webcasters and instead adopting the "per play" rate proposal put forth by SoundExchange(a digital music fee collection body created by the RIAA).
RAIN has learned the rates that the Board has decided on, effective retroactively through the beginning of 2006. (...) A "performance" is defined as the streaming of one song to one listener; thus a station that has an average audience of 500 listeners racks up 500 "performances" for each song it plays. The minimum fee is $500 per channel per year.  There is no clear definition of what a 'channel' is for services that make up individualized playlists for listeners.  For noncommercial webcasters, the fee will be $500 per channel, for up to 159,140 ATH (aggregate tuning hours) per month.  They would pay the commercial rate for all transmissions above that number.

Participants are granted a 15 day period wherein they have the opportunity to ask the CRB for a re-hearing.

Within 60 days of the final determination, the decision is supposed to be published in the Federal Register, along with any technical corrections that the Board may wish to make.

Within 30 days of publication in the Federal Register, it can be appealed (but only by the participants) to the U.S. Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia.»

comentário de Kurt Hanson (RAIN): «Because a typical Internet radio station plays about 16 songs an hour, that's a royalty obligation in 2006 of about 1.28 cents per listener-hour. In 2006, a well-run Internet radio station might have been able to sell two radio spots an hour at a $3 net CPM (cost-per-thousand), which would add up to .6 cents per listener-hour. Even adding in ancillary revenues from occasional video gateway ads, banner ads on the website, and so forth, total revenues per listener-hour would only be in the 1.0 to 1.2 cents per listener-hour range. That math suggests that the royalty rate decision — for the performance alone, not even including composers' royalties! — is in the in the ballpark of 100% or more of total revenues. —KH»

fonte: RAIN, webcast royalty rate decisiob announced» 2/03/07

ACT : já há quem decrte o fim da rádio pela internet: «The royalty increases are so high that many Web-based radio stations will have to go out of business or dramatically increase advertising to cover the royalty fees. "It's the end of Internet radio as we know it," one broadcaster fumed. "The RIAA wants to put us all out of business."»

Chama-se Oboe Free

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Q: Why is the Oboe Free music locker a significant development?
A: This is the first time a free music locker with unlimited storage has been made available. Users sign-up with a valid email address and then load their Oboe Locker with their music using the free Oboe Sync software for Linux, Macintosh or Microsoft Windows. Once loaded, users stream their music from any browser or from a growing list of mobile devices - and can also sync to another computer. Oboe Sync will even add cover art for all your albums at the end of the sync process. We've also added our number one feature request of scheduling so a locker sync can happen in off-peak hours when your computer is normally idle. (...)»

fonte: «Unlimited Storage Free Music Lockers», February 12th, 2007

NOta: primeiro sinal: afinal não é ilimitado (alegadamente por excesso de adesão), apenas 1GB; depois: a ideia é venderem-nos um serviço «praemium»; é preciso optar pelo grátis; ao contrário de outros, exige pelo menos um software proprio, que tem de ser instalado no nosso computador

The Perform Act, which died in Congress last year, was reintroduced Jan. 11 by Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Joseph Biden, D-Del., and Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. It requires satellite, cable TV, and Internet broadcasters to pay "fair market value" for digital music performances. It also requires "the use of readily available and cost-effective technology to prevent music theft," according to a press release from Feinstein's office. The law would apply to stations that license music from the government program created by Section 114 of the U.S Copyright Act.

It specifically allows some recording and time-shifting of radio. Consumers could record music by program, channel, or time period. "For example, if a listener chooses to automatically record a news station every morning at 9:00; a jazz station every afternoon at 2:00; a blues station every Friday at 3:00; and a talk radio show every Saturday at 4:00; that would be allowable. In addition, that listener could then use their recording device to move these programs so that all programs of the same genre are back to back," according to Feinstein. "What a listener cannot do is set a recording device to find all the Frank Sinatra songs being played on the radio-service and only record those songs," according to Feinstein. The RIAA welcomed the law. "Under the current system, satellite radio has been allowed to morph into a digital distribution service-- shorting the creators of music, displacing licensed sales, and threatening the integrity of the digital music marketplace in the process. We love satellite radio. But this is simply no way to do business. It's in everyone's best interest to ensure a marketplace where fair competition can thrive," the association said in a statement.

fonte: «U.S. Reintroduces Law Requiring DRM For Digital, Internet Radio». By Mitch Wagner, InformationWeek ,Jan 16, 2007 05:22 PM

Reacções:

«But the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Public Knowledge oppose the legislation. The bill would be a "backdoor assault on your right to record off the radio," the EFF said. The Perform Act would prohibit digital and satellite radio services from offering TiVO-like recording options, the EFF said. The Perform Act would prohibit streaming music formats that don't use DRM, such as the MP3 format used on several Internet radio services, including Apple Inc.'s iTunes streaming radio stations, said Fred von Lohmann, senior intellectual property lawyer at EFF. The bill sets a "bad precedent for our copyright laws," von Lohmann wrote on the EFF blog. "Over the course of a century, our copyright laws have responded to changing technology not with government technology mandates, but rather by letting new business models evolve ..." Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, said she agrees with parts of the bill that streamline music licensing fees. But the DRM provisions place limits on consumers, she said. "This bill looks to the past rather than to the future by limiting the ability of consumers to use material to which they have subscribed and by limiting future innovations in electronics," Sohn wrote on the Public Knowledge Web site. "It confuses a radio service, in which a consumer can only record what is currently being played, with a download service, in which consumers pick the material to download.» (fonte: Computerworld, «Groups criticize proposed music DRM legislation», 18/01/07)

Etiquetas: direitos, satélite, streaming, internet

fonte: «Streaming audio takes on radio challenge», Infoworld.com, 22/05/2000

DE acordo com relatos diversos utilizadores do Pandora estão a reclamar pela introdução de publicidade on line antes das músicas. Como utilizador regular não só não me apercebi como até compreendo que o serviço tenha de ter contrapartidas, mas este texto remete sobretudo para uma característica da internet: quem utiliza de borla não quer começar a pagar...

«Pandora, a VC-funded Internet radio property that garnered huge amounts of media and popular attention in 2006 with its unique personalization and recommendation engine, is now coming under fire from fans who aren't pleased with the service's recent addition of in-stream audio ads.
The nine second audio ads, which according to Pandora CTO Tom Conrad, are being heard by "10%" of Pandora's audience, are being met by many bloggers with an overwhelmingly negative response.»

Como diz Kurt Hanson, do RAIN: «As noted in Dan's article above, they're vociferously objecting to the presence of a single nine-second-long audio spot per day! And if Pandora's venture capitalists are ever going to recover the more than $20 million they've sunk into the venture to date, Pandora is going to have to run a lot more advertising than that. (Or be more succesful with subscriptions than other webcasters have been.)--KH»

fonte: «Pandora's problem: fans won't tolerate in-streaming advertising», RAIN, 11/01/07

Etiquetas: Pandora, streaming

«(...) Básicamente, un sistema de recomendación se parece a un motor de búsqueda como los de Google o Yahoo, pero enfocado a contenidos de un tipo determinado. En el caso de la música, estos protocolos se unen al reproductor multimedia del ordenador, sea el que sea, y registran qué tipo de temas se escuchan y con que frecuencia. Paulatinamente, el software busca estilos musicales similares a los que gustan al usuario y los incorpora a la programación. El oyente puede vetar o definir determinados géneros en función de lo que le apetezca escuchar en cada momento. Este tipo de sistemas son especialmente atractivos para los jóvenes que se muestran muy activos en la escucha de música.(...) Muchos considerarían una intromisión casi orwelliana el hecho de que un programa espíe el tipo de música que escuchamos, pero, en realidad, los sistemas de búsqueda no saben qué tema concreto está sonando o cuál es su procedencia. El corazón de estos protocolos es un programa inteligente que analiza el sonido de la música en función de parámetros como la intensidad, el ritmo, el timbre, la progresión de los acordes o las octavas.

El software registra cada dato y los compara, mediante ecuaciones, con otras composiciones musicales en busca de similitudes. El desarrollo de estos programas inteligentes ha avanzado mucho en la última década y ha traspasado el umbral de los consumidores privados para llamar la atención de la industria discográfica. Numerosas emisoras de radio ya utilizan sistemas de recomendación para ayudarse en la programación diaria de un menú musical variado»

fonte: el comercio digital, Radios que escuchan, 25/10/06

«Depender de amigos ou de lojas de CD para descobrir novas bandas já faz parte do passado. Uma revolução que começou com o site de relacionamentos MySpace (www.myspace.com) agora ajuda os fãs de música a aumentar a lista de artistas favoritos. Três sites – Pandora (www.pandora.com), Last.fm (www.last.fm) e TagWorld (www.tagworld.com) – aperfeiçoaram a idéia e criaram ferramentas para ajudar as pessoas a conhecer músicas novas.

Com mais de 66 milhões de usuários, o MySpace foi o primeiro a criar uma seção especial de música. Qualquer artista pode fazer um perfil e colocar canções e clipes para download, além poder criar blogs e dar informações sobre álbuns e sobre as datas dos próximos shows. Os fãs podem ficar "amigos" dos artistas ou postar comentários. Ter uma página no MySpace Music virou quase obrigação para as bandas norte-americanas e européias. (...)

Os sites que aprimoraram a idéia do MySpace são em inglês, mas o Pandora é mais fácil de usar. Desenvolvido em Flash,logo na tela inicial, você digita o nome de uma banda ou música do seu gosto, e o site cria uma estação de rádio com canções parecidas, porém, de artistas diferentes. Se a seleção do Pandora não agradou, você clica em "Don’t Like it". Mas, se você adorou vá em "Like it". O acervo é grande: estão cadastradas 400 mil músicas de 20 mil artistas. (...)

Além do Pandora, o Last.fm, que está na web desde 2003, também quer ajudar as pessoas a encontrar novos sons. A diferença é que, depois de criar um perfil no site – uma comunidade similar ao Orkut –, você pode baixar um programa que funciona como um plug-in no tocador de música que você usa no PC, como o iTunes ou o Windows Media Player. (...) Depois de 200 músicas ouvidas e enviadas, o Last.fm “encontra” pessoas que ouviram as mesmas canções que você. O perfil dessas pessoas, que o site chama de neighbours (vizinhos), aparece na sua página. (...)

Com tantas possibilidades , fica até difícil lembrar de todas as bandas que você viu em um só dia. Mas, o outro site, o TagWorld, com mais de 1 milhão de usuários, tenta resolver esse problema. As músicas das bandas que você encontrou e gostou podem ser guardadas em um arquivo do seu perfil chamado My Tunes. Com isso, você pode ouvir as favoritas sem ter que entrar na página das bandas. Outra vantagem é o player chamado de Music Discovery Engine. Não é preciso instalar nada. Mesmo sem ter cadastro, você escuta as bandas que quiser. O problema é que o repertório não é grande e não há muitos artistas diferentes.»

fonte:Filipe Serrano, «Sites acham novos sons para você», Estadão, 03/04/2006

«Internet radio stations have long been popular because of the wide variety of music they offer and the relative lack of commercials. But for those who crave musical playlists tailored to their personal tastes, it might be difficult to find a service more useful than Last.fm.

Last.fm is an online radio site -- but with a twist. It works hand-in-hand with Audioscrobbler, a small software plug-in that works with popular software music players like Winamp and iTunes. The plug-in scrutinizes the music files on users’ computers and sends the information to a server. From that, Last.fm creates a personalized Internet radio station based on each user’s taste.

fonte: «Internet Radio, Without Drudgery, wired News, 2/8/04

Etiquetas: Lastfm