3.4.3 Canais de streaming

Mais um exemplo de 'rádio' na net (Spodtronic)

Trabalha com os modelos da Nokia e chama-se Spodtronic (penso que não está acessível em Portugal);recebe centenas de estações de rádio na net, mais arquivos da BBC e o serviço Musicovery (um serviço de audio/música personalizado). E, talvez o mais importante: «Anybody can listen to radio. Only you can see and listen to radio». Como? «Access a huge amount of live radio stations from your mobile. Imagine listening to a song and wondering who the artist is, with spodtronic you will even SEE the artist: Thanks to the data communication via 2.5/3G/ W-LAN spodtronic simultaneously visualises the song currently playing with all the trivia concerning songs and artists, such as artist pictures, discography, news and a lot more. You will also have the ability to instantly purchase tracks and ringtone downloads of that artist while listening, if your network operator is integrated with spodtronic» (informações aqui)

Canais pessoais de streaming também portáteis

«Personalized Internet radio is expanding from the PC to portable devices. The "Be Your Own DJ" notion of creating stations based on your favorite artists is a popular pastime online: Yahoo's (YHOO) Launchcast, Pandora, Last.FM and Slacker all offer such services. Thursday, Slacker introduces the Slacker Portable, a $199 device that lets you take its personalized stations anywhere you go. Wireless carrier AT&T (T) just made stations from Pandora available on eight phones, for $8.99 monthly (the service is free online). Earlier, Sprint (S) began quietly offering Pandora for $2.99 monthly on 15 phones. "The whole world is moving in this direction," says Kurt Hanson, editor of RAIN (Radio And Internet Newsletter).

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?»

Um concorrente para o iTunes

«Universal chief Doug Morris is enlisting other big music players for a service to challenge the Jobs juggernaut. Relationships in the entertainment world can be famously fraught. And few are more so these days than the one between Steve Jobs and Universal Music chief Doug Morris. You may recall that Morris recently refused to re-up a multi-year contract to put his company's music on Apple's iTunes Music Store. That's because Jobs wouldn't ease his stringent terms, which limit how record companies can market their music.

Now, Morris is going on the offensive. The world's most powerful music executive aims to join forces with other record companies to launch an industry-owned subscription service. BusinessWeek has learned that Morris has already enlisted Sony BMG Music Entertainment as a potential partner and is talking to Warner Music Group. Together the three would control about 75% of the music sold in the U.S. Besides competing head-on with Apple Inc.'s (AAPL ) music store, Morris and his allies hope to move digital music beyond the iPod-iTunes universe by nurturing the likes of Microsoft's Zune media player and Sony's PlayStation and by working with the wireless carriers. The service, which is one of several initiatives the music majors are considering to help reverse sliding sales, will be called Total Music. (Morris was unavailable for comment.)» fonte: «Universal Music Takes on iTunes», Business Week, 22/10/07).

Como Ramsey diz: «So what do you call a wide selection of music, wirelessly delivered and mobile, that offers all your favorite songs as well as the chance to discover new ones - and it's all free? You call it "radio." Except in this case, it's radio with no commercials. What's the difference between streaming and downloading if all the music is free? Isn't it likely that this service, if it materializes, will offer "streaming stations" as well as individually downloadable songs (just as Yahoo's Music service does)?

 

«Pandora vai matar a rádio tal como a conhecemos» (concordo)

«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

Fundador do Pandora diz que vai à falência

«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

rádio é algo que se pode criar e controlar

«(...) 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)

Não é possível continuar a chamar rádio a isto; ou será?

«(...) 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) 

O fenómeno Pandora

Comentários dos leitores do Washington Post a um artigo sobre a rádio atraves da Internet:
«"My wife and I listen to AOL radio on our computer. We just set the genre or type of music we prefer at the moment and listen to it several hours every day. I haven't paid anything for this service yet but I imagine that will change. We are both senior citizens and are truly impressed by this service. As a result of this and seeing who is performing, I have bought more CD's this year than in the last 15 years..."
"I spend a lot of time on my computer, and one of the following is usually playing: BBC2, KCSM (the SF jazz station), or Pandora.

"I also buy a lot of CDs which I play while driving or on the 2 sound systems that we have at home. I have certainly been exposed to "new" (to me) artists, and bought CDs as a result of listening to streaming radio."

"...I have a very demanding profession and I step away from my desk on a regular basis. I love Pandora and I will listen to it if it continues to develop...

"So, I listen mostly to my CD's. I too have spent nearly $200 on music discovered on Pandora. Both in stores and online. I have also sought out concerts of bands found on Pandora. But the honeymoon's over. Time is the one thing I don't have a lot of and who ever develops a system for BUSY music lovers... wins!"

"As I type this (while I should be working) I'm currently listening to Pandora. I probably spend 4-6 hrs a day listening to Pandora and it's a great resource for listening to music from artists that either don't get air play on conventional radio stations or hear more of an artist's album since conventional radio. And yes, I still buy CD's of artists I like and download songs from iTunes when I only want to hear a few songs from one album or I want to listen to songs from 'back in the day'.

"I think record companies are missing out on a good opportunity to use free internet radio to expose people to new artist that don't get enough exposure from radio or music video channels (do those still exist?)."
"I hardly ever listen to commercial radio, not even public radio. I listen to Pandora when I'm not playing my own CD's. On Pandora I get to customize my channel and hear the kind of music I like, and I can learn about artists I would not have heard otherwise. I've bought several CD's since starting to listen to Pandora."
"I use Pandora from time to time as it reveals new artists who I would never have heard otherwise (no radio playtime) and also back catalog of artists that I've overlooked before. The consequence is that I buy more new CDs, especially since I will usually explore more of an artist's repertoire after one good CD experience."
(http://www.kurthanson.com/archive/news/081707/index.shtml)

Um novo serviço de música on line

«Anywhere.FM is a new online music service that allows users to upload their entire music collections and listen to them wherever they have an Internet connection.

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

Os canais de streaming à procura dos carros

«"Internet radio, which can draw on vast troves of music from around the world and customize them to a listener's personal tastes, is growing. While ratings for traditional radio broadcasters have been lackluster, Internet radio listenership in the U.S. has risen to 29 million a week, up from 20 million three years ago, according to Arbitron Inc. and Edison Media Research. "Even so, the nascent industry has yet to capture the biggest prize — portability... Now, start-ups and giants are jockeying for position in mobile Internet radio, in a race that could rearrange the business model of music and broadcasting... "Last month,... Pandora Media Inc., one of the biggest players with seven million registered users, announced it is working with Sprint Nextel Corp. to make its service available on mobile phones. Pandora says it is also working on its own player as well. [previous RAIN coverage here.]  "One of the field's newest aspirants, Slacker says its hand-held will be out by summer's end. Slacker is also pushing hard into automobiles. The company says it is close to introducing a car kit that will play Slacker-selected tunes in any vehicle. Chief Operating Officer Jim Cady says he is in early talks with unidentified auto makers about building Slacker technology into car dashboards... "...Internet radio 'will sweep into the car, and the traditional station is going to have to think about how they reprogram to compete,' says Jonathan Jacoby, an analyst at Banc of America Securities... ''We've had conversations with a huge number of car companies [and] car audio manufacturers that are all very eager to start making this more a part of the dashboard,' says [Pandora founder Tim] Westergren... "[Slacker's] planned car kit reflects a technical advantage. While most other Internet radio providers are reliant on WiFi, Slacker's portable devices will use both WiFi and satellite technology... "Slacker says the first hand-held devices, which will start at $149, will refresh automatically when they're in WiFi zones,... "Rather than paying statutory license fees, Slacker cut deals directly with record labels. Like satellite-radio broadcasters, Slacker will turn over an undisclosed percentage of revenue in royalties, rather than paying per song and per play."»

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» 

Uma espécie de Pandora português

«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

O segundo choque é isto

«(...) Confronted by a slow erosion of listeners who are turning to iPods, podcasts and other sources for entertainment, the radio corporations are trying to merge their over-the-air music and D.J. chatter with the Web, adding online streams of their broadcasts and features already found on many independent Web-based stations. These include live chat rooms, blogs and MySpace-style social networking features.

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

O futuro da rádio é a rádio personalizada?

«Radio's got a problem. Although some 200 million people tune in each week to hear their favorite overcaffeinated DJ or catch those crucial rush-hour traffic updates, it's getting tougher to hold listeners' attention. Facing flat revenues and competition ranging from iPods to music phones, the 87-year-old industry is scrambling to reinvent itself. But not even satellite radio or the new HD format addresses this analog medium's fundamental flaw: it doesn't give people any say in which songs they hear. If you don't like a track or a DJ, your only option is to turn the dial--or turn it off.

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

Last Fm comprada pela CBS

«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)

Operador telemóveis EUA oferece Pandora; as vantagens de ouvir o Pandora

«Sprint has introduced Pandora to let users discover new music and hear favorite songs through their own personalized DJ on their phone. All the users have to do is enter a song or artist that they like, and within seconds, Pandora delivers a personalized radio station with a continuous stream of songs that fit the same sound and style. (...) Pandora on Sprint phones is integrated seamlessly with the online version of Pandora. Up to 100 stations can be saved in a user's account. Sprint customers can also create new stations directly on their phones through an easy-to-use interface.

Information about the current song (including title, artist and album) is displayed on the phone's color screen, and customers can also scroll backwards to see this information for recently played songs. Additionally, customers can rate songs with the touch of a button with either "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" so Pandora can immediately adjust the station's programming, and they can pause a song as well as skip a song that they don't want to hear.

Sprint customers can bookmark a song, and the song name and artist will be saved. The bookmark can serve as a reminder to purchase the song later on the Sprint Music Store, which offers more than 1.6 million songs that can be downloaded wirelessly on the phone in as little as 30 seconds for only 99 cents each with a Power Vision data plan.

Pandora is now available on five Sprint Power Vision phones - the FUSIC by LG, A900 and A920 by Samsung (News - Alert), and 7500 and 8400 by Sanyo»

fonte: «Sprint Offers Streaming Radio for Mobile Phones», TMCnet, May 24, 2007

 

Acabou-se-me o Pandora...

«(...) Due to international licensing constraints, we are deeply, deeply sorry to say that we must begin proactively preventing access to Pandora's streaming service for most countries outside of the U.S. It is difficult to convey just how disappointing this is for us. Our vision remains to eventually make Pandora a truly global service, but for the time being, we can no longer continue as we have been. As a small company, the best chance we have of realizing our dream of Pandora all around the world is to grow as the licensing landscape allows. We show your IP address is (...). Delivery of Pandora is based on proper licensing from the people who created the music - we have always believed in honoring the guidelines as determined by legislators and regulators, artists and songwriters, and the labels and publishers they work with. In the U.S. there is a federal statute that provides this license for all the music streamed on Pandora. Unfortunately, there is no equivalent license outside the U.S. and there is no global licensing organization to enable us to legitimately offer Pandora around the world. Other than in the U.K., we have not yet been able to make significant progress in our efforts to obtain a sufficient number of international licenses at terms that would enable us to run a viable business. The volume of listening on Pandora makes it a very expensive service to run. Streaming costs are very high, and since our inception, we have been making publishing and performance royalty payments for every song we play»

Mais do Slacker

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

O audio portátil tem futuro, diz estudo

«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

«Rádio personalizada»; agora wi-fi (Slacker)

«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»

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Transmissão da rádio por telemóveis

(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