5.4 Internet

A resposta da rádio (gravar músicas on line)

«UBC Media plans to launch a new service that allows radio listeners to instantly download songs to a computer or mobile phone, allowing for impulse driven media purchases. The company said that it would launch its Digital Music Downloading (DMD) service in London early in 2007. The service will be available throughout the UK in March. The DMD service will initially feature five streaming radio stations. Users can download songs in real time to both their home systems and specially-equipped mobile devices. The service uses prepaid credits and charges ₤1.25 per song. Apple's iTunes store charges 79p per download. The company said it has secured licensing deals with all four major record labels, as well as the PPL and MCPS licencing organisations. Currently, the only mobile device that is equipped to support the DMD service is Virgin Mobile's Lobster 700 TV. The company hopes that manufacturers will begin selling more devices that support the service next year. The music download service sends each song as an ecnrypted audio file alongside the radio broadcast over an internet connection. Because of the limited mobile bandwidth and associated costs, UBC at launch will offer only five radio stations.  The company plans to grow out its station line-up through software that transmits downloads directly through a home internet connection rather than a cellular network. The DMD service was first demonstrated in November of 2005 at an event in London. In August, the company conducted a month-long trial of the service with Birmingham radio station Heart 100.7.»

fonte: «Downloadable radio service prepares for takeoff» Shaun Nichols in California, vnunet.com 27 Nov 2006

Outras formas de os musicos se promoverem

A internet oferece uma panóplia de oportunidades para os músicos se promoverem, encontrando os seus fãs muito mais facil e eficazmente do que através da rádio.

A existência de páginas que recriam/constroem uma realidade virtual é mais um contributo: o Second Life ou o Habbo Hotel são disso exemplos. O Habbo Hotel, «a 3D online world popular with teens which is being targeted by record companies desperate to find new ways to reach this crucial audience. Next month U2 will become the biggest band yet to insert themselves into this virtual world, with cartoon-like representations of Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr appearing within the game to host a pub quiz and promote their new album. In the UK, more than 800,000 users regularly meet in the sprawling virtual hotel to chat, play games, decorate their rooms and hang out in a variety of locations from pizza joints to swimming pools and nightclubs to burger bars. Globally, more than 66m Habbo characters have been created, there are communities in 29 countries across five continents, and it now has 7 million unique users a month. When they sign up, new users, typically aged between 11 and 18, create their own digitised versions of themselves and are then free to roam around and interact with others online at the same time.»

fonte: «Pop music moguls home in on the hotel with 66 million guests», Guardian Unlimited, 21/11/06

MSN incorpora tecnologia Pandora

«A rádio online do portal MSN, da Microsoft, não é mais a mesma. É que nesta semana o serviço incorporou a tecnologia do Pandora, um popular serviço de música online onde os usuários podem ouvir músicas por gênero e similaridades, seguindo o ´projeto genoma da música´, como o serviço se descreve. O acordo, dizem analistas do setor, foi feito para barrar a perda de ouvintes do serviço da Microsoft, que teve uma queda de 9% no número de usuários mensais no último ano, segundo a empresa de pesquisas ComScore. Um levantamento da companhia indica que o Pandora tem cerca de 1,1 milhão de visitas mensais, enquanto o serviço do MSN tem 2,5 milhões de visitas. Ao entrar no endereço da rádio online da Microsoft, o usuário acessa uma interface customizada do Pandora, onde tem as mesmas funcionalidades do serviço original. Basta digitar o nome de uma música, músico ou banda para ouvir um trabalho do artista preferido e, em seguida, conhecer canções de outras bandas ou músicos similares. Dentro do site, há ainda um serviço de recomendação em que o usuário pode dizer se concorda ou não com a seleção proposta pelo serviço, auxiliando a filtrar as recomendações propostas pelo Pandora. »

fonte: «Rádio online da Microsoft incorpora tecnologia do Pandora», Estado de São paulo, 23 de novembro de 2006 - 09:48

A rádio na net é inimiga do ambiente...

«Escuchar cadenas de radio digitales a través de la televisión o del ordenador incrementa en gran medida las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero, ya que estos aparatos tienen un consumo de electricidad mucho más elevado que un aparato de radio convencional, según un estudio publicado por el Gobierno británico, informa el diario The Guardian.

Los británicos que sintonizan estas emisoras con sus ordenadores y televisores digitales incrementan las emisiones de CO2 en 190.000 toneladas al año. Los daños medioambientales provocados por estas emisiones están valorados en 12,6 millones de euros. El incremento en la utilización de pequeños electrodomésticos, y la sustitución de los aparatos de televisión analógicos por digitales podría incrementar en un 60% el consumo eléctrico de los hogares británicos. Blair augura una gran crisis económica y humanitaria por el cambio climático»

fonte: «Sintonizar la radio con el ordenador dispara las emisiones de CO2»,Internacional, 15/11/2006 La Crónica Social • Laura Vallejo.

Para os que entendem um site como uma despesa...

«1. Is the purpose of your website just to put online what is already on the air, or is it something else?
2. Are we investing the necessary resources and talent in the development of our website, or are we having an intern update stuff in his spare time?
3. Are we giving people what they go to our station for in all its shapes and sizes on the web? Or are we offering one stream and a bunch of photos of our personalities?
4. If the content described in this article can generate considerable traffic, can we convert that traffic to revenue? And if so, then why aren't we investing for traffic instead of seeing our websites as expensive necessities?
5. If we keep crowing about how "local" our radio station is, exactly how does our website express that or service that?»

fonte: Mark Ramsey, Hear2.0, A website is not an expense, it's an investment, 17/11/06

Clear Channel reforça na net

«No one thinks radio is going away. But neither is radio any longer just a box with one dial for on-off and volume and another dial for tuning. "Radio" today can come through a subscription satellite service, a multichannel HD unit, a cell phone, a computer and who knows where else. What has changed very little is content. People still want music, talk, news. So the radio companies that offer this content in the most popular places are the ones apt to have the longest, happiest, most lucrative lives. That's why Clear Channel New York has hired Zena Burns to the new position of online program director. On the corporate flow chart, that puts her on the level with program directors Jim Ryan of WLTW (106.7 FM), Bob Buchman of WAXQ (104.3 FM), Sharon Dastur of WHTZ (100.3 FM), Helen Little of WWPR (105.1 FM) and Rob Miller of WALK (97.5 FM) and WKTU (103.5 FM). "Her position indicates the importance this company places on what she'll be doing," says Tom Poleman, senior vice president of programming and marketing for Clear Channel New York. "She'll be on a par with all our other PDs."

«"Just having Zena here in this position will, I think, make our traditional program directors think a little more about the Web element," says Poleman. "Zena can help with ways to implement ideas in that area, and she'll also be developing ideas of her own." Right now, most radio fans still listen in the regular way. But as the Internet generation grows up, more are already turning to the Web for listening to and communicating with radio stations. That's why companies like Clear Channel are shifting their resources from traditional promotional areas like street vans toward Web sites and other new media that can make broader and often more interactive contact available all the time.

"One of the things that drew me to Clear Channel is that they're committed to online," says Burns. "This is going to be huge and they want to be ready." Since Burns will be working with all six Clear Channel stations, she will have content from the whole cluster available for Web packaging and delivery. That could mean merging some content - say, interviews or photos - for Web purposes. But she says each station's individuality will be maintained. "Each Clear Channel station has a very distinct listenership and brand identity," she says. "That will all be retained." The traditional radio listener, says Poleman, won't notice anything different. But after Burns' operation gets up and running - she starts Dec. 4 - he says online users will see dramatic changes. "The thing about Zena is that she's excellent at the art of blending content with new media applications," he says. "It's still all about content. This is just about presenting content in different ways." "To kids growing up today, the Internet is an appendage," says Burns. "They grew up with it like the last generation grew up with TV. Clear Channel is simply acknowledging that."

fonte: «Clear Channel weaves Web into its plans, New York Daily News , 15/11,06, DAVID HINCKLEY

Rádio e internet - uma ligação mais forte

Sucedem-se as aplicações que visam reforçar/facilitar a ligação entre a emissão on line e a consulta através do computador:

«If you are a user of the Firefox Browser and a radio fan, you may be missing out on some great radio freebies available which will enhance your browsing experience. Various third-party developers, hobbyists, and programmers have created a wealth of add-ons which put the world of streaming online radio as close as your mouse» (Corey Deitz, «Many Radio Add-Ons Available for Users of Firefox Browser», 12/11/06, Radio About)

BBC on line bate recordes

«On demand listening to BBC Radio on the internet has reached record levels, with 12.5 million requests logged in September 2006, according to the BBC's latest monthly statistics. The Archers (BBC Radio 4) was the most popular on demand programme (listened to after broadcast) on the BBC Radio Player, with 682,304 listens over the month.»

fonte: «Monthly figures reveal record requests for BBC Radio online», BBC on line, 6/11/06

Sobre os canais de streaming (canais de rádio?)

Citações a partir de um artigo do El País:

«Primero fue Orkut y las redes sociales, después Flickr y el intercambio social de fotos. Ahora triunfa la música social, con servicios como Last.fm, Pandora o iRate, que permiten hacerse una emisora de radio a la carta.»

«Cada oyente tiene una web propia en Last.fm, donde se publica esta información, de forma que es posible saber qué tema está escuchando en un determinado momento o ver estadísticas de los grupos que más le gustan. Esta lista de canciones preferidas constituye su emisora de radio personal, a la que puede conectarse cualquier oyente de Last.fm, para escuchar juntos lo mismo, o crear grupos.»  El registro es gratis y existe una versión de pago (3 dólares mensuales), con contenidos extra y sin publicidad. Junto a las suscripciones, el negocio se entrevé en la cláusula de privacidad: "Nos reservamos el derecho de vender o licenciar los datos de la música escuchada para su uso comercial, aunque nunca vamos a vender información personal que pueda llevar a un usuario específico".

«Pandora es otro servicio que comparte protagonismo con Last.fm. Nació en 2005 y no es necesario instalar ningún programa: pueden escucharse las canciones en su web. La novedad de Pandora es que no recomienda la música a partir de grupos parecidos, como Last.fm, sino que usa parámetros más detallados, como el tipo de melodía, ritmo, instrumentos, letras, etc.»

«La diferencia de iRate con los otros servicios es que la música se descarga de las webs de los artistas. La música ofrecida es de grupos independientes que no quieren cobrar derechos de autor o usan una licencia libre. iRate no es un negocio, sino obra de voluntarios.»

LAST.FM: www.last.fm

PANDORA: www.pandora.com

IRATE: www.irateradio.com

JAMENDO: www.jamendo.com

MUSICSTRANDS: http://musicstrands.com

YAHOO!LAUNCHCAST: http://music.yahoo.com/launchcast

O streaming pode dar lucro

Pelo menos neste caso:

«(...) That's not a problem for KPLU-FM (88.5), says interim general manager Kerry Swanson. Last year, the station raised more than $200,000 from outside its signal area, from listeners as close as Spokane and from as far away as China and Japan who were "tuned in" on www.kplu.org or www.jazz24.org. In fact, Swanson says, revenue from beyond the region has been sizable enough that "we're recovering (the cost) -- and more." As the non-commercial jazz and National Public Radio station officially celebrates its 40th birthday this month, Swanson predicts the greatest growth in listenership audience -- and revenue from listener pledges -- will come from audiences delivered by those new technologies.  (...) On reason for that growth, Swanson believes, is KPLU's status as a jazz station. Competitive life would be much tougher, he says, were KPLU a Top 40 station competing with several others in that format in every market including its own. Jazz, on the other hand, provides an audience with an intense interest in the music but not many places on the dial to hear it (smooth jazz, a format played by such commercial stations as KWJZ-FM locally is an entirely different entity, he adds). With the advent of streaming a decade ago, KPLU made itself one of the top Internet-radio destinations. Now the station is looking at how to take advantage of new technologies that can deliver wireless Internet service -- and stations like it -- to laptop computers, handheld devices, cell phones, even the dashboards of cars. »

fonte: «On Radio: New technologies deliver listeners and revenue to KPLU», Seattle post intelligencer, November 9, 2006, By BILL VIRGIN

(3.1.1.1) Um novo serviço em streaming

Chama-se Finetune e de acordo com o especialista do RAIN, «The idea is simple: Use any one of FineTune's song selection tools to make a customized playlist. FineTune employs the increasingly popular "tag" system whereby  the site designers and users alike classify certain artists as "classic rock", "jazz", etc. Once a substantial selection of artists exists for a certain tag, that tag becomes a directory for users to browse through, enabling exploration within particular genres without having to wade through all of FineTune's purportedly 2 million songs to find your style.
A minimum of 45 songs is required to build a playlist, which might turn some users off who are simply looking for a "click and listen", low-maintenence  experience. Pick a few songs, however, and you can choose to have the site's recommendation engine build the rest of your playlist for you»

Fonte: RAIN, New service mixes and matches different webcast styles» BY DANIEL MCSWAIN, 3/10/06

Características da radio pela net nos EUA:

(de acordo com o 2006 Network Radio Today report  Arbitron)- Reaches 77 percent of American consumers in the 25 to 54 age group and nearly three-quarters of youths age 12 to 17 on a weekly basis;
Appeals to full-time working women, reaching 80 percent of this group weekly;

- Has increased in reach, with more than 129 million adults over 18 listening to radio in their cars each week, compared with the 93 million who listen at home;

- Reaches approximately three-quarters of college graduates each week and almost 58 million who report having attended “some college”; and

- Appeals to the US ethnic population, with nearly nine out of 10 black Americans age 12 and older, and approximately two-thirds of US Hispanics in the same age category listening to network radio each week.

“Network radio has the power to deliver to advertisers well-defined demographics and social-economic groups in all ranges,” said Bruce Supovitz, vice president, National Radio Services, Arbitron. “This medium offers advertisers one-stop access to this substantial national audience in a convenient and efficient manner.”»

Fonte: Radio INK, «Arbitron Releases Network Radio Today 2006 Edition», 7/10/06

A Internet hoje

(estamos naquilo que os especialistas designam por web 2.0, a rede da socialização)

O meu horário nobre é diferente do teu

Com aparelhos como o RadioShark os meus programas favoritos passam à hora que eu quiser - o receptor, que se liga ao computador, grava como se fosse um video (como o TiVo norte-americano )e faz um ficheiro que eu posso ouvir quando quiser.

Quando toda a rádio estiver em podcasting isto não será necessário. Mas e se não estiver...

Sites de áudio/musica na net também promovem comunidades de ouvintes LastFM

(as comunidades de ouvintes funcionam como os novos gate keepers informativos substituindo os realizadores da rádio. Com mais especialização, mais capacidade informativa e mais gente envolvida, pode conhecer-se mais e melhores músicas – do que aquelas que a rádio nos apresenta)

 

A comunidade de ouvintes do Last FM

 

«Trata-se do Last.FM, um site que proporciona aos utilizadores criarem a sua rádio on-line. Não uma rádio como normalmente a conhecemos. Aqui, será capaz de ter o seu espaço com as suas músicas predilectas, mostrando o que escutou a, sempre que quiser, iniciar pesquisas por informações de artistas, álbuns e músicas dentro do próprio site. Mas para dar início à verdadeira revolução, necessita de instalar no computador o reprodutor e um ‘plugin’, o Audioscrobber. Com eles poderá criar então a sua estação de rádio e procurar utilizadores que, por norma, ouvem o mesmo género de música. Ao participar nesta autêntica comunidade, o utilizador poderá escutar músicas gratuitamente, por género e com grande qualidade; criar o seu estilo musical; votar nas suas músicas favoritas; discutir sobre música em fóruns; entre outras coisas. Enfim, transforme os seus gostos numa estação de rádio para que outros saibam o que você ouve».

(Mundo Internet, «Como criar facilmente uma estação de rádio», Maio/Junho 2006, nº 15, pág. 12)

Woxy volta?

Desenvolvimentos deste caso.

«It looks like its back to the "Future of Rock and Roll" again for Cincinnati's popular alternative webcaster WOXY.
A post on the WOXY message boards last week from LaLa founder and Internet entrepreneur Bill Nguyen expressed interest in reviving the recently-defunct WOXY, ostensibly as a complement to LaLa's existing CD trading business.
A "town hall" meeting last night confirmed rumors as Nguyen met with former WOXY staff and various WOXY supporters to discuss their vision for bringing WOXY back (...) fonte: RAIN, http://www.kurthanson.com/archive/news/092606/index.asp

 

"Em 2020 o planeta estará ligado pela Internet"

diz um estudo divulgado ontem pelo Pew Institute, citado no artigo «estudo prevê que o mundo não será melhor em 2020, mesmo com a Internet», Público, 25/9/06 pag 21

Clear Channel faz aposta forte na net

«Clear Channel Radio has announced the launch of a national roll out of mobile radio programming. New York’s Z100 will stream live radio and new features directly to cell phones across the country. The mobile service is provided by Cingular Wireless and DKNY Jeans is the first sponsor of Z100 Mobile. Subscribers of Z100 Mobile can interact directly from their phones to listen to streamed and on-demand content including podcasts of celebrity interviews and other segments. They can also find the title and artist of the last 10 songs played on-air, make a request directly to Z100 and receive a text message alert 15 minutes before the song is played, get free station wallpapers for their phone, rate listener-submitted photos and obtain real-time reports on local traffic.

“With Z100 reaching 2.5 million listeners each week, and 50 million consumers subscribing to Cingular Wireless, we are creating one of the largest audiences for any radio or mobile phone application in the US, thereby monumentally expanding Clear Channel Radio’s mobile content portfolio,” said Jeff Littlejohn, executive vice president of Distribution Development for Clear Channel Radio. “By connecting listeners to their favorite radio stations via cell phone, and adding interactive features, Clear Channel Radio has found an additional platform to deliver on-demand entertainment to, and drive listening among its active, on-the-go audiences across the country.”  Clear Channel Radio expects to launch similar programs on up to 100 more of its radio stations within the next year.»

fonte: «Clear Channel Radio Launches National Mobile Content Program», Radio Ink, 7/09/06

Uma rádio na net que fecha por falta de viabilidade

Era uma das mais conhecidas e elogiadas experiencias de rádio na net, sobretudo pelo que significou: era uma rádio hertziana que passou ao on line (já tratada aqui)

Acaba de anunciar que vai fechar:

«The Future of Rock and Roll" will end in two weeks. Managers of WOXY.com, the Internet-only radio station launched 26 months ago, will cease operation Sept. 15. (...) Bryan Jay Miller, 32, general manager, said the Internet station could not overcome distribution limitations and the lack of advertising revenues to maintain the four-employee operation.  "Internet radio is very cool, but you're still tethered to a computer for the most part. iPods, AM/FM radio and satellite radio are very portable," says Miller, who started at WOXY-FM in 1993."That impacted our advertising growth," he says. (...)

fonte: «WOXY.com to pull plug», Cincinnati Enquirer, September 1, 2006, JOHN KIESEWETTER

RAIN: «Exclusive to RAIN, Bryan Jay Miller adds: "Our problem has never been producing engaging, unique radio. We've been doing that for 26 years. The problem, almost from the very beginning, has been in making the Internet radio distribution and advertising model work for us as a standalone operation.
"On the upside, I'm very confident in the ability for WOXY.com's programming to really work with a more widely accessible and potentially different distribution medium or as part of a larger media play that can leverage what we're doing. There is a need for what we do, and our rabid community and listeners can attest to that. The bottom line is that we'd love to find a new home for what we do and a buyer or a business partner that can make that happen. No one wants to see this disappear." (1/9/06)

NPR consolida liderança nos serviços on line

«NPR will create a major digital music service to extend the significant role that public radio stations, networks and producers currently hold in music discovery and create a unified place to showcase all genres on present and future media platforms.

This project is tentatively scheduled to roll out in the first half of 2007. It will address growing audience interest in on-demand and non-traditional settings to find music content, and to maximize the enormous music assets of local and national public radio.

"From the start, music in all forms has been a cornerstone of public radio. NPR, public radio producers and our station colleagues are recognized as important music presenters and curators for the public, wherever they are," said Ken Stern, Executive Vice President, NPR. "While this role began with traditional program broadcasts, we have pioneered innovations - independently and collaboratively - including a modular music production and acquisition program service, NPR Music online, live streaming concerts, podcasts and, most recently, digital radio multicast channels. The digital music discovery arena is a new and barely-explored one, and a logical place for NPR and the public radio system to take a leadership role."»

fonte: NPR, 30/8/06, NPR DEVELOPING DIGITAL MUSIC SERVICE