Internet Radio Day of Silence, Company Partnerships, Local Music Update

Internet Radio Day of Silence

Tuesday, June 26 marked the teaming up of various internet radio stations for what has been referred to as the “Internet Radio Day of Silence”, a voluntary protest by Internet Radio stations which are against recent legislation to increase music royalty rates in addition to paying 17 months’ apparent royalty back-payments (from January 1, 2006). This legislation suggests potential doom for many great radio stations on the internet. In fact, each of my personal standby stations that I listen to at work (Pandora.com, WOXY.com and AccuRadio) were all observing the day of silence. Last.fm’s service wasn’t working very well with the BGSU campus network that day (despite not participating in the day of silence, and having a very well supported argument for not joining in), and I suppose that the network hiccup really helped to drive the point home even more strongly. This was a very long, very quiet day at work.

I’m primarily posting this information as an awareness booster, rather than a “doom and gloom” entry. I really enjoyed the article posted in the Radio and Internet Newsletter (side note - this article was released at kurthanson.com - Kurt Hanson is the publisher of RAIN and founder of AccuRadio) because it featured a short (partial) listing of sites with logos at the end of the article, assisting in the clarification of just how far-reaching this legislation will be.

  

CMJ (College Music Journal) also featured some commentary on the event. CMJ is now currently featuring an article titled “July 15: The Day Internet Radio Dies” as their showcase news article on the main page of their website.

If you’re still inclined to read more about these issues and those impacting the issues from all sides, hit up www.savenetradio.org.

Last.fm/Sony BMG Partnership

In a separate news clip from CMJ, I read today that Last.fm and Sony BMG will be beginning a partnership to allow radio streaming (one of Last.fm’s services) of Sony BMG’s full catalog of music (a serious increase to the pool of available music). For more basic information, read the CMJ article here. This is primarily being posted as a reminder and to note Last.fm as a company to watch out for in the future. It is changing - this relatively new service/site (2002), was bought out by CBS Corporation this May.

The CBS acquisition of Last.fm, coupled with eBay purchasing StumbleUpon, in addition to this recent Last.fm/Sony BMG partnership just makes me think about what a wild net ecosystem we have. Big fish are eating the little fish - but some of the time you can find a new way to survive, or innovate, or even just make your service or site relatively invaluable by changing what it means to those who consume it.

Local Music Update

Speaking of the little fish, on a related but more localized note - I was recently interviewed by the BG News regarding the closing and future relocation of Madhatter Music Co. in its Bowling Green (only) location. The Bowling Green, Ohio location will be officially closing on July 14.

My interview in the article focused on the impact the relocation or closing of
Madhatter would have WBGU 88.1 fm. Madhatter (begun in 1988) has been a long-time
consistent supporter of WBGU - one of the most consistent ones I can
recall in my four-year term at the station. Consistently if a new release or classic album wasn’t playing in the store, Madhatter would have WBGU’s live programming broadcasting over their in-store speakers. This is something I can’t say for many local businesses - many once did the same, but have converted over to satellite radio services in the past year or so.

I also consistently enjoyed going into the store and visiting with the owner(s) - previously Jim, and more recently Keith. Jim always had some terrific (wild) stories. The interviewer (Emily Rippe) and I actually had a long discussion about what the moving or closing of Madhatter Music would mean for the business itself (they’re looking at relocating in Toledo, Ohio as a music flea-market of sorts - take this as hearsay more than actual news), and for Bowling Green in general. I had some concerns over the relocation to Toledo, centered around the fact that (location-depending) Toledo already has a semi-saturated record store market (Freon Beats, Allied Record Exchange, Rama Lama Records, and many more). I have some concern because I am also aware that RPM Records, previously located in Maumee, Ohio closed within the past two years. I have yet to hear why RPM closed, and the web domain which the store previously held expired in December last year. Personally, I enjoyed each visit to this regional gem. I can only say similar things for Madhatter. Who knows, perhaps Madhatter Music will find some real success with their move. I have not heard any comment (directly or indirectly) from Madhatter’s local competitor, Finders Records & Tapes (1971), on the matter, however in my opinion it seems that Finders has maintained a solid customer base (and grown its offering) in the time since I moved to Bowling Green as a student in 2002.

Read the BG News article: Saying Goodbye to Madhatter.

There really is a good reason for the relocation. If you are interested in finding out more, please read Madhatter’s blog entry on the topic here.

On a side note (since there are so many links in this post), if you are ever visiting this blog and a link is dead, please please please let me know.