Stops on the Internet dial

• Live365.com — More than 6,500 channels of music, a majority of it programmed by dedicated amateurs and niche enthusiasts.

• Last.fm, Pandora.com — Sites that let users enter a few of their favorite artists, listen to music and gradually be exposed to acts they might also like.

• Radio-locator.com — Type in a city or Zip code and see all the stations broadcasting from or near you, including links to Internet-based streams.

• AccuRadio.com, music.yahoo.com — Two of the bigger entities in Web broadcasting. Find pre-programmed and live stations by music type or search functions.



Picking up a copy today of almost any magazine or newspaper technology section from the mid-1990s to the earliest part of the century, one would find a lot of promises about the Internet that seem either comical or still far, far away.

But go ahead, open up that copy of Wired and take a peek at groceries delivered to your door, movies streamed full-size to your TV or computer, and computers in your kitchen that check e-mail and help with recipes.

Unlike those other dot-com dreams, online radio stations, independent DJs and programs that learn what kind of tunes you prefer have mostly become a reality. But a dispute over a complicated royalty payment system could shutter the majority of independent broadcasters and lead a large number of commercial radio stations to pull their content off the Web.

“We’re certainly talking about it, but the whole situation’s a little unclear at this point,” said Dick Daly, senior vice president for broadcasting at Buffalo’s public radio and television station WNED. “It’s kind of a technology that’s still emerging and evolving.”

At the heart of the dispute is a decision in March by the Copyright Royalty Board, a panel of three judges that serves the Library of Congress, to triple the rates by which music copyright owners are paid by broadcasters, on top of instituting an annual base fee of $500 per station or channel.

On its face, the change — which was pushed forward by SoundExchange, a music-industry group that collects and distributes royalties to record labels and artists — would dramatically alter the financial landscape for everybody who puts music online. Small and non-commercial radio stations programmed by independent fans, colleges and public broadcasting stations would feel the pinch as much as commercial radio and Web-based enterprises such as Yahoo! Music, Pandora and Live365.

As Night and Day was going to press, however, representatives for Internet broadcasters, public radio and SoundExchange were negotiating a compromise over the royalty rates and minimum fees. Most Webcasters were offering content after the July 15 deadline passed, and the music industry was said to be focusing on improved playlist reporting and music-copying protections.

A press release issued by SoundExchange Friday(july 13) stated that the group expects commercial Webcasters such as Yahoo! and AOL to begin paying the new royalty rates, and was working with small and non-commercial broadcasters to reach an agreement.

“It is essential that recording artists and content owners receive full and fair compensation from the Webcasters making use of their creative works,” SoundExchange Executive Director John Simson stated in the release.

Lockport resident Scott Leffler has run allwnyradio.com and its Live365 stream since April 2006, working six hours a week from a small studio. All the artists Leffler plays are unsigned and have agreed to have their music played, but he believes anything that puts more financial restrictions on Web radio would hurt his programming as well.

“I use a service (Live365) to broadcast with, and common sense tells me if that service loses subscribers because of the rate increase, they’ll have to recoup that,” Leffler said.

A Live365 subscription costs Leffler $120 per month, and would cost more if he played music covered by royalty fees. Buying his own bandwidth from a Web hosting firm and dedicating a computer solely to streaming music could accomplish much the same thing, but would require far more labor, he said.

“The sad thing ... is that everyone involved knows that the artists aren’t going to get any more money,” Leffler said. “Really, all the (record companies) are doing is minimizing opportunities.”

A question mark hanging over any discussion of Internet radio is just how many people are tuning in and listening. Even major broadcasters such as Yahoo! Music and Live365 have yet to offer even general audience numbers publicly.

The Web site of Buffalo public radio station WBFO received 28,400 visits from individual computers in May, according to David Benders, assistant general manager and program director at the station, for an average of nearly 1,000 visitors per day.

The most visited page besides the home page is the “Listen Live” link, Benders said, giving the station a rough idea of how many people are listening. But as WNED’s Daly noted, people don’t use radio on the Web the way they would in their car or living room.

“People can, and have, open the stream and leave it on for hours, even a few days straight,” Daly said. “We pay for our bandwidth, so the longer they had it open, the more we lost on the deal ... we had to put a system in place that cut the stream off after an hour.”

A number of commercial radio stations around the Buffalo and Niagara regions offer online streams of their regular programming, but may exclude the music in their regular rotation if their corporate owners have yet to work out a deal with SoundExchange or other royalty groups.

Hearing the monetary and technological limitations of Internet broadcasting explained by those who do it daily leaves one with a less-than-utopic vision of the future of greater music choice online. But unlike online pet stores, its audience is coming around to it, and has some kind of a future — however open and costly it is.

Contact reporter Kevin Purdy at 693-1000, ext. 107.