« I Can Play The Drums
Photoshop Tennis - Matt Vs. Nairica - Spring & Summer 2007 »

The Internet Is One Giant Radio

Posted By:
Matt
Posted On:
September 3rd, 2007
Posted In:
Music
Comments:
One Response, Join The Conversation.

Since the dawn of streaming audio on the internet major record labels have been trying to sue the internet out of existence. It’s no secret that rather than embrace the internet as the promotional tool it is, major record labels blame it for all of their problems.

When it comes to artists getting paid the internet is just one giant radio. Radio is a medium as is the internet. Radio stations make money by selling ads around engaging content (music/talk). Artists get paid when their songs are played on the radio because SOCAN and BMI collect stats from radio stations about how many times each song is played. SOCAN and BMI also collect a percentage of the ad revenue from the radio stations which they then distribute to artists based on how many times the artists’ songs were played on the radio. This system is the law!

When you consider how exact the internet is at tracking plays by artists you’d think that it would be obvious to apply the radio system to the internet. Websites like MySpace, Purevolume and MP3.com all make money by selling ads around engaging content. But for some reason these websites never have to pay the artists for using their music to sell ads. Did SOCAN and BMI miss out on this opportunity for a huge amount of extra cash?

Maybe it’s due to the fact that most things on the internet these days are user generated. For reporting to work properly it has to be exact and all audio files have to contain the proper meta data. What’s to stop someone from putting up MP3s that aren’t by them but tagging them with meta data that says they are?

This is where last.fm comes in. Last.fm seems to have a handle on gathering stats for music from around the web. They know when a track has incorrect meta data. Last.fm is now so popular that they work with 2 major record labels to stream every song in their catalog on their website. Last week it was announced that Last.fm will be providing internet music charts to actual print magazines. Now you’ll be able to see who’s hot on corporate top 40 radio and who people are actually listening to on their ipods. It’s exciting. I think it’s a step closer to artists being paid for helping MySpace sell ads.

Similar Posts:

Comments

  1. kat Says:
    September 7th, 2007 at 2:58 pm

    “Now you’ll be able to see who’s hot on corporate top 40 radio and who people are actually listening to on their ipods.”

    That’s VERY cool. It’s about time that actual listening trends dictated top 40 lists and not some boardroom of suits catering to label priorities. Even the MM countdown (public knowledge) is decided by programmers. I like this a lot.

    I also heard earlier that when MTV does “The Leak”, they pull together stats and tell the labels which tracks were most streamed - and then gently suggest to the label that THOSE tracks be used as the next single for the artist since fans obviously like them. Give the people what they wanna hear! :D

Leave a Comment

Show Background