internet radio - Internet Marketing News and Blogs

Deezer, based in France, is an on-demand music streaming service, which offers an impressive range of tracks from a mix of major labels and independents.

It recently launched in the UK (see our review of the site), and we have been talking to UK Manager Paul Ricard to find out more...

Music recommendation service Pandora says it is set to block UK users from 15th January as it is unable to afford new royalty rates.

The firm says that royalty collection agencies PPL and the MCPS/PRS alliance have demanded excessive fees.

Internet radio stations seem to have won a stay of execution at the eleventh hour in their battle over royalty fees.

The US Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) had decided to increase rates for all web broadcasters in a move that threatened many smaller companies, especially as the charges were backdated.

Many internet radio services will go silent today in protest at plans to increase royalty fees paid by web broadcasters.

Many US web broadcasters have protested that the royalty hikes, which will be backdated to January 2006, will put them out of business, as well as reducing the choice availble for listeners.

Internet radio in the US has been under threat recently, after the US Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) endorsed a plan to retroactively raise the royalty fees paid by webcasters.

However, SoundExchange, the organisation responsible for collecting the royalties from internet radio services, has offered to reduce the rates paid by smaller webcasters.

The US Copyright Royalty Board has rejected an appeal by internet radio broadcasters against a plan to increase royalty fees.

Many US web broadcasters are saying that the royalty hikes, which will be backdated to January 2006, will put them out of business, as well as affecting the diversity of music available online.

A new web radio service called Slacker has launched in beta today. When it unveils its associated music player later this year, it will aim to make internet radio portable and even compete with the mighty iPod.

Slacker has bagged $13.5m (£7m) in funding from Sevin Rosen, Austin Ventures and Mission Ventures, and its team includes Dennis Mudd, who was previously CEO at Musicmatch.