Slashdot Mirror
Ask the Honcho of Internet Radio's SomaFM
This week, Rusty, the general manager of Internet Radio's SomaFM, is the subject of the Slashdot Interview Spotlight. Some of you may remember Rusty from a recent Salon interview. Now he's making himself available to Slashdot and I'm sure you all can figure out a few questions to ask that weren't covered before. I'm sure many of you have questions about CARP, the future of Internet Radio, and the technology behind it. So let's get to it! As usual, we'll send off the 10 highest moderated questions on to Rusty, and we hope to have the answers for you sometime next week. <PLUG TYPE=SHAMELESS>BTW - If you haven't checked out the streams available at SomaFM, give it a try. Taste the Groove Salad, and the other 8 commercial free streams available on SomaFM. Ah, if only normal FM radio could be this good!</PLUG>
How do you see the possibilities of winning against a CARP that smells of RIAA? Because RIAA has a lot of control over what traditional radio plays and control is what this is all about.
What we see depends on mainly what we look for. -- John Lubbock Now search for that bug slave!
I've got to ask, without commercials or any sort of advertising aside from mentioning the station your listening to, how does your company produce income?
I've listened to squid radio and groove salad for quite sometime and am a big fan so if your main source of income is donations, please make it known so we can help!
I was curious to know how much the recording industry cares about small stations. Do you think that the Recording Industry Association of America is going to come after these tiny internet broadcasters, some of which are run out of someone's bedroom, and actually try to enforce this legislation? Given the bandwidth small stations operate on, their lack of mainstream exposure, and the tiny bang for the (litigious) buck, it seems that the record industry can spend their resources elsewhere with greater effect.
The middle mind speaks!
sometimes it is
Rusty, what advise do you have for those of use interested in starting up a non-commerical station as a hobby. Is this feasible? Where can we obtain the need information?
Given the availability of programs like streamripper (and others like it, I guess), do you have any plans to accomodate the myriad of digital rights management schemes in the pipeline? Which, if any, do you support or intend to implement? Do you think that you have an obligation to do so?
;)
BTW, keep up the good work. I can say with total sincerity that your stations have introduced me music that I would otherwise never have heard. I thank you, (and so does my iPod).
Right now Internet Radio enjoys a sort of "pirate" image, which I think endears it to many people because they feel like they're supporting independent media.
However, my guess is that as it grows and becomes more profitable, most Internet radio is bound to end up owned by 2-5 big players, as is the case with most other media. Do you expect internet radio to get bought up like the movie studios, local TV stations and radio stations, or do you think it will be able to stay independent?
Would mergers and consolidation ruin internet radio, or would it help it?
Thanks
tcd004
The beauty of the Internet is that no single government (or stupid government person) could stop an entire class of service - look at Internet gambling. That said, why not relocate to a co/lo service in India?
Or, better yet, just run amok of the law? Last I heard, the Library of Congress is a library, not an authorized body to create policy. Since they are attempting to do so, why not block them on the grounds that they are exceeding their charter, and therefore, acting against the constitution?
Also, the fact that internet based transmissions are treated differently than FM based transmissions is ridiculous. This is the foundation of the "separate but equal" crap that CARP is funnelling.
128k MP3 (and less) is not a perfect reproduction of sound, as the LoC contends. It is no more perfect than FM, and no less perfect. Both formats mangle stereo separation, both add audio artifacts, and both deduct from clarity and depth of the source's timbre. The only real difference is one is digital, and the other analog.
And both formats HELP drive record sales. The big difference to the RIAA is that they don't control the channels of distribution for MP3 servers. All SomaFM, or any other internet broadcaster needs is a music library, a fast connection to the net and powerful servers. In order to broadcast on the air, you need to give some slimy FCC official a kickback, and/or be owned by TimeWarnerAOL, Vivendi, or Viacom.
I can't help but see the future of the RIAA - all the offices burned to the ground and the leadership decapitated. This another one of those infuriating instances where their feeble attempts at limiting distribution channels so that everyone listens to the same, soulless crap that record producers are puking at us.
So why should your money-earning radio station be different because it's sending a signal over IP packets instead of radio waves? I'm sympathetic (somewhat) to Joe Cable-Modem who is doing a just-for-fun broadcast, and my understanding of CARP is that is has some retroactive charges that are disturbing, but why should I defend your right to run a radio station for free?
I keep reading about all this great unrestricted music that's distributed through P2P networks. If that's so, leech off them.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Something that has been brought up a couple times in other threads, and that i am kind of curious about:
The CARP is something the RIAA is imposing, correct?
Does this or does this not mean that if an internet radio station were certain to only play music by non-RIAA artists, it could stay in business?
It would not be terribly easy to find material for a net radio station that only played independent music, but it would be possible, i think, and at the least i'd listen to it.
But am i just confused? Would that be feasible from a royalties standpoint? What exactly is the royalties relationship between independent record labels and internet radio, before or after CARP?
One more small question: the page on CARP on your site says that non-US broadcasters would not be subject to the CARP fees. How would this work out? Would this just mean that anyone in Canada would be able to netcast worldwide without having to pay any fees other than the ones imposed by their government? Or would stations outside the U.S. be barred from netcasting to U.S. citizens? If stations outside the U.S. are allowed to run free, what would the regulations say about a server in the U.S. that is just repeating what is being broadcast by an internet streaming radio station located outside the U.S.-- so that the lag created by the internet links that go across the atlantic ocean are minimized. Could a repeater of this sort be classified as just another router, or would the repeater be subject to the CARP payments?
Thanks for clarifying things.. just curious. Hopefully, the LoC will see through this blatant attempt by the RIAA to silence internet radio and none of the above questions will ever become an issue. I wish you luck..
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
How does SomaFM compare fiscally to a traditional FM or AM business?
Specifically, are there any fiscal advantages to using an internet-only format to outweight the disadvanges (like a lack of big-name advertising)?
But there are many reasons NOT to do it:
Fortunately, there is a solution to ALL these problems: OPENdj.
OK, it's kind of a shameless plug, but here it is: OPENdj is the world's first public-access Internet radio station. Anyone can sign up for a show, and using nothing more than a 56k modem, you can broadcast to the world, from anywhere in the world.
And for the truly insane, if you don't like streaming through someone elses radio station, and you really want to run your own station, you can: The software that powers OPENdj.com is open source software - check out OPENdj.org for info on that.
Drop me a line if any of this has piqued your interest - I'm always interested in getting feedback on how to improve things.
Finally, a shameless developer plug: OPENdj is very much in active development. There are a lot of great features in place already (automatic archiving of all broadcasts, etc) and there are a lot of great features yet to be built, so if you're looking for an itch to scratch, this could be it.
- jonathan.
I believe it refers to the area of San Francisco in which it is based
Internet radio is alive in my local city. For a while, it seemed that it was going to die, due to the regulations being handed down. Advertisers were getting upset and the ilk, so for a while, they stopped broadcasting. Then a few months ago, they came back online, but without the regional advertising. Only the national station advertising was ever on during the commercial breaks, and during the rest, it'd just be silence.
An example of this is at: http://z100portland.com/ (top 40 station)
It's no coincidence that, a few minutes after this story went up, the number of listeners on Groove Salad shot up from the normal number of 100 or so to over 1,400.
I know this is no surprise-- Slashdot effect and whatnot-- but it's not too often that you get to see the effect measured in number of listeners, updated on the SomaFM.com web page in real time.
It has been argued that the deign of the internet will make large scale streaming media basicly impossible. How can you or any steaming media company expect to survive in this kind of condition? When sucess means connection failer.
They are paid for my sponsorship drives, like public television, but also supported by the Experience Music Project up here (note: EMP is a project of Paul Allen as well, so the station basically exists thanks to all that Microsoft money that Allen has). They also take song requests from people continaully, and it's introduced me to lots of bands that I otherwise never would have heard on most commercial radio, or even most streaming internet radio.
Isn't it possible to just broadcast your stream from a server in a country where CARP isn't law? ie. Canada?
Are there plans for Soma to produce some all talk channel(s)? NPR and AM Radio are the main sources for talk radio fans, but I'd love to be able to tune into TALK on my PC. My local AM station has a variety of talk programs from your typical morning news and traffic, to sports(NBA, NHL, MLB, NFL, racin'), to Tech Talk (Mostly PCs), as well as golf and financial news and investing.
Ruger
Here's what the law says in Title 17, 114. Scope of exclusive rights in sound recordings: It doesn't require you to be a licensed or noncommercial broadcaster, simply that your performance is broadcast freely over the airwaves.
Has the webcasting industry looked into this loophole at all? Seems to me that cutting your operating expenses roughly in half could be the difference between economic life and death for most companies.
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer (thank God!), but I am a pirate radio broadcaster.
He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.
If the RIAA proposed rates do get approved, where do you see this going in a few years? How will this affect media monsters such as Clearchannel? Do you think commercial stations will begin supporting more independent labels, (or even better) artists will slowly realize who the enemy is and not sign to RIAA labels? (I know it might seem far-fetched but it's wishful thinking). What's your opinion on the bigger outcome of this battle?
What amount do you currently pay in MP3 liscensing, in order to stream SomaFM over the internet?
With all the threats and attacks to MP3 streaming by Fraunhofer, have you considered moving to streaming OGG Vorbis files?
As Winamp is now shipping with native support, this could be a good way of shaving down some of the fees regarding your business.
Colin Davis
"ever since I was a little perl script I wanted to be a DJ on somaFM"
I heard that for the first time about 5 months ago. I got hooked =) Groove Salad helps me sleep at night, thanks! Also, thanks for the free cd sent with my donation to the station. And now on to the question:
due to the increasing cost per user of centralized streaming, have you been exploring other possibilites? Something like radio relays? Would you even WANT people "rebroadcasting" for you?
I ate my sig.
...the RIAA *does* have a lot more money than us...And just look at that farm bill.. Ugh! /w TCP/IP)
./'d. : )
What requirements would a distributed, untracible, pirate* broadcast network have? (besides the obvious)
I have some thoughts:
- Java. (fast to write/platform indy)
- IP/UDP? (less trace-able connections than
- Ogg. (I like Ogg)
- Peers can hand off streams to less busy servers. And probably should after a fixed amount of time.
- use standard clients (xmms, etc) in combination with server (peer) component? Or force use of client/peer?
- how to initially connect to the network?
Sounds like a fun project to me!
luv SomaFM. 'xcept when
Cheers,
-B
* I say "Pirate" here in jest, of course...I just don't want the *RIAA* to get any of my money. Artists need better pimps.
All of BBC Radio is streamed out
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
It's about fscking time!
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
Right now CARP members are arguing in Congress to have the proposed fee of 0.14 cents per song reduced because they feel it is too high and will run almost everybody out of the internet radio industry.
However, even with a reduced fee, most internet radio stations will be paying more than they can probably afford. As it is, bandwidth costs are running them out of business, and they're not paying a dime in royalty fees.
So, my question is whether you see most internet radio stations switching over to subscription fees to stay in business, rather than having to close shop? Or do you think that some stations will continue to run as "pirate radio stations", not paying the royalty fees?
Here's a question for you, has SomaFM considered providing links to online stores (like amazon.com) who pay referal fees?
I mean I would have bought loads of these CD's that I'm hearing if all it took was a click and a credit card...
Or am I missing something important about why that wouldn't work?
-- You ain't seen me, right?
As much as I love internet radio and hope to see it stay I have been wondering why some of the more popular music themes on the internet are not available on commercial radio. I am talking about the sounds of SomaFM's Groove Salad, Digitally Imported and other internet radio stations playing Ambient, Trance or any of the other more mellow versions of Electronic House. What in your opinion is the reason we can't find these styles on commercial radio?
Best of luck and keep up the good work!
Internet radio is an all or nothing thing for me. I either find the type of music I want to listen on an unlimited commercial free radio station (SomeFM 24-7 right now :-) or I am not interested at all. Say you can't fight the upcoming legislation, do you see youself survive as a (semi-)commercial internet station, or is this the end?
Good luck and keep up the good work!
How do Internet radio stations go about paying royalties to the artist for each piece of music they play? Listening to BBC Radio 4 over the web you often hear they can't broadcast the program because they haven't secured the rights to broadcast it over the web. Is this ever a problem for you?
Video Game cheats, hints a
Bah! Anonymous cowards suck. What's so scary about using a pseudonym, anyway?
*sigh*
Anyway, you're wrong.
Not about the FCC rules, but about the fact that broadcasting an FM-10 (or an AM-1, which would be even more well-suited to the task) is illegal. It's not. An FM-10, when assembled according to instructions, puts out about 8 mw of power (see "FM-10 Myths") making it perfectly legal under Part 15 rules.
In conclusion: Don't spread FUD. Thank you.
He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.
Hi Rusty, thanks for the beautiful music!
I wanted to know what you use for Big Earl's voice synthesis. It sounds awfully similar to Dr. Sbaitso from the early 90's.
Also, I noticed that there are many songs that have disapeared from groove salad's playlist from around last year. (GOOD songs). I wanted to know if this is because you were forced to remove them, and how many other artists/labels are being held back this way. This music is so good it gives me goose-bumps, and I can't stand the thought that there is more that I am missing.
my letter is off to my controllers^H^H^H^H^Hrepresentatives,
-metric
What stops Internet Radio from being broadcasted from another country? CARP would have a hard time trying to hunt down stations from around the world... Also, wouldn't it also be just as easy to set Internet Radio up underground? Much as warez sites exist, and mp3 sharing exists, couldn't Internet Radio be a part of that uber-h4x0r community? I hope it doesn't come down to that, but it is an option that should be reviewed since the day is coming... --lpret
This is my digital signature. 10011011001
After looking into the statutes for a while, it seems even the loophole may have a loophole. According to Section 114 (d)(1)(B)(i), the exemption for retransmissions only applies as long as "the radio station's broadcast transmission is not willfully or repeatedly retransmitted more than a radius of 150 miles from the site of the radio broadcast transmitter."
So, it's not licensing that's the issue, it's range. Or so it seems. The RIAA wins again.
He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.