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Microsoft Creates Static With New Webcast Feature
An anonymous reader writes "Radio stations are upset because Microsoft is cloning their playlists -- creating sounds-alike internet radio stations without the commercials."
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any intellectualy property expectations of a playlist?
What's next? Accusing someone of copying the order of items on a store shelf?
The safest way to approach lava is to have another person with you and he goes first.
I might consider listening if they would just play something *different*.. How many times per day can you listen to No Doubt covering "It's My Life" before you can't help but ram an icepick through your head?
Make a copy that has the DJ chatter, and strip out the music instead?
With all due respect to WIOG, they have shitty music. If it weren't for the fact that their DJ/intern chatter is hilarious (most of the time), I sure wouldn't listen.
People love to act like the enemy of my enemy is my friend. What they often forget, is that your new "friend" may be equally as much your enemy as your declared enemy. Usually, it is best to just let your enemies kill each other with their own resources.
Click here or a puppy gets stomped!
Wow, that's a new low for Microsoft. Not only are they copying their playlists but they're also selling the streams on the local call letters *and* their taglines. Pretty low business move, even if it's not technically illegal. However if any of these stations have a trademarked slogan then they have grounds to sue MS.
As easy as it is to fall back on the, "Radio sucks, too much commercials" line, and as much as I despise radio, most of the stations in my area play between 40-45 minutes of non-commercial crap.
It's just different crap. DJs with their stupid jokes, stupid callers with their stupid jokes, etc. etc. In fact, I'd rather listen to commercials than that junk.
We do have several stations that play 45 minutes of music without commercial interruption, unless of course you count the interruption to tell you that you're listening to 45 minutes of music without commercial interruption.
Even though, it's till not 80-20 by any stretch of the imagination...although those screaming car ads do seem to last hours.
Nobody is making you listen to M$ radio... or any radio for that matter. /. the servers...
But if you'd like to leave the radio cookie cutters at home, may I suggest www.wfmu.org, which has been streaming RA and MP3 streams for years and now a Slashdot-friendly Vorbis stream as well. And if you don't like what's on now, you can listen to more than two years of archived programming as well.
I hope I didn't just
--- the webhamster at wfmu.org
-- Real Stupidity is the Artificial Intelligence of the 21st century
I'm surprised MS can get away with "broadcasting" those radio stations' call letters. That might be an FCC violation as IIRC the call letters are registered with a license that the FCC issues each operating radio station.
-Randy
... it would be interesting to see if Microsoft feels if that were a violation of their trademark.
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Eh, my local station (102.7 WEQX out of Vermont) is very, very good, they play new music before the ClearChannel stations, old favorites the CC wouldn't dare play because they weren't big enough hits and local and regional music you can't hear elsewhere. They even have long commercial free blocks, like 5 to 11 pm -- though I suspect it's because they were having trouble selling ads and that scares the shit out of me.
It would be a shame to see such a great station (a lot of people I know say it's the only station they will listen to) disappear because of crap like this MSN deal. Of course, I'm not too worried about it...MSN's clone stations, by nature, can only copy. Stations like WEQX get their following by doing new things, like Sunday's Download show (playing great music off new CDs you may never hear again because they have no budget for promotions). I would never take MSN over EQX...but I'd certainly take it over dumbass reactive pay-for-play ClearChannel stations.
I've often wondered if it would be possible to run a modern rock station on the same model as NPR/PRI affiliates, as an alternative to corporate rock that sucks or college rock that has no market and no antenna worth a damn. You know...commercial free rock picked by real DJs with good taste and skills on the mic, supported by bi-monthly fund drives...
Hey freaks: now you're ju
So what, exactly, does radio stations sounding alike have to do with Microsoft stealing brand recognition? Or for that matter, any of your late-added sentence fragments? It seems to me that it would work in the opposite direction, i.e. it wouldn't matter what station Microsoft used the playlist from - all they would have to advertise is 'here's an easy listening station', here's a smooth jazz station', and the listeners would understand that they are getting the general playlist from that type of station.
Denver Isuzu Suzuki
If Microsoft is forced to change this it wont really matter, they will have already gotten a core audience who can spread what channel is like what station for them via word of mouth.
But then why wouldn't the radio stations simply piggy-back on the MSN radio service and get rid of some work of selecting the next track? After all, it is music selected specifically for this radio station and they could just interrupt the stream occasionally for commecials.
Or the radio stations could add an EULA spoken every hour to remind people that 'it is a contract violation to create a radio station which plays the same songs while branding it as representative of the selection of this radio station, "FZZZ - playing the same song over and over will make you sleep".'
That may be true, but I am reliably informed that it is a serious criminal offence in Germany to make that kind of comparison to a competitor. I presume there is no way of blocking this in Germany, so I can forsee a criminal prosecution against the Vile Monopoly.
Well, self-same DJ's are not shy of threatening to "bury" bands who are rude to them - see this very interesting transcript which touches on threats made by a bunch of syndicated radio commentator wankers and Australian punkers Frenzal Rhomb.
Also touches on some of the other issues being discussed here with 'taste consolidation'. A good read, in my opinion.
One god, one market, one truth, one consumer.
Radio stations are upset because Microsoft is cloning their playlists. That has nothing to do with using internet radio. This means LESS internet radio. Microsoft has the means to pay thousands of DJs to prepare playlists, mixtapes, whatever. That would be MORE internet radio.
Instead, using somebody elses playlist and advertising the service as a substitute for the original radio means that the original radio loses the option to broadcast over the internet as its difficult to compete with somebody who can put a direct link from the player to its channel.
Its like somebody delivered pirate copies of MS Office to your door putting MS out of business. Would that mean more office suites?
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