The following article helps show that us here at
Indieliferadio.com and Wildliferadio.com are on the right path. With
the shallow playlist and endless commercials of FM radio...and the high
cost of subscriptions and insane overhead to operate satellite
radio...and the fact that wireless internet access is spreading
everywhere and everyday devices such as cell phones and even cars are
being made internet capable...internet radio is the future of
broadcasting.
SoundExchange says that Internet radio business has continued to grow, even with the institution of new royalty rates from the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB).
While many claimed the increased rates would hurt webcasters and drive
them out of business, SoundExchange claims that has not been the case.
"Clearly, Internet radio has become the place to be for music broadcasters," said John Simson,
Executive Director of SoundExchange. "While there still are few who are
loudly predicting the demise of Internet radio à la the boy who cried
wolf, the on-the-ground reality is saying something quite
different. There is a lot of money to be made in Internet radio and
royalty rates are not a barrier to developing strong, workable business
models."
Simson adds, "What we are seeing
in the reporting of playlists is that the diversity of music played is
widening. Anybody can play the top hits, but on the Internet where
listeners aren’t hemmed in by geography or a limited number of
stations, to become a go-to site for music you’ve got to give the
listener a different or specialized experience. Because of that, we’re
seeing a lot of diversity."
