Posted by Bud on September 14, 2009 at 13:37:37:
In today's Chicago Sun-Times, there is an article about the Chicago-based Internet radio station chain, AccuRadio:
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AccuRadio's 500 stations load up on Beatles
September 14, 2009
BY BRAD SPIRRISON
The long and winding road of Internet radio AccuRadio.com adds Beatles' channels to its roster of 500 music stations.
While there was no duet between Steve Jobs and Paul McCartney last week and the Beatles' library of music (apparently) won't be available in Apple's iTunes store anytime soon, one local company is leaning on the Fab Four to carve out its own place within the Internet radio revolution.
AccuRadio.com, which programs more than 500 Internet radio stations in genres ranging from rock to Latin to classical, last week unveiled a suite of niche channels focusing on the works of John, Paul, George and Ringo. Last Wednesday's debut happened to be the same day Apple announced new toys for iTunes customers and the Beatles "Rock Band" video game was released.
In addition to broadcasting newly reissued versions of every song from the Beatles catalog, AccuRadio stations with names like Beatles Plus and Beatles and Friends play covers and other songs that influenced or were inspired by the iconic British rock band.
AccuRadio founder and CEO Kurt Hanson, who also publishes the RAIN newsletter for Internet radio professionals, said digital copyright laws restrict any Internet broadcaster from playing more than two songs back to back from the same artist on any given channel and no more than four songs within the period of four hours. These restrictions, however, are not keeping his River North-based company from being profitable.
Advertising-supported AccuRadio.com, which employs four full-time and five part-time staffers, is on pace to generate more than $660,000 this year. The lean company allocates approximately 20 percent of its revenue to licensing fees paid to performers and publishers. Hanson, 54, says AccuWeather's 500,000 monthly visitors tune in even if they already own a bunch of CDs or MP3 files.
"Since before we were kids there has been a time and place for playing our own personal music collections, whether it be a stack of 45s or an iPod today," Hanson said. "There is also a time and place for radio where you let someone else program the music for you."
While Hanson and his colleagues have been working together for about a decade, they did not start AccuRadio until 2003 after failed efforts to persuade traditional broadcasters to embrace Internet distribution.
"We wrote a series of articles in RAIN [The Radio and Internet Newsletter] to encourage broadcasters to do it and they never did," Hanson said. "So we decided to just do it ourselves."