Uploaded on 13 February 2008, this is a viewing platform in the war museum in Salford Quays. Photo by Mike Willshaw. Used under licence.

All this online sharing has to stop
It's ruining the motor mechanic industry. (No, really)

Flickr CC search
A quick page whipped up to help me find nice pictures for this blog - it searches all Flickr CC images together (which the Flickr UI won’t let me do).

Aussies Head to SXSW
A website using one of my photos, albeit only credited in the ALT tag (which isn’t cricket, by the way).

Oceanworld Manly
Another spotting of one of my photographs, complete with a link to my own website. How splendid.

Living on Earth: Swedish Body Heat
Sounds exciting, but actually it’s a radio feature about trains, aired on WBUR and other stations. They used one of my photographs to illustrate it on the web. Cool.

When statistics speak volumes
Good piece by Paul Smith on the press releases radio stations send out on figures day. Paul still owes me a fiver, by the way.

MMS For O2 iPhone
Just the thing I was looking for. Brilliant - now I can receive MMS on the iPhone. (Bizarre that it doesn’t support it…)

Twitter on the iPhone: Hahlo
While I’m on an iPhone theme, I use this for Twitter (it’s much prettier than it looks on this page). For this, and for the MMS thing, I’ve donated.

Keeping the conversation going
Nic Price activates a magic Wordpress plugin. So have I. Good idea.

Do We Have The Backup?
‘how it can be legitimate for a government to build roads but not to lay fibre is a mystery to me, and one that deserves to be questioned.’ Good point.

Big name #4
Hello, ladies. Contacting me has never been easier. Etc.

What HD-2s Don’t Stream And Should?
A rant about streaming. But included in this is interesting: WRXK’s HD2 channel (a new one only for HD radios) is entirely themed around their breakfast presenter. Neat idea. (Course, I was behind the ‘Virgin Radio Party Classics’ channel on Sky, voiced by Suggs.)

Interactivity: A lost opportunity for your station?
Some “isn’t the US behind the rest of us” type thoughts from Mark Ramsey; but some useful and interesting figures he quotes.

This is a tidied and edited list of my del.icio.us postings from January 26th to February 14th. You can subscribe to this list, live, via rss.

Photo uploaded on January 26th, by Ibrahim Iujaz. Used under licence.

What HD-2s Don’t Stream And Should?
A rant about streaming. But included in this is interesting: WRXK’s HD2 channel (a new one only for HD radios) is entirely themed around their breakfast presenter. Neat idea.

Interactivity: A lost opportunity for your station?
Some ‘isn’t the US behind us all’ type thoughts from Mark Ramsey; but some useful and interesting figures he quotes.

Tin-Pan Dead End Alley
Adam makes a splendid (and short) point.

The trouble with trust
A rather cogent and interesting speech from BBC DG Mark Thompson; not self-flagellating, but rather, opening issues wider than just “trust in the media”. An interesting read.

Core - A DAB Digital Radio Paradox
“In the UK at least, the hard times for digital are now. There needs to be a wholesale change in the infrastructure cost of digital to ensure its short-term survival and to put it on a sensible economic footing for the future.” Crikey.

A few days ago, I posted the news that Pandora is closing in the UK. Part of the reasons given were…

Both the PPL (which represents the record labels) and the MCPS/PRS Alliance (which represents music publishers) have demanded per track performance minima rates which are far too high to allow ad supported radio to operate

Well, so Pandora say. But they’re just saying that, aren’t they… of course they’ll claim the figures are “far too high”. That’s part of standard negotiation. Right?

Well, let’s do a little maths.

(## Updated, following Paul Brown’s comment lower down // and linked to MCPS/PRS).

Paidcontent.co.uk reports that MCPS/PRS was asking for 0.085p per song per listener - which also appears on this PDF file on the MCPS/PRS website. PPL, in a press release about the Pandora closure, says they would charge 0.0561p 0.0773p per song per listener (the interactive radio rate). Pandora plays around 15 songs per hour.

MCPS/PRS: 15 x 0.085p = 1.275p per listener, per hour
+ PPL: 15 x 0.0773p = 1.159p per listener, per hour
Total music rights payments: 2.434p per listener, per hour.

Now, consider this.

The latest figures from the UK’s Radio Advertising Bureau says that the commercial radio sector as a whole brought in £593m in 2007. The latest RAJAR figures show that commercial radio is listened-to for 441m total hours every week, or alternatively 23,018m total hours a year.

So… 23,018m total hours brings in £593m. Divide one by the other, and we find that, as a total industry average, commercial radio makes 2.57p per listener, per hour. And the revenue figures also include non-radio activity, like websites.

Let’s reiterate:
- The entire commercial radio industry in the UK, after 35 years experience and with 31 million weekly listeners, far outstripping even Google’s online reach, makes 2.57p per listener, per hour.
- For online radio, the UK music industry want rates that are 2.434p per listener, per hour.

Pandora would still have to pay their staff and their streaming costs; but once the music industry have taken 94% of their revenue, it’s a bit hard to understand where they’d find the money…

So, in short, it would clearly appear that these rates really are “far too high to allow ad supported radio to operate”.

Photo: Rossina Bossio Bossa. Used under licence. These are my personal views, and not those of the BBC.

Tim Westergren (above) has just sent this email to all users of Pandora in the UK.

I really liked Pandora; and it’s admirable that they are shuttering their service because they can’t achieve a licence, rather than just doing it anyway. It’s disappointing, but the right ethical thing to do. I’ve met Tim Westergren: he’s a very decent bloke. I’ve also met, on a number of occasions, Pandora’s UK MD, Paul Brown. He’s a very decent bloke too. Shame that the record companies just don’t want to know.

The bold bits are my highlights. (You may also like this post).

This is an email I hoped I would never have to send.

As you probably know, in July of 2007 we had to block usage of Pandora outside the U.S. because of the lack of a viable license structure for Internet radio streaming in other countries. It was a terrible day. We did however hold out some hope that a solution might exist for the UK, so we left it unblocked as we worked diligently with the rights organizations to negotiate an economically workable license fee. After over a year of trying, this has proved impossible. Both the PPL (which represents the record labels) and the MCPS/PRS Alliance (which represents music publishers) have demanded per track performance minima rates which are far too high to allow ad supported radio to operate and so, hugely disappointing and depressing to us as it is, we have to block the last territory outside of the US.

It continues to astound me and the rest of the team here that the industry is not working more constructively to support the growth of services that introduce listeners to new music and that are totally supportive of paying fair royalties to the creators of music. I don’t often say such things, but the course being charted by the labels and publishers and their representative organizations is nothing short of disastrous for artists whom they purport to represent - and by that I mean both well known and indie artists. The only consequence of failing to support companies like Pandora that are attempting to build a sustainable radio business for the future will be the continued explosion of piracy, the continued constriction of opportunities for working musicians, and a worsening drought of new music for fans. As a former working musician myself, I find it very troubling.

We have been told to sign these totally unworkable license rates or switch off, non-negotiable…so that is what we are doing. Streaming illegally is just not in our DNA, and we have to take the threats of legal action seriously. Lest you think this is solely an international problem, you should know that we are also fighting for our survival here in the US, in the face of a crushing increase in web radio royalty rates, which if left unchanged, would mean the end of Pandora.

We know what an epicenter of musical creativity and fan support the UK has always been, which makes the prospect of not being able to launch there and having to block our first listeners all the more upsetting for us.

We know there is a lot of support from listeners and artists in the UK for Pandora and remain hopeful that at some point we’ll get beyond this. We’re going to keep fighting for a fair and workable rate structure that will allow us to bring Pandora back to you. We’ll be sure to let you know if Pandora becomes available in the UK. There may well come a day when we need to make a direct appeal for your support to move for governmental intervention as we have in the US. In the meantime, we have no choice but to turn off service to the UK.

Pandora will stop streaming to the UK as of January 15th, 2008.

Again, on behalf of all of us at Pandora, I’m very, very sorry.

Photo: Steven Toomey. Used under licence

Prompted by Martin Belam’s list, and to avoid the utter boredom of reinstalling OSX now that my Mac Mini’s internal hard drive has given up the ghost a day before Christmas, here’s my top ten blog posts of 2007, thanks to Google Analytics.

I don’t get nearly the number of readers that Martin gets, and interestingly my recent appearances on the BBC Internet Blog (and links from it) haven’t altered my blog traffic significantly. In fact, most of the traffic to james.cridland.net has been related to a BBC Backstage gadget I’ve written, bringing feeds of BBC Weather to iGoogle. But, here’s the most-read blogs.

1. Fantastists and lazy journalists
Back in March, I looked at a story that the press failed to adequately check before printing, while I checked on it by, um, typing things into Google. I don’t comment on this story any more, and almost feel wrong even linking to it, but it’s clear that others still find it interesting. I wish Ryan and his family all the best.

2. When a perfectly valid credit card won’t work
Highly confusing, this one. This is just a rant, in January, against a credit card (one I don’t have any more, I think), but has clearly caught some search-engine love.

3. iPlayer on GNU/Linux
Welcome news about the BBC iPlayer, with a screenshot from the Ubuntu box in the kitchen. Oly posted in 12 December, but the third most popular posting of the entire year.

4. Review of the O2 XDA Mini S
A review of one of the most hateful phones I’ve ever had the misfortune to have to own. Curiously, my idea (held within this post) of how wifi should work on mobile phones is entirely how the Apple iPhone works. Interesting, too, how much of what I say is fixed with the iPhone.

5. I move to the BBC
My announcement from May, which many linked to. This posting has the record for the amount of comments on this little blog - 37 comments to one post. I ended up leaving Virgin at the end of June, and starting at the BBC on 9 July.

6. DAB+ in the UK
From March, a posting which appears quite high in a search for “DAB Plus” apparently; berating WorldDMB’s Quentin Howard for saying DAB+ would “never come to the UK”. He was wrong then, and while there are still no plans for any DAB+ broadcasting in the UK, he’s still wrong now.

7. How to auto-fill your iPod and train it for better music
From January. I mean to write a follow-up; but sadly have lost my iTunes library thanks to a failed hard-drive today, including all my information about the songs I like. Sigh. Will have to listen to lots more music, then.

8. Channel 4 and DAB Digital Radio
From March: an enthusiastic post about the (winning) Channel 4 bid for the second DAB multiplex. I wonder how many of the promised services will actually make it on-air? Virgin Radio Viva’s certainly not there… and it had a nice logo, too…

9. The Apple TV versus the Sony PSP
A long blog entry from March, essentially saying that if you allow people to hack your products, they’ll sell more. The Apple TV has, of course, sunk without trace; while the Sony PSP has lived to see another day.

10. iGoogle BBC Weather gadget
The source of most traffic to james.cridland.net these days. Bizarrely, Hereford appears to be the most popular place that people want their weather for.

11. Pandora - available to the US only? Or not
A rant about Pandora (who don’t pay PRS/MCPS and PPL licences) still being available in the UK.

12. talkSPORT nicks my little UK flag
…and I’m happy. This blog posting made me add the flag to all my sites again. Ah.

13. DAB audio quality from Ofcom
94% of people say that DAB audio quality is just as good if not better than FM. Worth a blog post.

14. Sky Anytime
I discover this catchup service on my Sky box. Seems to me that we’ll be much better services by proper IP-delivered catchup services. BBC iPlayer seems to fit the bill rather better these days.

15. The story of last.fm
To coincide with their sale to CBS, I witter on about how they don’t pay any licences to the music collection agencies, and just went ahead and made a business (while PPL, MCPS/PRS just stood around and did nothing). Nothing has changed.

16. DAB Slideshow
A photograph of the UK’s first DAB Slideshow services. The BBC has since added some slideshow services, but I don’t own a radio capable of decoding them.

17. Facebook - goodness, it’s good
I discover Facebook. In May of this year. And it’s quite good.

18. Getting rid of out-of-office replies in Gmail
Quite a few rules to rid yourself, mainly, of out-of-office replies. This post needs updating.

19. Logitech Harmony review
A long-term review of a remote control. No, seriously, it’s in the top 20.

20. Google Charts with PHP
Only posted in December, this is announcing a free mostly-port of some Google JavaScript code (which does the same job in PHP). The power of open-source strikes again.

Might I wish you a happy and safe Christmas.

Photo: Stuart Meldrum. Used under licence.

The honesty bookshop, by Russell Trow. Used under licence.

Time to come clean. Three years ago, I ran a pirate radio station. On the internet. I called it “The Album Station”. I even got jingles made, by the ever-so-good DevaWeb (ever so good at answering briefs, incidentally). It ran on an old box at home, and was available to hundreds of people across the world.

It was an experiment in a new music format that simply used music sales figures to produce a radio station - no music testing, no heads of music. It was initially an idea I submitted in the late ’90s to Emap, who I was working for at the time; local management was excited about it, so I sent it to group management in London, who not only ignored it totally, but made me redundant shortly afterwards. (In 9 months, they’d hired a replacement. That’s totally legal, and I’ll not have you say anything else. And it got me out of Sheffield, I guess.)

Anyway, The Album Station was using music entirely without payment. At no stage had I bothered to speak to PPL or the MCPS/PRS Alliance. Whatsoever. And at no stage did they spot my (not entirely clandestine) radio station, and at no stage did they ask me for any money.

Interesting, therefore, to read a blog post about the MCPS/PRS Alliance from Kevin Coy who writes, in part, that he’s…

…getting more and more miffed by the fact that the alliance are not the sharpest tools in the box when it comes to dealing with online radio piracy. They are very quick, very sharp, and very well organised when it comes to taking the legitimate broadcaster’s money, issuing invoices, and getting on the phone when a payment is late, but if a station is reported to them by a member of the public, by a licence holder (licence holders are obliged to report any illegal activity regarding breaches of copyright), or as we are currently seeing in one situation, widely reported in the press, this well-oiled piece of machinery seems to lose its wheels, and veer rapidly into a brick wall to which it’s blind to get around…

…the alliance is charged with looking after its clients (artists, composers, singers, songwriters etc etc), although it seems that they are only interested in doing this if as a broadcaster, you come forward and make yourself known to them. This smacks of the reality that the alliance are relying on the honesty of the online broadcasting community to come forward and do just that, but as we know all too well, they are being remarkably over-optimistic…

Let’s take this a little wider.

PPL, and MCPS/PRS, have sole responsibility to collect for music use in the UK.

Last year, PPL renegotiated the music licence with commercial radio to prohibit broadcasting overseas via the internet, in a licence that started in April 2006. But, PPL only holds the rights for the UK anyway. They have absolutely no right to collect for overseas use. Most commercial radio stations mistakenly agreed with the RadioCentre that they should stop broadcasting overseas, because the PPL licence said so. Yet actually, nothing had changed: PPL never had any rights overseas in the first place. Most stations descended into panic, and pulled their overseas streams.

(Some stations, being fair, never wanted Johnny Foreigner tuning in. They didn’t have RAJAR diaries, and they cost stations money, so what was the point? Agreed, to a point. But these stations mistakenly used the new PPL contract as an excuse; setting precedents that smaller stations didn’t feel comfortable fighting.)

So, non-UK listeners lose UK stations. There’s another side of the bargain here, of course.

PPL and MCPS/PRS are responsible for ALL music use in the UK; including non-UK broadcasters who make their broadcasts available in the UK (via the internet or other means). So, non-UK stations should be paying their way in the UK. PPL, and MCPS/PRS, need to ensure that they gain proper payment from other music users who are available within the UK. And they’ve singularly failed to do so. In fact, I am unaware of any example where a non-UK broadcaster has been forced to pay either body for their music use.

UK broadcasters have thousands of non-UK “pirates”, not paying their way and without any contact from PPL/MCPS/PRS. So, they can’t monetise their non-UK audience, while the two music collection agencies in the UK are failing to monetise non-UK broadcasters available in the UK.

It gets worse. As Kevin eloquently points out, the two organisations are next to useless at even policing their own shores. My own experience with The Album Station proved that. And my various posts about last.fm are clear that PPL/MCPS/PRS are content with sitting back and not policing this space, allowing pirate broadcasters (as last.fm still are) to make themselves into a multi million pound business. Kevin notes that Hitz Radio UK are also still broadcasting, despite clearly not paying for the “millions” of listeners they get.

If you pay people without any risk of a penalty for not paying, that’s simply a tax on being honest. And at some stage, you question its purpose.

Putting aside the fact that both organisations have virtually no understanding about how the internet works - writing “website” into a contract where “server” is the correct term, for example, isn’t unusual - I don’t understand why I don’t read about internet radio stations getting shut down by PPL and PRS/MCPS for not paying correct music licences.

PPL, and MCPS/PRS, do their jobs on the behalf of their members. I wonder when their members will wake up to the poor role that these organisations do on their behalf - and find people less incompetent to represent them?

(Do you run a station or website in the UK? Have you had an email from PPL or MCPS/PRS enquiring about your music use or threatening court action? Am I being too harsh? Let me know in the comments.)

Yesterday, I was at the Production 07 conference, where I get described (in the Media Guardian’s writeup) as “digital tsar”.

What can I say about the conference?

Well, I loved the piece from Francis Currie about “words” (though I doubt it was particularly relevant to the audience, but it’s curiously very close to the findings of an internal review we’ve done on the Virgin Radio website). I enjoyed ex-colleague Trevor Jordan’s utter demolition of (another ex-colleague) Brett Harley’s show-prep service, only because, as the Guardian’s John Plunkett said, Brett ended up having a rictus grin on his face for ten minutes while Trevor said lots of incredibly rude (and true) things about his service. (I didn’t use show-prep when I was on the air: I tried it once and it didn’t really work.)

Much of the rest of the day was incredibly poorly done, though. Naturally, being a radio conference, the sound was crap - the monkeys driving the desk had no clue about how microphones worked. There were other disappointments, too.

Mind, that was nothing to the disappointment that Adam Bowie writes up in the after-piss-poor-conference-piss-up. If you wondered who the man is at the top of this posting - he’s Sir Paul McCartney. Or not.