Joined: 02 Jul 2002
Posts: 403
Location: SF, CA
Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2002 12:46 pm Post subject: Registration, direct linking, and other upcoming delights

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Hi, All -

As you may or may not have heard, Live365 will be making some changes to the service sometime in January.

Please read this post all the way through, as it covers a lot of information including some info about new offerings to listeners and broadcasters at the very end of this note.

We will announce the exact dates once they're finalized, and give everyone ample notice. This preannouncement gives you a little back story, and explains the reasoning behind the upcoming changes...

Registration

Starting some time in January, Live365 will be requiring all listeners of Personal Broadcasts to log in before listening.

Registration will be a short, simple process wherein listeners will be asked to enter zipcode, age and gender info, in addition to email address.

Our privacy policy remains unchanged, and this will be communicated repeatedly: This information will NOT be sold or rented or given to anyone - it will be aggregated and used for statistical purposes in discussions with advertisers.

Why are we doing this?

Zip, age and gender will be aggregated into statistical info that will help us to place ads on the service more appropriately, and less blindly. (It will help us get a higher CPM, which enables fewer, smarter ad placements for more revenue.)

Furthermore, we will be able to customize the content of our newsletters to those who have elected to subscribe based on stated tastes and preferences. Of course, you will be able to unsubscribe at any time, if you like.

Let me repeat: We will not give out anyone's email address or any other personal information to anyone else. These are to be aggregated statistically. This is NOT FOR SPAM. If you have privacy concerns, please reread the previous paragraph.

Direct Stream Access

Direct access to streams (eg opening the /play/ URL in 3rd party players) will no longer be available, also in January.

Why are we doing this?

The short answer is that we serve two flavors of TLH: Expensive, and Very Expensive. Expensive TLH is served to those listeners who are logged in. The costs associated with Logged in TLH is defrayed by the associated statistical information.

This helps keep broadcasting costs minimal, and no charge for listening. Without advertising we would not be around, remember!

Very Expensive TLH, on the other hand, is served to those listeners who do not log in, who access the site via the /play/ URL.

In a soft advertising market such as this one, we are unable to sustain the costs of Very Expensive TLH which has fewer incoming revenues - statistics and/or newsletter impressions - to offset it.

Logging in - which is and will always be FREE for listeners - will be begin sometime in January.

But....!

Many people suggested that this will discourage listeners and that it will actually do more harm than good...

While we understand that not everyone will want to register - remember that we will make it extremely clear that we are not using anyone's information to evil ends, but rather it will be used to improve the listening experience.

For instance, if you're a Christian music fan, you will most likely have way different tastes and interests than, say, if you like punk rock. And a progressive house music fan will likely have different interests than an oldies fan. The musical tastes that Live365 supports are more diverse than any other radio network in the world. This initiative will allow us to place fewer ads more sensitively, not less, and to get a higher CPM in doing so.

Live365 is an advertiser-supported service. These changes will enable us to keep listening FREE and broadcasting as affordable as possible, while continuing to grow and reach as many people as possible.

New cool stuff coming up

As some of you may have noticed, we're working with a variety of record labels of all genres to create a Music Library which gives our broadcasters free access to new music.

See more about this here:

http://www.live365.com/community/labelservices.live

Logged in listeners will be able to wishlist and rate tracks on a per-track basis. This information - again statistics - will be presented to the labels for them to use in learning about listeners' tastes. (in statistical, aggregate form.) Should they see that a new artist is being played by loads of broadcasters, and wishlisted by loads of listeners, for instance, that label may choose to support a longer artist tour. Or put out an additional release by that artist. (Broadcasters will be able to use this kind of listener feedback to inform his or her programming choices, too.)

Listeners who opt in to receive the mailing entited "RadioFreeReleases" (in your Settings) will get personalized mailings from Live365 about new music, and receive discounts offered by our trusted label partners. (If you've ever received a mailing from Amazon, you know they have the ability to send you discounts and notices based on your preferences) This is a win-win, as anyone who signs up will get discounts and notices about music you like, and labels will get to make their music available to a broader audience of people who expressed an interest in hearing from them.

From a radio revolution perspective, this is perhaps the most powerful thing to hit the music industry because it puts the power of feedback in your hands.

Indeed, we hope all our listeners (and broadcasters) get involved, as this kind of direct feedback has never been available before now. And, of course, if you know of anyone who runs a label who might be interested in taking advantage of the Music Library, by all means, please refer them to this URL:

http://www.live365.com/community/labelservices.live

Thanks for reading all the way through

There is a lot to digest....(post-thanksgiving, no less...sorry bout that.) We have put a lot of thought and energy into how we're going to continue to maintain our stature as the biggest and best internet radio network on the planet. We hope you'll take a moment to consider how all these changes will work together to secure that for a long time to come.

Again, if you have other questions, please don't hesitate to post them in the listener forum, here:

http://forums.live365.com/viewtopic.php?p=19617

Thanks again for reading. Have a great weekend -

betty r