SOURCE ARS
In some ways, worse. Webcasters live under the threat, not currently enforced, of paying both performers and songwriters when they stream music, while radio only pays the songwriters. For services like Pandora, which create customized radio stations based on favorite artists, the revenue pressure has been intense.
We've previously sung the praises of Pandora, in its Web and incredibly awesome mobile incarnations (iPhone and Windows Mobile), but how the site paid its bills was always mysterious. It displays some advertising and makes affiliate money by referring buyers to iTunes and other stores; it also has a few sponsorships, like its "Energizer Forum." That never seemed like enough to cover the cost of all that commercial-free music, but users weren't complaining.
Pandora has recently rolled out ads between songs, though, moving into a format slightly more akin to traditional radio. CEO Tim Westergren told California's Press-Democrat that the commercials were just one of many things that Pandora was experimenting with, but that the service would never run as many as traditional radio.
But if it's a tough time to launch a new webcasting ad format, Pandora can take cold comfort from the fact that the ad market is hammering just about every sector. Ad pages in print publication saw a 12 percent drop in ad pages in 2008, with worse coming in the early days of 2009. Things are bad enough that even Google has just scrapped its program to sell print ads.
When Google and Yahoo report their new financial numbers over the next few days, we should know whether online advertising has collapsed at a similar rate or is proving to be the exception to a general downturn.
In some ways, worse. Webcasters live under the threat, not currently enforced, of paying both performers and songwriters when they stream music, while radio only pays the songwriters. For services like Pandora, which create customized radio stations based on favorite artists, the revenue pressure has been intense.
We've previously sung the praises of Pandora, in its Web and incredibly awesome mobile incarnations (iPhone and Windows Mobile), but how the site paid its bills was always mysterious. It displays some advertising and makes affiliate money by referring buyers to iTunes and other stores; it also has a few sponsorships, like its "Energizer Forum." That never seemed like enough to cover the cost of all that commercial-free music, but users weren't complaining.
Pandora has recently rolled out ads between songs, though, moving into a format slightly more akin to traditional radio. CEO Tim Westergren told California's Press-Democrat that the commercials were just one of many things that Pandora was experimenting with, but that the service would never run as many as traditional radio.
But if it's a tough time to launch a new webcasting ad format, Pandora can take cold comfort from the fact that the ad market is hammering just about every sector. Ad pages in print publication saw a 12 percent drop in ad pages in 2008, with worse coming in the early days of 2009. Things are bad enough that even Google has just scrapped its program to sell print ads.
When Google and Yahoo report their new financial numbers over the next few days, we should know whether online advertising has collapsed at a similar rate or is proving to be the exception to a general downturn.
