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R.I.P. Live 365 1999-2016

frankberry said:
Robert,

I understand that. The situation is no different than retail stores which go out of business due to the lack of customers.
There are too many music streaming sites with too few listeners to attract advertisers (or subscribers).
I'm not happy to see some of these sites shutdown either. I have a few favorites which may go silent.
Click to expand...

Yep, I agree with you.

R
 
Va Smooth Jazz & More

Live365 Makes It Official, Shutting Down January 31st.
Posted on January 16, 2016 by smoothjazzandmore
live365_bclogo2_light-bg

On Friday, affiliates of long-time Internet broadcaster, Live365, were informed via email that the company would shut down at the end of the month.

“We are sad that we are closing our doors at the end of this month. There are always possibilities that we can come back in one form or another, but at this point in time, January 31, 2016 is the last day that Live365’s streaming servers and website will be maintained and supported.”

Broadcasters were stunned and confused by the company’s announcement at the end of 2015. On December 31st, the company, which has been our broadcast parent for nearly 15 years, informed its internet affiliates across the network that recent negotiations on a new broadcasting royalty deal had sent the company in crisis mode.

The past royalty agreement involving small and medium broadcasters expired at the end of 2015. The new deal would have forced Live365 to drastically increase the costs nearly 500% percent on its affiliates. Coupled with the withdrawal of important investment partners, the company laid off its entire staff and vacated its offices in Foster City, California.

Today’s announcement ends a partnership that began in 2000, when I saw a story about the company on a news report. At the time, we didn’t have broadband, which would increase speeds for uploading and downloading files.

Live365 started in 1999 and survived many threats over the years. But its latest crisis was just too much to handle. Refunds are currently being made to broadcasters and listeners.

“We are proud that Live365 was a pioneer in the streaming music business and have provided a platform to hundreds of thousands of broadcasters to have a voice over the years.

Unfortunately, we have to say good bye.”

On January 11th, “Smooth Jazz and More” set up a new home at Radionomy, an internet broadcast provider with servers based in Brussels, Belgium. Despite the stream being free, there are still listener goals we must maintain to continue broadcasting. We encourage everyone to listen and support us!

You can listen to our new stream by clicking the newly added music player. No need to go to any website! You can also listen on the Tunein radio app by copy and pasting the website address:

http://listen.radionomy.com/smoothjazzandmore

I’d like to thank Live365 for giving me the opportunity to giving me a voice in the broadcast world for nearly 15 years. I’ve always wanted to be in broadcasting, and this venture made my dream come true. It breaks my heart that many people will be losing their jobs at Live365 due to bureaucrats in Washington.

Getting rid of 1,000’s of small and medium sized broadcasters is not the way to help music artists get more royalties, and thus, have their life’s work recognized. There should be more sources for music artists, not less. We encourage our listeners to contact their representatives in Washington and demand fairness for hobby broadcasters, like us.

As for our partnership with Live365, I’m so sorry to see them go.

It’s been one hell of a ride.
 
Kahuna said:
Getting rid of 1,000’s of small and medium sized broadcasters is not the way to help music artists get more royalties, and thus, have their life’s work recognized. There should be more sources for music artists, not less. We encourage our listeners to contact their representatives in Washington and demand fairness for hobby broadcasters, like us.
Click to expand...

I don't think the goal was to get rid of anyone. It's more about changing the business model, so small internet stations actually collect money from listeners. That's what this is all about. The music industry is opposed to free streaming. Subscription-based streamers could simply pass on the increased royalties to their subscribers.

BTW Radionomy only pays publishing royalties, not the artist or label royalties required by the US. At some point, that will become an issue.
 
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Are there still college/public FM stations that use Live365? If so, is Live365 assisting them with a smooth transition to another streaming service or are they on their own with only 14 days to find a streamer, make a deal and work out the technical details?
 
Everyone who had a station is on there own.. What really sucks is that all of the small web casters are S.O.L. A lot of them that do not get a whole bunch of listeners either has to shut down or pay stream licensing at least 40 dollars a month or just go Pirate and let the chips fall where they may.. Marvin at stream licensing tried to lobby for the small guys but the CRB said no...
 
gr8oldies said:
Apple's free music tier is going away. I wouldn't be surprised if Spotify's does as well
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Apple Music never had a free tier - it was a 90 day trial that would automatically bill you after 90 days.

EDIT: I see, you're referring to iTunes Radio, which was basically a Pandora clone. I thought they killed that off years ago.
 
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It is unfortunately the end for Live365. They sent this out in an e-mail on Friday: "We are sad that we are closing our doors at the end of this month. There are always possibilities that we can come back in one form or another, but at this point in time, January 31, 2016 is the last day that Live365’s streaming servers and website will be maintained and supported."

I was on their system from 2000 to 2006.

A number of Live365 refugees have ended up on Radionomy.
 
TheBigA said:
And those refugees will have to scramble again once those stations can't be heard in the US.
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Howard Hoffman's Great Big Radio just relaunched a few days ago via Radionomy. I would think that if they were planning such a move they would have advised him while he was negotiating with them, so I've sent him an e-mail to see what he has been told. That should help us all figure out which shoe on the octopus drops next.
 
I've heard RN has a New York office now so perhaps they are expanding to the U.S. and will cover the royalties here.

R
 
In doing a little research, I see that Radionomy is now over 60% owned by Vivendi. What does Vivendi also own? Universal Music Group, the world's largest record label. That investment took place in the final weeks of 2015, as the new CRB rates were announced. Radionomy got something that Live365 was searching for, which is new investment capital. So that tells me they won't be shutting down in two weeks.

But what does it mean when a primary beneficiary of streaming becomes a majority owner? I don't know the answer to that right now.
 
TheBigA said:
In doing a little research, I see that Radionomy is now over 60% owned by Vivendi. What does Vivendi also own? Universal Music Group, the world's largest record label. That investment took place in the final weeks of 2015, as the new CRB rates were announced. Radionomy got something that Live365 was searching for, which is new investment capital. So that tells me they won't be shutting down in two weeks.

But what does it mean when a primary beneficiary of streaming becomes a majority owner? I don't know the answer to that right now.
Click to expand...

If nothing else, it's good PR -- paints the biggest music conglomerate on the globe as a friend of the independent-minded music streamer who wants to entertain a limited audience with new music radio hasn't caught onto yet or old music from the back catalog that radio can't monetize anymore. Lots of that music is on UMG-owned labels. Yes, people are buying physical recordings less and less, but why should any label want thousands of little streams, each of which may inspire some of its listeners to buy music, to disappear? If the Sound Exchange and the interests it represents still get their pound of flesh, why should they care who's forking it over -- the hobbyist streamer or a corporation?
 
CTListener said:
If nothing else, it's good PR -- paints the biggest music conglomerate on the globe as a friend of the independent-minded music streamer who wants to entertain a limited audience with new music
Click to expand...

That's not how the press release paints it:

http://marketing.radionomy.com/PR2015/12/171215EN.html

Their goal seems to be to control and monetize all aspects of the process, from making of music to its usage. This is the company that used its influence to drive up royalty rates that put other platforms out of business. Now they're looking to collect not only the royalty, but the ad revenue their music attracts. Could they use their ownership as a tool against independent record labels or major competitors like Sony? In a way, it's like a record company owning the record store. How would you feel if this same company bought iHeart and started controlling radio playlists?
 
TheBigA said:
That's not how the press release paints it:

http://marketing.radionomy.com/PR2015/12/171215EN.html

Their goal seems to be to control and monetize all aspects of the process, from making of music to its usage. This is the company that used its influence to drive up royalty rates that put other platforms out of business. Now they're looking to collect not only the royalty, but the ad revenue their music attracts. Could they use their ownership as a tool against independent record labels or major competitors like Sony? In a way, it's like a record company owning the record store. How would you feel if this same company bought iHeart and started controlling radio playlists?
Click to expand...

I didn't say it was anything but PR, did I? Of course, Vivendi is out to serve its own interests, but it would be foolish to completely shut competitors' -- or indies' -- music out. A rising tide floats all ships, after all. Besides, most out-of-the-loop listeners believe the multinational music behemoths ALREADY own iHeart's playlists.
 
CTListener said:
Of course, Vivendi is out to serve its own interests, but it would be foolish to completely shut competitors' -- or indies' -- music out.
Click to expand...

That's what the battle for net neutrality is all about. Do you want Comcast or AT&T restricting the internet in ways that favors their owned businesses? At some point, what IS "indie music" if it's all on the same platform?
 
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