Australia

An Australian legal analyst says a new court ruling in that country will result in vastly higher royalty rates for online radio streaming, and may quash it altogether.

Radio broadcasters in that country pay for broadasting copyright sound recordings, and currently pay an additional 1% for streaming their on-air content.

The Phonographic Performance Company of Australia (PPCA) is Austalia's counterpart to SoundExchange in the U.S. -- the body that represents sound recording copyright owners, and collects and distributes royalties when those copyrights are used. Last week Australia's Full Federal Court ruled in favor of the PPCA, declaring that online simulcasts of broadcast radio is outside the definition of a broadcast, and thus require a separate license.

The author (a University of Canberra law student named Karl Schaffarczyk) writes, "Given recent PPCA demands of huge increases in licence fees for other users of recorded music, a likely scenario is that many broadcasters will simply stop making their content available online."

Read his article at The Conversation here.

Pandora has gone live Down Under.

The leading webcaster in the U.S. is "fully live" in Australia and New Zealand, with both the web-based player and fully-functioning mobile apps for Apple and Android devices. The launch marks Pandora's first official entry in nations outside the U.S. since the company limited listening to home nation in 2007. 

In July (coverage here), Pandora "beta launched" in the two countries, but streaming only to desktop listeners (no mobile) -- but with the aim of a fully-mobile service. Holden will be the first car company in Australia and New Zealand to offer full compatibility with Pandora via its new Holden MyLink infotainment system.

"This is especially important in Australia and New Zealand," according to Pandora's press release, "which are among the world's most mobile-centric societies."

To accompany the launch, Pandora created "genre stations of Australian- and New Zealand-specific music," and has hired a local Managing Director for the new markets. Jane Huxley most recently led digital efforts for Fairfax Media, one of Australia's largest diversified media companies (Australia and New Zealand-based newspapers, magazines, radio and digital media).

You can see Pandora's Australia Genre Stations here, those for New Zealand here, and download the app for those markets here.

Clear Channel's online radio platform, iHeartRadio, will launch in Australia and New Zealand, the broadcaster announced today.

The Australian Radio Network (ARN -- which is a joint venture between APN News & Media and Clear Channel International) will launch the service -- and add its own stations to the iHeartRadio range of listening options. The service will launch in Australia and New Zealand next year.

ARN has a "dual brand" strategy - a MixFM and Classic Hits music stream in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane. ARN reaches over 4 million listeners, and is one of the leading broadcasters in the 25–54 demographic in Australia.

A new service from an Australian start-up transforms articles from the web into a radio-like experience. SoundGecko, from Melbourne's 121cast, automatically transcribes print articles from the web and outputs an audio mp3. Their free iPhone app even plays these transcribed articles back-to-back, essentially creating a personalized news audio stream.

"Our vision is to reinvent the radio with personalized information and entertainment," said 121cast's Long Zheng.

Give SoundGecko a URL -- by sending it to a special email address, pasting it directly into SoundGecko's website, or via Chrome extension -- and the service delivers an mp3 recording within 30 seconds to your email address, or to the service's iPhone app, or pushes the file to a linked Dropbox or Googe Drive account.

"Since our soft launch we've had hundreds of users requesting nearly a thousand articles," Zheng told The Verge.

"I have been testing the service over the past few days and although it isn't perfect," writes The Verge's Tom Warren, "I found that the text-to-speech voice is great for when you want to simply sit back and listen to an article during a commute."

Our own experience with the app is similar. Here's how I've used the service over the past day: while browing the web, I used the SoundGecko Chrome extension to send a variety of interesting articles -- which I didn't have time to read just then -- to the service. Then this morning on the train, I fired up SoundGecko's iPhone app and listened to my articles in one continuous radio-like stream.

It was overall a very smooth and exciting experience, though as Warren writes, it isn't perfect (yet). But 121cast has a few ideas on how to improve the experience, including possibly hiring professionals to "read out the most popular URLs" (on-air talent?).

Apps for Android, Windows Phone and Windows 8 are on the way. SoundGecko is currently free to use, though the company is mulling putting caps or perhaps premium features.

You can find SoundGecko here and The Verge's coverage here.

Pandora in late June tentatively opened its doors to users in Australia and New Zealand. Dubbed a "beta launch" by founder Tim Westergren, the expansion for now only includes Pandora's website -- not its mobile apps. Additionally, Australians and New Zealanders won't be subject to advertisements...for now.

"Our focus is to have conversations with those listeners to understand and get their feedback about the service," said CEO Joe Kennedy.

Pandora closed access to most international users in 2007 due to licensing issues. The new international expansion may be "aimed at luring new users while allaying investor concerns that it may struggle to grow outside the U.S.," reports Bloomberg Businessweek. 

"You can’t imagine how delighted we are to be able to start streaming Pandora into Australia," said Westergren.

You can find more coverage from Bloomberg Businessweek here and The Register here.

Australia may soon be a new marketplace for customizable Internet radio services, according to a new report from Morgan Stanley. The firm recommends existing broadcasters launch their own personalizable offerings in the meantime.

Morgan Stanley's report predicts that "personalized Internet Radio services, such as Pandora, will enter this market [Australia] at some point over the next 2-3 years." Such a new entrant will capture 2-3% of the nation's market within 3 years of launch, according to the report.

Australia already has access to on-demand streamers like Spotify, Rdio and the Omnifone-backed Rara.com.

Morgan Stanley goes on to forecast that the largest Australian media group Southern Cross Media (SXL) may be hurt by the launch of Pandora or similar services. However, SXL also "has the strongest platform from which to launch its own personalized Internet radio business and to gain a first mover advantage over new entrants," writes The Register.

"We believe it’s only a matter of time before the Internet has a negative impact on traditional radio listenership," Morgan Stanley's report states. "And thereafter radio asset values in Australia too."

The Register has more coverage here.