I’m not going to blame KCRW for music redactions just yet. Until I hear otherwise, I’ll read Mr. Harcourt’s “While the major labels are still figuring it out, the independent artists understand the value of this type of promotion” as “Well, the label reps can’t figure out a rate structure for podcast licensing, and/or aren’t negotiating reasonably, but the artists are happy to let us podcast performances the labels don’t control.”

I don’t mean to imply I’m blaming anyone—it’s a complicated business, and everyone wants a cut of the action. Moreover, each show and each affiliate will certainly have its own reasons for doing a podcast at all, so, yeah, I get that.

But, for a radio show that’s based heavily on spinning licensed music, it’ll be rough to generate a seamless podcast that doesn’t come off as aural swiss cheese. That’s why I’m encouraging a unique “best of” that suits the limitations (legal and otherwise) of the medium. And, yeah, I think it’s worthwhile to chime in (early) when the cluetrain’s only pulled partway into the station. That’s what fanboys do. :)

I hear you, Merlin, and I hope MBE is able to put up the full Monty soon. I just had to stick my hand up and ask for patience, because I lost a lot of good independent musical sources to the battle over streaming license fees, and don’t want to see reruns of that mess.

This is a pet peeve of mine, so please let me vent …

I listen to KCRW via the web (I live in St. Louis) almost everyday. Every other pledge drive I send in $150. I tell them to keep their “swag,” I just want to support KCRW. MBE on podcast would be so neat, I can only assume the record labels don’t like the idea. But the thing is I can use Wiretap Pro to “grab” the audio myself (I mean the shows are archived) if I wanted.

The record companies can’t move their mind-set past Napster and other file sharing services where people do steal content on a regular basis. They look at the top 100 shows on iTunes or Podcastalley and see KCRW, KCRW, KCRW and think, “my gosh, our music is going to be out there for FREE! Look at all the people downloading it.”

Exactly, and this is where they are stupid beyond understanding. I buy a new audio CD about every week and a half I would guess. Since I’ve been listening to KCRW (almost two years), I’d bet 35 percent of the CDs I have bought was because of Nic and MBE. Are there other public radio stations, college stations, you name it playing good music? I bet there are. Give me the opportunity to hear them.

IMHO it is not that different then the Dead or Dave method. Give away the music, let people have it, and maybe at a later date they’ll buy something. But that is just my opinion.

I was disappointed to see that it was only the Live-In-Studio segments of MBE as well, but then I realized that they’re podcasting the exact same content that they have been making available (via Real Audio) in their archives. I wonder if it’s a licensing issue or just a question of not knowing how much interest there is in an unedited stream of the full three hour show?

It’s a licensing thing. The major labels (and large indies) are afraid of cannibalizing download sales if people can download a podcast of their artist’s music for free. MBE will start by offering podcasts of artists who either have their own label or whose label agrees to license the MBE performance for podcast. The smaller labels will gladly do it, while majors typically will not save for some of their lesser known artists that need to risk more with less at stake.

Then there are the publishers, but that’s another can of worms.

So close, yet so far

I like podcasts; I like KCRW; I really like Morning Becomes Eclectic. So when I saw the title "Morning Becomes Eclectic now available as podcast" I was really excited. Then I read that it would only be selected segments only including unsig…

Morning Becomes Eclectic now available as podcast

I feel bad that I hadn’t checked 43 Folders more recently, but here’s a nice little gem from a week ago: KCRW TO PODCAST MORNING BECOMES ECLECTIC SESSIONS Damn, this is pretty big. “Morning Becomes Eclectic??? now available as a…

KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic Stream/Podcast

KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic …