The following is an on-the-scene report from Michael who was at the RAIN/NAB conference which wrapped up today in Las Vegas:

I apologize for the delayed post, but it would appear the wifi in the airport is like most things Vegas — not exactly as advertised. Let’s do it bullet-style:

* Nothing to check one’s ego like having to order a McDonald’s fish fillet sandwich by walking through the drive-thru. In my defense, it was that or 7-eleven for dinner at midnight, but still…

* …totally made up for by “Best Of” Elton John playing during the breakfast buffet where you could make your own Belgian waffle Sunday brunch style. Oh Belgian Waffle it seems to me you lived your life like a candle in the wind.

* Enough with the food, on to the conference. Kurt Hanson & all the RAIN folks put together a jam-packed conference day. Had a chance to check-in with old phriends Brian Zisk, Todd Beals, Mark Lam and Paul Maloney.

* I was invited to speak with David Oxenford (lawyer with Davis Wright Tremaine; represented the small commercial webcasters in front of the CRB and author of the excellent wonky Broadcast Law Blog) and John Rosso from Citadel Broadcasting (one of the lead negotiators for the recent SoundExchange-NAB royalty deal). We were able to cover quite a bit in 45 minutes.

David started out with some background describing the negotiated rates in the NAB agreement. He smartly passed the microphone to John to defend the rates. Without using too much color it is safe to say that many of the smaller commercial broadcasters in the audience were not overly happy with NAB.

My main points were as follows:

- You can’t begrudge any party for negotiating a deal. They know their interests the best and outside parties aren’t really in a position to determine what does/does not make sense from the NAB’s POV.

- The RIAA/SoundExchange isn’t stupid. Assuming the recording industry is a bunch of dinosaurs that don’t “get” digital is the quickest way to get steamrolled in any negotiation/arbitration hearing.

- That being said, from a high-level SoundExchange doesn’t really care about the webcasting industry. Even a thriving webcasting universe is small peanuts for the recording industry.

- SoundExchange is not negotiating for today, they are negotiating with a 10+ year time horizon. They have realized for a long time that the industry is moving from CD sales to licenses for on-demand, interactive usage of digital content. Their main goal is to ensure that sound recordings are given the highest possible value in this future. And, specifically, SoundExchange is looking for as many precendents as possible to show that sound recordings have a 4-10x value of song compositions.

- Therefore, the only way to compete with SoundExchange is to have a time horizon as long or longer. Webcasters need to be thinking about the future 20 years from now where terrestrial radio no longer dominates the industry in terms of audience or revenue.

- Of course, it is difficult to think about the future when you are worried about next quarter’s revenue figures. But, one could still make the argument that NAB has agreed to some pretty steep royalty rates in the “out years” to get a small discount in the next 1-2 years.

Many attendees were concerned about attempts to impose performance royalties on over-the-air broadcasters. One audience member asked a question about whether is was “fair” that webcasters had to pay a fee for something that terrestrial broadcasters got for free. My answer was that copyright is neither logical nor fair. Copyright rules are set via political lobbying in front of Congress. It is a many year’s process of horsetrading and relationship building, which makese sense since Congress alone has ultimate power to set copyright regulation anyway they choose.

* The day ended with some good navel-gazing as to what the internet radio (and radio in general) industries need to do to survive and thrive over the next 20 years. Many good ideas from the group. My main addition was that radio should focus on what they do well, which is shared community listening experiences. I pointed to examples such as NPR and AM sports radio as folks who have been doing relatively well while others struggle.

* Of course, in addition to internet radio panels, there were 3 entire convention centers full of amazing broadcast toys. And, compared to CES, these guys have some awesome toys! Check out these pictures of choppers and mountable satellite dishes.

* Worst named product goes to AT&T’s “Chumby”–no explanation required.

Close 2nd place goes to some object by the name of Hoodman.

What could be better than skipping the first real Boston spring weekend and heading to beautifully air conditioned Vegas? Skipping the first real Boston spring weekend and heading to beautifully air conditioned Vegas to talk about the arcane world of webcasting performance royalties!

CEO Michael will be a featured speaker at the RAIN Internet Radio Summit this coming Monday as part of the annual NAB show in Las Vegas. He will be chatting with David Oxenford, Citadel Broadcasting’s John Rosso (bring Citadel personality Mike Huckabee, plz!) and maybe some folks from SoundExchange.

The topic will be battles past, present and future across the internet radio industry to set the rate webcasters pay to artists and record labels for using sound recordings. Previous incarnations have involved chair-throwing, so don’t miss it. We’ll have Michael provide a first-hand account on Monday.

If you’re going to be in town for either the summit or NAB, drop us a line at blargh@mediaunbound.com and we’ll put you in touch with Michael.