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Pandora Earnings: Steady audience metrics disappoint investors

Posted on by Brad Hill
Pandora cube canvas 160w

Pandora's workmanlike earnings call conveyed the impression of offhand dominance in the field, but after-hours investors sent the stock careening down a steep slope, off 12% in early evening trading.

The company met financial expectations, but lowered guidance for the current quarter (Jul - Sep). Perhaps more influential to trigger-happy investors were the audience metrics, which showed no audience growth. There was expansion of listening hours, however, emphasized by CEO Brian McAndrews as the more important key in the revenue equation.

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Rhapsody partners with Flipps to stream video content to TVs

Posted on by Anna Washenko
Rhapsody canvas 160

Rhapsody has entered into a partnership with Flipps, an app for playing media from a mobile device on a television. Through this arrangement, Flipps will support the discovery and streaming of Rhapsody and Napster’s original video content, including music videos, live performances, and exclusive interviews. The deal is the latest in a busy year for Rhapsody.

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Google offers All Access Music free trial to Chromecast users

Posted on by Anna Washenko
chromecast canvas

Google announced that it will give U.S. Chromecast users a 90-day free trial subscription to the All Access Music service. The subscription streaming platform usually costs $9.99. Google is offering the free deal through September. Chromecast has been out for a year now, and it’s Google’s method of getting streaming media from mobile devices to a television screen. Several services, including Pandora, Beats Music, and Rdio, have added support for Chromecast.

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Kurt Hanson: Report from Tokyo

Posted on by Kurt Hanson

by Kurt Hanson

Over the past 14 years, RAIN has reported to you from around the world — including publishing a week's worth of early RAIN issues from an Internet-enabled café in Copenhagen, reporting on a popular new trend among young people in Prague called "texting" (way back in 2002), and producing an early cellphone-only version of RAIN in Tokyo, and more.

Now, founding editor Kurt Hanson sends a bulletin and photos from Tokyo, where he is observing the tech and online music scenes.

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Townsquare Media completes IPO

Posted on by Brad Hill
townsquare media logo and tsq canvas

Townsquare Media launched as a public company today, pricing its offering at $11. (NYSE ticker: TSQ) Townsquare is the 3rd-largest radio-station holding company in the U.S., with 312 local stations. An eager digital adopter, Townsquare maintains 325 local websites, and has grown its webcast listenership 43% in the past year.

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New research on “digitally native music consumers”; online music is the key category

Posted on by Brad Hill
digital native canvas

MIDiA Research, recently launched by Mark Mulligan, has completed a study examining the characteristics, attitudes, and behavior of "digital natives." The focus is mostly how they approach music. What are Digital Natives? A young demographic that has never known a world without online connectivity and unlimited music and audio choices. Understanding the mindset and decisions of that population shines light into the future of listening.

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Microsoft keeping Xbox Music, giving it an update

Posted on by Anna Washenko
xbox music logo canvas

Xbox Music will be getting an update in a few weeks, according to tweets from a Microsoft exec. Joe Belfiore, vice president for Windows Phone program management and design, said on Twitter that the service would be getting an upgrade in performance, fixes, and new features shortly. The news will come as a relief to fans of the service, which seemed like it could be on the chopping block based on Microsoft’s plans to streamline its in-house music and video teams.

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YouTube Music exec leaves to join startup, could impact subscription service

Posted on by Anna Washenko
youtube square canvas

Christopher LaRosa, a product manager for YouTube Music, is leaving to join an unnamed startup. He spent about seven years at the Google subsidiary and was a key player in expanding the musical content available via YouTube. Some of his projects included getting YouTube data to count toward the Billboard 100 singles chart and the still in-development subscription music program.

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