The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a kind of sheriff's office for civil liberties on the Internet, has received an encouraging ruling from a government office that regulates patent reviews. The judgment clears the way for the EFF to challenge the validity of a controversial lawsuit against podcaster Adam Corrola and other podcast publishers.
[read more]
The band Vulfpeck has announced an ingenious way to simultaneously launch a tour, crowdsource its funding, and manipulate its Spotify earnings -- all with a dash of humor. The key to this scheme is a newly "recorded" album called Sleepify, which has ten tracks -- each track 30 seconds long, and each one absolutely silent.
[read more]
When Pono Music completed its Kickstarter campaign with a whopping $6.2-million in crowdfunding, it motivated us to as readers whether hi-fi mobile music is important. On this site, the opinion stance has been that Pono and others are interesting ventures, but niche. Our poll results indicate stronger interest in sound quality than anticipated.
[read more]
Apple's CarPlay, a digital-dash system based on the iPhone, got more exposure at last week's New York International Auto Show, where Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, and Hyundai showed off their CarPlay integration concepts. The big question in the audio-content industry is the extent to which AM/FM radio will be displaced by Internet-delivered listening.
[read more]
The digitization of radio is an important part of the evolving media landscape, as documented by Edison Research, BIA/Kelsey, and other research organizations. On the front end, that means accommodating the consumer migration to online listening. Behind the scenes on the business end, it means bringing long-standing monetization technology from the web to broadcast.
[read more]
Pandora has hired David Grimaldi, a veteran of congress, as the Internet radio company faces music-licensing regulations on multiple fronts. Grimaldi joins Pandora at a time when the market-leading Internet radio service faces many negotiations and legal arguments related to the cost of music it streams, and the U.S. government's regulation of that cost.
[read more]
Much has been said about the 'connected dash' in recent weeks: the concern that radio has plenty to lose from forthcoming internet-connected cars, that'll offer internet radio, Spotify-like services, and plenty more. Guest columnist James Cridland says that if you're a radio broadcaster, you should start worrying right now.
[read more]
Media giant Clear Channel today announced iHeartRadio Networks, an advertising sales program that puts CC's vast, multi-medium inventory on a unified platform. The values for advertisers will be simplified media buys, greater reach, and targeting capability across different media environments.
[read more]
Today's Pureplay of the Day takes you off the beaten path -- way off. The entire Pigpen Radio experience is an exercise in purity, from the all-indie playlist to the beautifully simple website, and the ease of its built-in player. Pigpen Radio disregards genre classifications -- you'll whip across genre boundaries in an exhilarating sonic experience.
[read more]
Beats Music is reportedly signing up subscribers at a slower pace than hoped. Beats is taking one costly step to streamline the sign-up process: the service now allows users to sign up within the iPhone and iPad apps. By acceding to Apple's business structure, Beats Music appears willing to swallow a 30% reduction in some of its subscription revenue.
[read more]
Addressing this issue should be a major concern for AM/FM broadcasters, since hugely-long spot breaks are cited regularly, at least anecdotally, as a reason consumer are spending less hours per week with broadcast radio and more hours per week with satellite and Internet radio each year. RAIN founder Kurt Hanson offers ideas.
[read more]