In a world spanning almost precisely the glory days of AM Top 40 radio, where DJs were fast-paced, frenetic, and fun, Mr. Lujack (as he told us repeatedly that he preferred to be called) stood out as the antithesis of almost everyone else on the air. He was surly, disgruntled, straightforward, and wry; while he could occasionally be cheery when the occasion called for it, it was always clearly a sarcastic cheery. (Air check in the article.) Continue Reading
Well-read tech reviewer David Pogue bestowed and end-of-year “Pogie” award on NextRadio, an FM chip-plus-app solution for selected Android phones. For Pogue, the point isn’t any rhapsodic affinity with radio. The appeal for him seems to be streaming audio that doesn’t eat into the phone’s data plan. We review the history of portable radio in the mobile digital era. Continue Reading
Ouch, and surprise! After winning favorable judgement in a similar court proceeding with publisher collection agency ASCAP, Pandora is on the losing side of a case brought by another major agency, BMI. The ruling makes life complicated for Pandora, and possibly for BMI-represented publishers. Continue Reading
The Echo Nest has worked with Microsoft before, providing technology underlying the Xbox Web Playlist feature. But Xbox Music Radio is a more basic function, bolted into the platform’s primary navigation, and intended to compete with Pandora, iTunes Music, and all other lean-back pureplay experiences. Continue Reading
Blues Debut adds a fresh twist to blues programming, and lives up to its name, by playing only the most recent release of any artist in the playlist. Furthermore, an emphasis system favors the newest new. The blues is as old as suffering, but this station sticks to the latest. Continue Reading
ZUUS is streaming video playlists. The desktop experience is pleasing, allowing the user to drill into a (limited) suite of genre channels. Perhaps of greater interest are curated video stations such as Village Voice Curated and Cake Shop NYC Curated. Could ZUUS be a Vimeo-like alternative to YouTube’s upcoming music service? Continue Reading
On March 8, then-CEO Joe Kennedy resigned his position, and the hunt was on for a new captain. That search took six months. On September 12, Brian McAndrews was named Pandora CEO. The McAndrews appointment signaled the company’s intention to focus on monetizing the market-leading audience that Kennedy had built. Continue Reading
RadioIO provides consumer listening and custom background music to corporations. The company traces its found roots back to 2000. this announcement upgrades RadioIO’s technical underpinnings with Triton Digital services. Continue Reading
Several Chrome browser extensions tune out Pandora audio ads. One of the pitfalls of being the streaming music platform of choice is that the service becomes a target for developers with the know-how to “improve upon it.” Ad-blocking is real, and is a growing problem. Continue Reading
“I don’t have to be doing this,” Norman Pattiz said about his new business. We assumed as much about the retired founder of Westwood One, the giant radio content syndicator he started in 1976. But he is doing it, and we wanted to know why, how, and where he wants to take it. Continue Reading
In a noisy, all-access world, Beyonce’s new video album is a startling triple-exercise in product building, reverse marketing, and distribution strategy. But to some, it looks like new clothes on an old horse. Still, a viral hit always seems surprising, and feels fresh — perhaps because virality represents the voice of a crowd, not gatekeepers. Continue Reading
Streamripping: a once-popular (and still practiced) way of pulling songs out of an Internet radio stream and saving them as MP3 files. Shazam and SoundHound bring free-or-cheap music collecting to the user’s encounter with music anywhere, including radio. Life is a stream, and Shazam rips it. Continue Reading