Welcome to Internet Radio REWIND, an audio recap of the week. This weekly program is a quick and concise catch-up of the week’s top stories. Click the Play button to get ready for the coming week.This week: Two huge rumors … two important music service launches … Pandora’s latest fall from grace … another swipe at radio royalties. Continue Reading
Streaming solutions provider Abacast announced today that it has been named a finalist in the Red Herring Top 100 North America awards list for 2014. Red Herring runs this annual awards list to promote and honor privately-held technology start-ups and scale-ups. Continue Reading
Nielsen posted a fascinating infographic called Music Mapped Out that carves the U.S. into regions, and analyzes how their populations listen to, and pay for, music. It’s an interesting view of music consumption. Which U.S. region streams the most? (Hint: think coastal.) Continue Reading
In what would be a blockbuster $3.2-billion deal that re-shapes the ownership structure of streaming music, Apple is reportedly set to acquire Beats Electronics, which includes Beats Music. If it plays out as rumored, the acquisition would vault Apple into the music-subscription industry, adding a third pillar to its music business. Continue Reading
SNL Kagan released the 2014 edition of Economics of Internet Music and Radio, a map of the online audio landscape and financial projections. The study considers pureplay Internet music services in detail, and also makes separate financial revenue projections for digital streams of broadcast radio. Continue Reading
The latest of many legislative proposals which would require broadcast radio to pay performance royalties to labels and artists was introduced yesterday in the House of Representatives. The bill spins a cagey framework by putting radio stations on the same place in the delivery chain as cable companies. Continue Reading
Darren Davis, President of Networks for Clear Channel Media and Entertainment, will be the keynote speaker at this year’s RAIN Summit Indy, to be held Tuesday, September 9 at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis. Davis has a 21-year career with Clear Channel, and will provide insight on Clear Channel’s innovative digital initiatives. Continue Reading
Reports are circulating today that telecom giant AT&T will discontinue the Muve Music service currently available to a portion of AT&T’s user base. AT&T is invested in its partnership with Beats Music, and owns Leap Wireless, Muve Music’s parent company. There is logic in this rumor, if it plays out. Continue Reading
8tracks, the highly differentiated music service that encourages users to create “online mixtapes,” today released a top-to-bottom redesign of its iOS app, and disclosed its latest audience and business metrics. “”We’re hoping this will be a big event in our history,” CEO David Porter told RAIN. Click for the app review. Continue Reading
XAPPmedia today announced a new addition to its executive team: Lisa Namerow, who moves over from Slacker Radio. Namerow was SVP of Strategic Partnerships at Slacker for about a year, and assumes a similarly focused role at XAPPmedia. Before her stint at Slacker, Namerow maintained an 11-year career at AOL, where she managed AOL Radio. Continue Reading
SoundCloud announced via email to its subscribers today that the “Classic” version of its site would be discontinued in one week. “We appreciate that this represents a change that some of you have been hoping we wouldn’t make,” the email stated, “but it’s something we must do.” Long-time SoundCloud users are disgruntled. Continue Reading
In a significant redesign of its platform, audio network TuneIn today relaunched its mobile apps and browser experience, and disclosed audience and content statistics. TuneIn now has over 50-million active users. The new app experience presents a dramatic redesign and re-naming of existing functions, and some new features. Continue Reading