Pandora announced that Lars Murray will serve as its new vice president of industry relations. Murray joins the company from Columbia Records, where he was vice president of digital media. Continue Reading
Clip Interactive has announced an agreement with Entercom to create mobile apps for Entercom’s Portland radio stations. The new apps will allow listeners to interact with “all elements of the broadcast and stream.” The apps are designed to create additional station revenue. Continue Reading
Stream aggregator TuneIn had a soccer-motivated milestone during the World Cup tournament. The whole event (not just Brazil’s sad shocker at the end) added up to TuneIn’s biggest listening attraction ever. Continue Reading
During Pandora’s development of its advertising model, we have tracked the development of its local sales organization spread across dozens of city markets. With less publicity, Pandora is also building an in-house creative advertising team that works with agencies and advertisers to build customized messages, programs, and productions to connect brands with targeted groups of listeners. The effort leverages a combination of media creativity and data knowledge.
To get a better picture of how this works, and some examples, we spoke with Heidi Browning, Pandora’s SVP of Strategic Solutions. She works with chief marketing officers and ad agencies on ideas for what she calls “innovative ad experiences.” Continue Reading
Brief new items and worthy reads from around the web: Legal blog demystifies the YouTube/indie artist contract; Baboom gets a new industry hire; Spotify loses a European exec Continue Reading
Sunita Kaur, director of Asia for Spotify, spoke with The Next Web about the company’s plans for growth in the coming months. Since its first foray into Asian markets in April 2013, Spotify has been moving slowly. The company is only present in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and the Philippines, leaving huge swaths of the continent untouched. Continue Reading
Microsoft-owned Nokia’s music service, MixRadio, is slated to be spun out as a stand-alone listening platform. It’s big news — separating from that ecosystem will put MixRadio on the same playing field as Pandora, iTunes Radio, and other Internet radio brands. In light of the news, this is a timely moment to assess MixRadio and its potential to stand out in the crowd. How does it shape up? We tested the premium service offered by MixRadio on a Windows 8.1 computer with touch screen, and a Windows 8.1 tablet. Basics? Well-covered (mostly). Highlights? Occasional. Continue Reading
Deezer announced changes to its subscription options on Friday. The Paris-based streaming service said it will discontinue the desktop-only Premium plan for new users. Existing members with that plan will be able to continue using the Premium plan if they wish. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Yahoo! Live update; Kindle Unlimited and its implications for content subscriptions across media types; what do people really care about in connected cars? Continue Reading
Microsoft sent the tech world into a tizzy yesterday with the announcement that it will cut 18,000 jobs. A large portion of those jobs will be removed from Nokia, which it acquired in April. That cut includes plans to spin off Nokia’s MixRadio service into a standalone company. MixRadio will need to offer something distinct and valuable for listeners to encourage them to test it out, much less stay around. Continue Reading
In a video (click through to watch) of an interview at the Brainstorm Tech conference hosted by Fortune, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek covered a lot of ground, In particular, he downplayed the possibility of Spotify spinning out a much-rumored IPO, with an offhand criticism of life as a public company. Continue Reading
Patrick Reynolds notes that the television industry is in a golden age, even as audiences fragment among many hit programs, good and bad. In that context, how brightly does the radio constellation shine? Continue Reading