In June we reported on Entercom-owned Seattle station KNDD’s experiment in dramatically lowering its broadcast ad load. the station started a “Two minute promise,” in which no spot break would exceed that time, and each hour would be capped at six minutes. Today, the first signs of success for the KDNN test — higher ratings, and comments from Entercom CEO David Field. Continue Reading
ASCAP announced that it is appealing the decision it lost to Pandora in a federal rate-setting trial in March. ASCAP seeks to reverse a district court’s ruling that set a much lower royalty rate for Pandora’s use of music created or published by ASCAP members. In the earlier trial, federal judge Denis Cote was categorical in her rejection of ASCAP’s argument. the stakes are high enough to motivate ASCAP’s appeal. Continue Reading
Pandora inked its first direct record-label deal thanks to its new partnership with Merlin. Under this arrangement, Pandora will negotiate its payments directly with the independent rights group for the music Merlin represents rather than paying the Copyright Royalty Board’s statutory rates. Continue Reading
YouTube is the world’s largest distributor of streaming music, and an important music-discovery platform. Does extreme YouTube music popularity (virality) boost music sales? Nielsen takes a stab at answering that intriguing question, acknowledging that the results are inconclusive. But the graphic report is interesting. Continue Reading
adStream is a journal of ad-stalking and interesting commercial sightings in online audio services.
Pandora has spent resources building a local ad-sales network working in over three-dozen markets, and deploys algorithmic tools to target ads by location. But in our ad-stalking experience, we don’t notice many location-specific commercials in our test account. We caught one the other day, though. Continue Reading
In a recent interview, Pandora CFO Michael Herring spoke about the company’s interest in making its services more friendly to drivers on the road. To that end, Bloomberg reported that Pandora is exploring the world beyond music, with interest in formats such as talk radio, news, and sports. Continue Reading
Rhapsody is bringing two music discovery startups into the fold with acquisitions announced today. Statements from Rhapsody about the acquisitions seemed to imply that neither standalone product would immediately be shuttered, but it does seem likely that the new team members will be putting their expertise toward some new features for the streaming platform. Continue Reading
eMarketer reports on survey data collected in march by B2X Care solutions, investigating how consumer ages 16-65 use their smartphones. The report is slanted toward online map use. But we noticed that music use was at the same usage level in the original research. Continue Reading
If the steady throb of 60-beats-per-minute dance music helps power you through the day, Club Fusion is a pureplay you need to know about. (www.fusionradio.fm).In today’s high-energy listening to Club Fusion we’ve heard Tiesto, Chromeo, Antillas, Kiesza, Cascada, and others. Continue Reading
Following its purchase of the platform in July, Google has revamped Songza’s terms of service. Songza members are required to agree to the new ToS from Google and its privacy policy, as well as agree to transfer their personal information from Songza to Google. Users who don’t agree to the Google terms will not be able to log in to their old accounts. Continue Reading
Coleman Insights has completed its guidance research for the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and Emmis Communications, the developer of NextRadio. The study’s first part was about how consumer consume radio generally. This second part examines consumer reaction to the NextRadio app. Continue Reading
Sources said that Beats Music CEO Ian Rogers will be overseeing iTunes Radio going forward in addition to his leadership of the Beats streaming service. The Wall Street Journal reported that having Rogers at the head of both the iTunes Radio and Beats Music could help keep a cohesive feel across the two services. Continue Reading