What song best evokes the spooks and scares of the Halloween season? SoundExchange has posted a graphic of the top ten scary songs of digital radio. The list is based on data collected for October 2013 from non-interactive digital radio sources, including satellite radio, Internet radio, and cable TV music services. Continue Reading
Nordic nations have 8 million streaming music users. That’s one of the takeaways from a survey conducted by the Polaris Nordic Alliance, a coalition of music collecting societies. The poll covered the roughly 17.8 million Internet users between the ages of 15 and 65 in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark. Continue Reading
Media technology company WideOrbit announced the hiring of Brian Burdick as EVP of Digital and Programmatic. Burdick will step in as head of WO Central, the company’s buying and selling platform, as well as recent acquisitions Fivia, Abacast, and Admeta. WideOrbit is investing aggressively in acquisitions and talent. Click through for details. Continue Reading
Spotify is launching a television ad campaign in the UK that ties in with talent competition X Factor. There will be two spots airing each week until the end of November. The first will tell a story about people listening to music, and the second will be related to the weekly theme of the singing show. Continue Reading
Triton Digital announed today that it is DAAST-compliant, among the first technology providers to fully adopt the proposed audio advertising standard. DAAST was developed by the IAB and its Digital Audio Ad Serving Template Working Group. Triton’s announcement applies to its recently launched Tap advertising platform, released in September. DAAST is a technical ecosystem in which advertisers, publishers, agencies, and consumer playback devices are aligned to coherently deliver and track streaming audio advertising. Continue Reading
Will the Future of Audio panel at RAIN Summit Europe, Nov. 4 in London, answer every question facing the industry? Possibly! For sure, it will be a fascinating discussion with an expert panel representing different dimensions of audio. We reached out to the panelists to capture glimpses of the future. Continue Reading
App Annie has launched a new Index for Music that tracks statistics for musical mobile software. The index combines data from both the iOS App Store and the Android Google Play marketplace for a look at the programs that are most downloaded and generate the most revenue across four subcategories: music listening, music creation, artists and information, and other. Continue Reading
Always on the lookout for good pureplay music represented by an easily usable interface, we are delighted to recommend Blue North Radio on both counts. Why north? The station features Canadian blues artists in the playlist, alongside standards. We’re picky about the blues. This station is a keeper. Continue Reading
Copyright has been the hot-button topic of this year, and the role of performing rights organizations has been a central topic of debate. While some of the top publishers like Sony and Universal Music Group are looking for a chance to break from the outside management of their compositions by ASCAP and BMI, the top two PROs embroiled in consent decree rules, there is still some opportunity for shuffling within that business and legal infrastructure. Continue Reading
A new online radio service launched this week: Mad Genius Radio. It is technically and legally a non-interactive online radio platform (like Pandora). But the interface invites much more customization than other lean-back services. It is fun, addictive, and an interesting new user experience in streaming audio. Continue Reading
STRATA, a media buying platform that connects advertisers with media publishers, has re-positioned Pandora’s ratings profile on its dashboard, separating it from radio stations, according to Inside Radio and RAIN News sources. The action represents the latest twist in a long path of Pandora competing against U.S. broadcast radio for advertising dollars. RAIN spoke to several sources for comment. Continue Reading
Napster has entered into a partnership with Audi and will be appearing in select car models starting this fall. “Connectivity has become more and more important in daily life,” said Patric Niederländer, Rhapsody International’s vice president of business development in Europe. Music Week reported that the integration was expected to expand into additional models in 2015. Continue Reading