Ford and Toyota have formed the SmartDeviceLink Consortium, an alliance of car companies and software developers intended to create alternatives to Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, the leading suppliers of smartphone integration in dashboards. The effort hopes to bring some oxygen into a closed duopoly governed by the world’s two leading operating systems. Continue Reading
Everybody seems to want SoundCloud to be acquired, though the company itself does not publicly contribute to speculation. The latest? A report of unnamed sources saying Google is now investigating a SoundCloud purchase. Continue Reading
Pandora is announcing today the wide release of its two newest ad formats: Muted Video and Responsive Mobile Display, after six months of testing with a handful of launch advertisers. Test partners included Denny’s, Google, Express, and the Lexus Dealers Association. The beta period enabled Pandora to develop usage metrics. Continue Reading
Happy New Year!
RAIN News is pleased to present predictions from 29 thought-leading guest futurists. 2017 will carry forward the audio industry’s reputation for quick, disruptive change. Continue Reading
Almost exactly one year after Live365 went dark, sending thousands of small webcasters scrambling for new platforms or giving up their stations, Live365 is back. Details are scarce, but this is what we know now. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: A Forbes columnist revisits successful 2016 predictions for the music and music-service industry, and ventures to predict 2017 events. General Counsel of the RIAA explains why 2017 will be a “critical year.” Continue Reading
Tidal has published a year-end video that promotes the exclusive-release strategy the music service followed in 2016. While exclusive album releases have gotten the most attention (and there have been 32 of them this year), Tidal touted exclusives in other categories. Continue Reading
When it comes to music, news, and podcast listening, Amazon Alexa (in the Echo and Dot devices) is far less equipped than you might think from all the buzz. But the promise is that Alexa will get smarter over time, as new skills are learned. Even now, the experience is compelling. Continue Reading
The final week of the year is a good time to reflect on what was, and look forward to what will be. Today, the most-read articles and the #1 story of 2016. In an unprecedented concentration of interest, RAIN News readers drove our coverage of 2016’s most important news event to the top five most-read articles of the year. Continue Reading
One year ago this column complained about Facebook’s lack of native audio — a feature for users to post an audio file directly to Facebook, rather than linking out to it. Facebook’s slight has been the world’s biggest example of how audio takes a back seat to video. This week, Facebook abruptly turned its face toward the light (well, the sound). Continue Reading
Rumor has come to fact as Nielsen has acquired music data company Gracenote from parent company Tribune Media. The market-leading metadata company for music, video, and sports content, Gracenote instantly gives Nielsen an extraordinary level of intelligence about what’s playing, and where. Continue Reading
Cisneros Interactive announced today a $2-million investment in digital audio advertising company Audio.Ad, which specializes in Latin American and U.S. Hispanic audiences. Cisneros owns a majority stake in Audio.Ad, which it acquired in March, 2015. Continue Reading