Starbucks, which has a long history as a music purveyor within its larger mission of caffeinating the world, today announced a partnership with on-demand music service Spotify. The alliance is trumpeted as a “First-of-its-kind music ecosystem.” Continue Reading
Global on-demand music service Deezer is announcing today the integration of Stitcher audio programs, following Deezer’s acquisition of the long-established podcast app in October. The integration mixes news, entertainment, and sports programs to Deezer’s 35-million-song music catalog. Continue Reading
The role and value of free listening to on-demand services (freemium) has been under scrutiny for months. Industry finances might support the logic of arguments that freemium should be limited. But is that strategy near-sighted? Continue Reading
James Cridland Weekly Links is a column by the U.K.’s radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: VOX conference; interesting events and articles from around the world. Continue Reading
Money continues to flow into the burgeoning podcast category as Bonnier Growth Media, a Swedish investment firm, today announced closing a $5-million capital investment in Acast, and podcast and advertising network, also in Sweden. Continue Reading
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The weekly update of the streaming audio industry, from RAIN News. THIS WEEK: BMI wins lawsuit vs. Pandora; new streaming advertising report; Apple/Beats rumors; Rdio’s new plan Continue Reading
In a Manhattan U.S. District Court, a ruling in the BMI vs. Pandora royalty rate case went in BMI’s direction late yesterday, raising the rate at which Pandora must pay for BMI-represented music by 43%. Continue Reading
Research company CivicScience probed the preferences and psychographics of Spotify and Pandora users to sketch a detailed image of how they differ. Using widely distributed web-bases surveys that yielded over 8,000 replies, CivicScience sought to understand demographic and behavioral differences. Continue Reading
Ad technology company XAPPmedia announced the closing of a $3.8-million round of new capital funding. The private investors were not disclosed. After a previous funding round of $3-million, XAPP’s total funding now stands at $6.8-million. Continue Reading
XAPPmedia released a new edition of its ongoing study of streaming audio advertising, the Internet Radio Ad Load Report. In addition to updating data released in the first report, this edition (PDF here), which covers Q1 2015, is enhanced with… Continue Reading
Ten years ago, when podcasting was relatively new, it was mainly downloaded content. Things have changed, thanks to high-speed mobile bandwidth, and consumer acceptance of streaming access as opposed to stored ownership. Why have some podcast apps failed to get with the times? A case study in frustration. Continue Reading
Ad-tech company AdsWizz announced today that it has named Gary Goodman as President for Europe. Goodman joins AdsWizz from iVenture, where he served as CEO. Before that he was founder and CEO of MediaEquals, a media trading platform. Continue Reading