New app. New logo. Sharpened focus. Slacker Radio has joined the year-end rush of music service upgrades (Rhapsody, YouTube Music Key, Shazam, Musx, Tidal) with a new iOS app that doubles down on Slacker’s signature hosted playlists. Continue Reading
Music-ID app Shazam announced a mobile app refresh in its ongoing (unspoken) battle with SoundHound for user loyalty. Charts and listening are the two pillars on which the new Shazam rests. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Trying (and failing) to love hi-rez streaming; iHeartRadio partners (briefly) with Uber; Apple’s antitrust suit and today’s DRM. Continue Reading
The Association of National Advertisers (ANA), a leadership group that represents 640 companies carrying 10,000 brands and spending 250-billion marketing dollars, declared “Programmatic” its 2014 Word of the Year. The ANA surveyed 349 participating members to choose that term. What is the future of programmatic advertising in audio? Continue Reading
In what could be described as a refutation of Spotify’s feature-bristling desktop app, subscription music service Rhapsody is prompting desktop users to try a beta refresh which streamlines the look-and-feel. We’re sold. Continue Reading
adStream is an ad-stalking journal in streaming audio.
We usually study audio ads in adStream, but when our eyes are on the screen it is impossible to ignore the steady parade of banner ads in some music services. Interestingly, TUNE released a whitepaper study of the effectiveness of app-download ads. Continue Reading
“A wide stream of great music awaits you,” the tagline of The Wise Choice promises. It is definitely wide. Today we heard obscure world music and classical guitar mixed up with Elton John and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Enya. Sting. Armik. Carole King. If you like your listening to leap over genre boundaries, you’ll have an enjoyable time with this station. Continue Reading
Month-over-month webcast listening was moved upward in September, according to Triton Digital’s monthly Webcast Metrics Top 20 Ranker. The upward movement was nearly unanimous among the top-20 entities measured by Triton. Year-over-year and year-to-date gains were also apparent in September. Continue Reading
Sponsored by AudioBoom
A six-minute blast of news you need to know in streaming music and online audio. This week: Spotify’s geo-targeted advertising; WTMJ ultra-mobile live webcasts; Pandora’s new app; Rhapsody’s birthday stats; Podcast One argues with Stitcher; Music Freedom expands. Continue Reading
Nielsen released its Q3 Total Audience Report, formerly called the Cross Platform Report. The name change signifies a philosophical reconception as well as new marketplace realities. In the metrics, AM/FM time-spent listening dropped slightly year-over-year, but it is the generational shift which really stands out. Continue Reading
Native advertising has ebbed and flowed across media categories for decades. 2014 has been a year in which the streaming audio market has embraced native campaigns, and signs point to increased adoption by advertisers, and increased offerings by publishers. We spoke to Cathy Csukas (Adlarge) and Lex Friedman (Midroll Media) for sell-side perspective. Continue Reading
Spotify today announced the launch of a geo-targeted advertising platform for its ad-supported freemium service level. The initial rollout includes the top 15 listening markets. Launch partner Triton Digital provides verification metrics through its Webcast Local Metrics product. We spoke to Spotify ad exec Brian Benedik. Continue Reading