Idiosyncratic Transmissions bears the signs of careful and knowledgeable curation. While dishing out surprising and rewarding discoveries of eclectic music (mixed with a few standard rock/pop gems), there is a comforting, easygoing quality to the listening. We had it on for hours this morning, and the song mix had us looking up to see what was playing several times, without intruding with any attention-getting blasts. Continue Reading
Apple’s music platforms — iTunes and iTunes Radio — have issued innumerable album previews and exclusive releases. Promotions of those events seek to drive sales in an era when streaming is eating into music ownership. Taking the concept a step further, Apple bundled U2 released U2’s new album, Songs of Innocence, globally, by dumping the album directly into iPhones, iPods, and iPads throughout its vast user base. Much gnashing of teeth ensued. Continue Reading
Kurt Hanson introduced Norm Pattiz, special presenter at RAIN Summit Indy, as, “One of the greatest entrepreneurs in the history of broadcast radio.” Pattiz, founder of Westwood One, now owns and operated PodcastOne, producer and aggregator of Internet audio programs. Continue Reading
Month-over-month webcast listening was flat in July, according to Triton Digital’s monthly Webcast Metrics Top 20 Ranker. Our analysis also looks at the year-to-date view, and (for the first time), a three-year that incorporates Pandora’s monumental listening growth. In percentage terms, Clear Channel has nearly kept pace. Continue Reading
RAIN Summit Indy, held on Tuesday in Indianapolis, was a packed day of panel discussions, keynotes, and special presentations. Audio was recorded, and is hosted, by Audioboom. Click through to select and listen to any of the day’s events. Continue Reading
In a special presentation at RAIN Summit Indy on Tuesday, Larry Rosin, President of Edison Research, broke out new statistics from the “Share of Ear” study conducted earlier this year, and initially summarized in June. Attempting to quantify how American adults listened to audio from all sources, Share of Ear attributed 11.6% of listening to Internet Radio — in the study context, that meant both non-interactive services like Pandora, and interactive services like Spotify. In the RAIN Summit presentation, Larry Rosin unpacked that metric to illuminate more detailed findings. Continue Reading
The Interactive Advertising Bureau will release the first standard template for digital audio advertisements today, called the “Digital Audio Ad Service Template” (DAAST). The breakthrough standard was developed by an industry coalition organized by the IAB (the IAB Digital Audio Ad Serving Template Working Group).
The purpose of DAAST is to promote a technical ecosystem in which advertisers, publishers, agencies, and consumer playback devices are aligned to coherently deliver and track streamed audio advertising.
RAIN spoke to Scott Cunningham of the IAB, and Benjamin Masse, co-chair of the Working Group and SVP of Triton Digital. Continue Reading
Internet radio pioneer AccuRadio announced a $2.5-million investment from NantWorks LLC, headed by entrepreneur Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong. AccuRadio was founded by CEO Kurt Hanson, also RAIN News Founding Editor. Kurt Hanson began building AccuRadio in 2000. It was an experiment first, and became a hardy first-mover in what has evolved into a crowded field littered with music services that did not survive. Today’s press release notes that AccuRadio operates profitably. Continue Reading
When an Internet station in Saint Louis picketed a newspaper for eliminating the station from a reader’s choice award of best radio stations, we decided to poll RAIN readers on the crucial question: Is Internet radio “real radio”? The results are definitive, with 70% of responses say: Yes, it is. Click through to see selected comments. Continue Reading
OurMusicalRoots.com, the Saint Louis Internet station that was denied a reader’s choice award by a Saint Louis newspaper, picketed the newspaper office as promised on Wednesday. Station founder John Stephens reported back to RAIN that all went well, with a… Continue Reading
THIS WEEK: Is Internet radio “real radio”? Rdio’s re-launch and free listening. YouTube’s new tip jars for musicians. How much money does Neil Young need? How much moeny did 8tracks get? Internet Radio Awards at RAIN Summit Indy. Continue Reading
Midia Research released a report called The Streaming Effect, which gathers some penetration and consumer behavior metrics into a cogent state-of-the-industry message, with a future forecast. Midia founder Mark Mulligan sent us a copy of the subscription report. Continue Reading