Radio (terrestrial or online) is best when delivering a rich-discovery stream of music that repeatedly makes you say, “Who is that?” and “I’ve got to hear more of that band.” When those revelations happen with nearly every song, you know you’ve found something special, and that was our experience with La Noche del Hombre Lobo. (Night of the Werewolf.) Continue Reading
Apple’s free and forced distribution of U2’s new album is the gift that keeps on giving. The epic pushback by Apple users has turned the incident into a meme with hilarious side effects. Click through for a few minutes of Friday fun — Apple’s imaginary damage control solution from Conan O’Brien. Continue Reading
THIS WEEK: RAIN Summit Indy awards. Clear Channel becomes iHeartMedia. The epic Apple/U2 saga. BMI reports revenues. A broadcaster lawsuit. Podcasting is more important than you think … and is still getting sued. A new audio ad network. Continue Reading
Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI), a performing rights organization that collects and distributes music royalties on behalf of publishers and composers, announced record-breaking revenue and distribution for the fiscal year ended June 30. Revenue totaled $977-million, and royalty distributions were accounted at $840-million. Continue Reading
Four days after our initial coverage of Apple’s forced distribution of U2’s new album, the controversy continues to swirl. A good deal of media punditry has concluded that the marketing gambit, in which Apple put the band’s new album, Songs of Innocence, into the music collections across the iOS mobile landscape, was an outright failure. But 33-million people listened to the album, making the experiment a large success. Continue Reading
Clip Interactive, a mobile platform for radio stations, released a slew of announcements of new partners and increased revenue for existing partners. We took the opportunity to speak with CEO Michael Lawless about the product and its recent news. Continue Reading
RAIN Summit Europe, to be held in London on November 4, is the largest meetup of Internet radio and online audio professionals. It is a day-long event featuring panels and presentations, speeches and networking. The London conference marks the third annual European RAIN Summit. RAIN is pleased to announce the topic agenda for the event. Continue Reading
Podcast listening is a big deal — that’s the key message from Edison Research as it continues to divulge new aspects of its “Share of Ear” study, released to subscribers in June. Continue Reading
RAIN News founding editor Kurt Hanson delivered his semi-annual State of the Industry Address at RAIN Summit Indy last week. In addition to expected Star Trek references, and a disconcerting Star Wars mention, Hanson drew trendlines, isolated an important consumer demand across all media, targeted problems with certain industry products, and suggested solutions. Continue Reading
In its most recent Local Commerce Monitor (LCM), an ongoing survey of advertising behaviors among small and local businesses (SMBs), BIA Kelsey found high ranking for ROI (return on investment) when advertising in streaming radio. More survey participants rated streaming radio highly for ROI than they did for over-the-air (OTA) radio. Continue Reading
“Clear Channel announced today that it has become iHeartMedia, reflecting the company’s success in becoming a one-of-a-kind multi-platform media company with unparalleled reach and impact,” according to the press release. Darren Davis, President of iHeartMedia, remarked in an email, “iHeartMedia reflects the momentum of iHeartRadio and how consumers and advertisers engage seamlessly across our diverse live media platforms — broadcast radio, digital, mobile, social, TV, outdoor and events.” Continue Reading
There are two main revenue paths for online streaming audio: advertising, and subscriptions. The balance of the two differs among music services. We recently spotted some Live365 spots which use banner inventory attached to audio ads to funnel users into subscribing. Continue Reading