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A six-minute blast of news you need to know in streaming music and online audio. This week: YouTube Music Key finally arrives (partially); iHeartMedia rate proposal; in-car listening preferences; Rhapsody earnings; SoundHound’s new app; Disney goes digital on Slacker; Taylor Swift redux. Continue Reading
Ad-tech company AdsWizz announced the hire of Paul Brown as VP, European Solutions. Brown leaves Bauer Media, one of the U.K.’s largest radio groups, where he was Digital Development Director. He joined Bauer as part of the acquisition of Absolute Radio in 2013. Continue Reading
Thought leader and guest contributor Mark Mulligan looks at just-launched YouTube Music Key, and digs into a series of questions about artist response, the fate of music video service Vevo, the potentially changing price point of music subscription, and a YouTube identity crisis. Continue Reading
Nielsen Audio has reportedly set a target timeframe for introducing streaming audio measurement, according to Inside Radio. The launch target is mid-2015. That timeline was put forth at Nielsen’s Audio Advisory Council meeting in Tampa. Continue Reading
After over a year of rumors, hints, announcements, delays, and public wrangles with labels, Google’s YouTube platform has unveiled Music Key, the new music service. The launch is partial, and Music Key is more complicated than expected. Continue Reading
When a global consumer service loses the most popular product in its catalog, it’s pretty bad news on the face of it. The seriousness of Taylor Swift’s much-publicized withdrawal from Spotify is perhaps reflected in the gravity and scope of founder Daniel Ek’s blog response yesterday. But crowd opinion, and thousands of news articles, might add up to good publicity. Spotify itself is uniquely asking Taylor Swift to return, with a “Come back, Taylor!” playlist. Continue Reading
Noncommercial webcasters are often forgotten in the discussion of the current proceeding to set Internet radio sound recording royalties. But, along with the royalties for commercial webcasters, the current Copyright Royalty Board proceeding will also set the rates for noncommercial webcasters. Broadcast attorney and frequent guest contributor David Oxenford explains everything. Continue Reading
SoundHound announced a relaunch of its popular music-recognition app, which the company calls “the most significant visual change to the app.” The design is optimized for iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, and of course is fine in earlier iPhones, and Android phones. We tested the new SoundHound version 6.3 in both environments. Continue Reading
Edison Research released a new piece of its landmark Share of Ear research, a large-scale survey first introduced in June. The latest component is an infographic detailing the percentage of listening to audio sources in the car. Share of Ear respondents indicate that AM/FM listening still dominates in the car, followed by satellite radio. Continue Reading
Music-ID app SoundHound has created an intriguing brand integration with Grand Marnier, in which the DNA of certain songs is revealed — samples, remixes, and covers, mainly. The campaign is called “The DNA of Music,” and we spotted it surrounding a Kelly Clarkson song ID’d in SoundHound. We talked to Cheryl Lucanegro, VP of Sales at SoundHound, to get the back story of this campaign. Continue Reading
Radio group Cumulus Media and online music service Rdio forged their partnership last September, so yesterday’s earnings call from publicly traded Cumulus could be approached as a one-year anniversary of the terrestrial/online hook-up. In year-over-year growth in ad revenue, digital led the way, and Rdio led digital. Continue Reading
Intentionally named, The FIX promotes itself as an antidote: “Charleston’s answer to boring radio.” That’s Charleston, South Carolina. If you live around there, you want to know about The FIX for its focus on local bands and events. If you don’t, you want to tune in this pureplay station for the carefully curated alt-rock programming. Continue Reading