adStream is a journal of ad-stalking and interesting commercial sightings in online audio services. In Pandora, Promoted Stations are sponsored playlists branded by advertisers, and co-created with Pandora’s curation experts. The program launched in May with several advertising partners, but the sponsored stations are difficult to find. We found one. Continue Reading
Jay Green, previously the National Account Director at PodcastOne, has joined AdLarge as VP, Digital Sales and Content Partnerships. Before PodcastOne, Green spent 12 years at Dial Global, in research and strategic operation roles. Continue Reading
Clear Channel announced today that iHeartRadio is adding the 55 Mexican radio stations of Grupo ACIR to the streaming platform. The cluster will be folded into the iHeartRadio Hispanic Network. The emphasis is on U.S. exposure to the Mexico-based programming. As part of the distribution deal, Clear Channel will take over as digital sales provider. Continue Reading
If U.S. legislative bodies and lobbying groups are neck-deep in music-licensing and copyright issues during this “Summer of Copyright,” their northern neighbors are wading into turbulent waters, too. A protest of Canadian music royalty rates, set by the government in May, is underway. Continue Reading
When we read that Feature.FM would be supplying sponsored music to 8tracks, we took the opportunity to catch up with David Porter, 8tracks founder and CEO, to discuss that deal and native advertising generally. Our conversatijon also went into data science and user personalization. Continue Reading
Pandora’s workmanlike earnings call conveyed the impression of offhand dominance in the field, but after-hours investors sent the stock careening down a steep slope, off 12% in early evening trading.
The company met financial expectations, but lowered guidance for the current quarter (Jul – Sep). Perhaps more influential to trigger-happy investors were the audience metrics, which showed no audience growth. There was expansion of listening hours, however, emphasized by CEO Brian McAndrews as the more important key in the revenue equation. Continue Reading
Townsquare Media launched as a public company today, pricing its offering at $11. (NYSE ticker: TSQ) Townsquare is the 3rd-largest radio-station holding company in the U.S., with 312 local stations. An eager digital adopter, Townsquare maintains 325 local websites, and has grown its webcast listenership 43% in the past year. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: The state of streaming; online radio in Australia; live but not in person; Google/Spotify deal debate. Continue Reading
MIDiA Research, recently launched by Mark Mulligan, has completed a study examining the characteristics, attitudes, and behavior of “digital natives.” The focus is mostly how they approach music. What are Digital Natives? A young demographic that has never known a world without online connectivity and unlimited music and audio choices. Understanding the mindset and decisions of that population shines light into the future of listening. Continue Reading
WideOrbit, a leading provider of advertising management solutions, has acquired Admeta, a Sweden-based tech company specializing in programmatic ad-selling. With a strong focus in Europe, and clients in over 20 countries, Admeta develops technology to optimize revenue for online publishers. Continue Reading
Amazon’s Prime Music, which launched in June, has enhanced its service with “hundreds of thousands of songs,” and a big raft of new house-curated playlists. The service is pressing its strategy of providing easy lean-back listening to music mixes to Prime members, and de-emphasizing lean-forward music searching and collecting. We took the opportunity to give the service a second review, this time in an Amazon Kindle Fire HD tablet, presumably the, er, prime interface for the platform. Continue Reading
Venerable Internet radio platform SHOUTcast, which was acquired from AOL by Radionomy early this year, is re-launching this week with enhancements that should benefit SHOUTcast station owners. The SHOUTcast brand, station directory, and back-end tie-ins with mobile apps all remain intact. The noteworthy changes are intended to provide station owners with a less expensive, more lucrative, and better informed experience. Continue Reading