The band Vulfpeck has announced an ingenious way to simultaneously launch a tour, crowdsource its funding, and manipulate its Spotify earnings — all with a dash of humor. The key to this scheme is a newly “recorded” album called Sleepify, which has ten tracks — each track 30 seconds long, and each one absolutely silent. Continue Reading
When Pono Music completed its Kickstarter campaign with a whopping $6.2-million in crowdfunding, it motivated us to as readers whether hi-fi mobile music is important. On this site, the opinion stance has been that Pono and others are interesting ventures, but niche. Our poll results indicate stronger interest in sound quality than anticipated. Continue Reading
Apple’s CarPlay, a digital-dash system based on the iPhone, got more exposure at last week’s New York International Auto Show, where Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, and Hyundai showed off their CarPlay integration concepts. The big question in the audio-content industry is the extent to which AM/FM radio will be displaced by Internet-delivered listening. Continue Reading
The digitization of radio is an important part of the evolving media landscape, as documented by Edison Research, BIA/Kelsey, and other research organizations. On the front end, that means accommodating the consumer migration to online listening. Behind the scenes on the business end, it means bringing long-standing monetization technology from the web to broadcast. Continue Reading
Early this month, journalist and researcher Sean Ross opened up a debate in his Edison Research blog about apparent consumer preferences for more-frequent but shorter spot breaks on broadcast radio. Last week, country consultant Jaye Albright has continued the conversation… Continue Reading
Pandora has hired David Grimaldi, a veteran of congress, as the Internet radio company faces music-licensing regulations on multiple fronts. Grimaldi joins Pandora at a time when the market-leading Internet radio service faces many negotiations and legal arguments related to the cost of music it streams, and the U.S. government’s regulation of that cost. Continue Reading
Media giant Clear Channel today announced iHeartRadio Networks, an advertising sales program that puts CC’s vast, multi-medium inventory on a unified platform. The values for advertisers will be simplified media buys, greater reach, and targeting capability across different media environments. Continue Reading
Today’s Pureplay of the Day takes you off the beaten path — way off. The entire Pigpen Radio experience is an exercise in purity, from the all-indie playlist to the beautifully simple website, and the ease of its built-in player. Pigpen Radio disregards genre classifications — you’ll whip across genre boundaries in an exhilarating sonic experience. Continue Reading
Beats Music is reportedly signing up subscribers at a slower pace than hoped. Beats is taking one costly step to streamline the sign-up process: the service now allows users to sign up within the iPhone and iPad apps. By acceding to Apple’s business structure, Beats Music appears willing to swallow a 30% reduction in some of its subscription revenue. Continue Reading
Last month we reported the start of Milk Music, Samsung’s service targeted to Samsung phone users only. Milk Music launched with the most streamlined possible sign-up process: None. Now, a captured (leaked?) screenshot of a Samsung internal marketing graphic indicates that the ground is being laid for Milk’s next stage. Continue Reading
Record Store Day might seem to be an anachronism to some, but the annual event (held this past Saturday) is fun, well-attended, good for the stores, and nice promotion for many musicians and bands. For me, it’s all about the memories. For many years I lived in Princeton, NJ, home of a famous independent music store. Continue Reading
Stitcher, a leading podcast-listening app, raised $3-million dollars in new funding, according to CrunchBase. VentureBeat points to an SEC filing indicating that Stitcher’s offering to venture capitalists is $5.1-million, of which $3-million was sold. $2.1-million is “Remaining to be Sold,” according to the filing. Continue Reading