Radio once ruled the car. Now, digital dashboards, smartphone interfaces, and new “infotainment” systems are disrupting the car-listening experience … for broadcasters and car-buyers.
We learned that Aupeo is readying an update and re-branding of its Personal Radio product, soon to be re-named Personal Radio by Aupeo. Stay tuned for details during CES week in January. In the meantime, we spoke with CEO Holger Weiss, who Skyped with RAIN News from his Berlin office. Continue Reading
TagStation, the company behind NextRadio, released a blog post to close out 2014 by announcing its plans for attending the CES trade show in January, partnering with HD Radio developer iBiquity. In addition, TagStation shared statistics for NextRadio’s progress during 2014. Continue Reading
Ford announced that it is replacing the MyFord Touch digital dashboard with a new system called Sync 3. Based on Sync AppLink, the new connected car platform is expected to first appear in 2015 Fords and Lincolns. Sync has defined Ford’s “plug-and-play in-car audio strategy, but the automaker also supports dashboard operating systems developed by Google and Apple. Continue Reading
Thanks to new software updates, Slacker is coming to the Toyota Entune and Lexus Enform connected car dashboards. The online radio service will be added to models from 2011 to 2015 from both manufacturers. Both systems have voice activation, so the Slacker software will incorporate that feature in the song and station searches. Continue Reading
Imagine getting into a taxi and hearing your Spotify playlist, which you were just listening to, coming out of the car stereo. That is the vision, and starting this Friday the reality, of a partnership announced today by Uber and Spotify. The heart of the deal is about ownership vs. access, of both music and transportation. Continue Reading
Gracenote announced the launch of a new platform that will enter the increasingly crowded space of connected car dashboards. The product is called Entourage Radio, and this very interesting platform will connect music sources including AM/FM radio and streaming platforms in a single interface, then initiate new listening experiences based on song-ID. 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
We announce the results of RAIN Polls after one week. But we don’t shut down the polls after publishing the results. In some cases they remain active through search engines and social pointers. When that happens we revisit and update the results. Continue Reading
Roger Lanctot is Associate Director of Strategy Analytics, and a thought leader in the connected-car space. In this guest article, he discusses the competitive in-car triangle of AM/FM, Pandora, and Sirius XM. Continue Reading
Will the Future of Audio panel at RAIN Summit Europe, Nov. 4 in London, answer every question facing the industry? Possibly! For sure, it will be a fascinating discussion with an expert panel representing different dimensions of audio. We reached out to the panelists to capture glimpses of the future. Continue Reading
Napster has entered into a partnership with Audi and will be appearing in select car models starting this fall. “Connectivity has become more and more important in daily life,” said Patric Niederländer, Rhapsody International’s vice president of business development in Europe. Music Week reported that the integration was expected to expand into additional models in 2015. Continue Reading
Could wireless carriers take over the broadcast of radio content, removing a vital source of free, over-the-air content and information delivery? Guest Columnist Roger Lanctot of Strategy Analytics examines the question in the context of a Teracom report which denies it could ever happen. Lanctot didn’t think it could either … until he heard the report. Continue Reading