Quick Hits: A defense of radio and some very expensive headphones
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Radio defense from down under. Tech catches up to high-res audio. Continue Reading
News
Canadian podcast listenership among drivers growing gradually
A new survey reveals that Canadian podcast listening in cars has continued to rise. The results showed notably more podcast consumption among the 18-34 age group at 17%, compared with 8% for ages 35-54 and just 2% for the over 55 group. It was also most popular among university graduates compared with other education levels. Continue Reading
Streaming and digital grew in the Netherlands last year
NVPI, the Netherlands’ industry organization, announced the figures for the Dutch music sector’s performance in 2015. The music industry grew 12.5% to €136.9 million last year. All digital revenue totaled €72.2 million. Continue Reading
Thomas Mancusi, ex-CBS/PodcastOne exec, joins audioBoom in new sales leadership role
Leading spoken-word platform audioBoom announces today that Thomas Mancusi is taking the newly-created position of Vice President, Sales and Development. In this job, Mancusi will develop premium marketing campaigns around audioBoom’s most successful and high-profile programs. Continue Reading
Facebook unveils new rights management tool for video (and music?)
Facebook has launched a Rights Manager tool to help monitor and protect copyrighted content on the social media network. The main focus of the discussion is “freebooting,” in which videos are easily ripped from the content creators and shared by Business Pages to grow their own online audiences to the loss of the original sources. At first glance, this isn’t an obvious musical development. But the comparisons between Facebook’s Rights Manager and YouTube’s Content ID programs are obvious and point to the broader consequences of this initial action by the social media company. Continue Reading
Gen Media Partners brings on Jim Brandt as digital SVP
Gen Media Partners announced the hiring of Jim Brandt as its new senior vice president of digital. In this position, Brandt will be tasked with capitalizing on revenue opportunities in digital platforms ranging from radio and streaming to TV and mobile. Continue Reading
SoundCloud’s audio cards get Twitter Moments support
SoundCloud has tightened its integration with Twitter. The online platform’s audio cards can now be embedded into tweets that appear in Twitter Moments. Continue Reading
Gracenote founder Ty Roberts joining Universal Music Group
Gracenote founder and chief strategist Ty Roberts is leaving the company he founded to join Universal Music Group as the company’s first chief technology officer. Gracenote was founded in 1998 as CDDB (Compact Disc Database) and built its reputation on its waveform-based identification of titles and other metadata of CD tracks. Continue Reading
Music consumption explodes worldwide, powered by streaming (IFPI)
The IFPI has released its 2016 global report, which points to streaming as the key reason behind music’s first year of significant total revenue growth since 1995. Global revenue rose 3.2% last year to $15 billion. Digital outperformed physical revenue for the first time, a result that echoes the U.S. trend highlighted by the RIAA’s annual report. Within that strong performance, streaming emerged as a powerhouse, accounting for 43% of the year’s digital revenue. Continue Reading
Quick Hits: YouTube vs the majors; worrying about NPR’s future; Spotify CMO interview
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web. TODAY: YouTube is facing contract renewal with major record labels. Slate publishes a deeply revealing look at NPR in the podcast world. Spotify’s CMO is interviewed. Continue Reading
Drake’s new album will be an Apple exclusive and this one matters more
Apple Music is getting another exclusive, and while it isn’t a surprise, it is a big one. Drake’s upcoming project, Views From The 6, will only be on Apple’s platform when it drops on April 29. The scope of this exclusive release will make it a telling sign of the where the current streaming market is headed. Continue Reading
Billboard 200 gets first No. 1 from streaming performance
Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo has been a source of great interest to the music media in recent weeks, thanks to the rapper’s unique take on defining an album and his unusual approach to distribution. But the creation has also been very successful in attracting listeners. Pablo topped multiple album charts on the back of its strong streaming performance. Continue Reading