The team behind This Is My Jam announced yesterday that the service would cease operating in its current state. The leaders said that past jams would be put into a read-only archive mode in September, meaning they can still be listened to but not added to. Members will also have several options for preserving and exporting their song choice lists, according to the announcement. Continue Reading
Chris Harrison has left his position as senior lawyer and vice president of business affairs at Pandora. He was a key player in several of Pandora’s recent moves, including its purchase of a terrestrial radio station. He also served as an expert witness in this spring’s consent decree hearings and additional proceedings on music royalties in pre-1972 copyright cases. Continue Reading
According to a new report from Digital Music News, Spotify may be reconsidering its free tier approach. Sources have allegedly told the site that Spotify may begin adopting a windowed path, making some music releases only available to paid listeners or only opening it up to free listeners for a short amount of time. The company is reportedly considering several different options for what form that gated material might take. Sources told DMN that multiple of those options could see a rollout in early 2016. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web. TODAY: Does Beats 1 steal radio’s last advantage? Is Spotify a hitmaker? And U2 went on podcasting to break news. Continue Reading
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The weekly update of the streaming audio industry, from RAIN News. THIS WEEK: Apple Music discloses audience numbers; Hubbard Radio buys into podcasting; webcast metrics for June. Continue Reading
Rhapsody’s Q2 financial data revealed customer growth of 50% over the past year, exceeding 3 million subscribers. The streaming platform reached a record revenue of almost $50.1 million for the period, up from revenue of $42.4 million in the year-ago period. However, its quarterly losses also increased to nearly $12.1 million, compared with a loss of $4.7 million in the second quarter of 2014. Continue Reading
Shazam released an update to strengthen its integration with Rdio and Spotify. Users could already listen to full songs from those platforms within the Shazam app. The recent update delivers the ability to add songs to playlists on those streaming services without leaving the Shazam app. Continue Reading
Radio Disney is continuing its digital revitalization with a launch on iHeartRadio. The Radio Disney programming will now be accessible on iHeartRadio apps across all 60 of its available platforms. Continue Reading
Spreaker announced a new feature with the launch of the Adore podcast network. This series of eight shows is selected and powered by Spreaker, but will live on a separate website. “This new Adore Network is an effort to promote, feature and drive advertising revenue to shows on the Spreaker platform,” said Rob Greenlee. Continue Reading
Apple has finally issued official numbers, with the announcement that Apple Music has 11 million trial members. Eddy Cue, the tech company’s senior vice president, spoke to USA Today about the streaming service’s performance so far. RAIN News’ Brad Hill and Anna Washenko each weigh in on whether 11 million is enough. Continue Reading
On the Move tracks hires, promotions, and other notable personnel changes in the audio industry. Spotify’s content officer exits, while Isolation/INgrooves announce a new CEO. Continue Reading
Universal Music Group has hired Jay Frank to serve as its senior vice president of global streaming marketing. In this role, he will be tasked with using data to maximize performance on streaming platforms for UMG’s artists, in addition to analyzing the effectiveness of UMG’s streaming marketing campaigns. He’ll also be responsible for curating and managing the company’s global playlists and coordinating playlist strategy for all Universal labels. Continue Reading