RAIN Hotspots: Reader favorites for May 4-8
This was an eventful week, and RAIN News readers told us, through their article choices, what the most important topics were. Call it RAIN News “Share of Eye.” Continue Reading
News
Rhapsody’s Q1 loss spikes to almost $9 million
Rhapsody posted a first-quarter net loss of $8.9 million, compared with a loss of $1.6 million in the year-ago period. Quarterly revenue totaled $46.3 million, up from $42 million in 2014. The SEC filing made by parent company RealNetworks, which detailed Rhapsody’s financials, did not give a reason for the higher loss during the quarter. Continue Reading
David Byrne joins SoundExchange board of directors
SoundExchange announced that David Byrne has joined its board of directors. Byrne fills the board spot previously held by Walter McDonough. He is the singer/songwriter who fronted the Talking Heads, and also embarked on a solo career and founded a label. Continue Reading
Quick Hits: What songwriters should know; Apple antitrust?
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web. Continue Reading
WBEZ starts mapping how to spend new grant dollars; Michel Ballard hired to head digital
Chicago Public Media’s WBEZ got attention last month when it received a matching-donation pledge of $2-million dollars from the Pritzker Foundation. The intent of the gift is to help the station to double its existing digital staff, update its infrastructure, and produce new shows. A new Chief Digital Officer has just joined the station. Continue Reading
SoundCloud makes deal with NMPA, but loses some Sony artists
SoundCloud had two major events in its relationship development with labels and publishers. The online audio platform successfully inked a deal with the National Music Publishers’ Association. This arrangement allows independent publishers and composers to monetize content on the service… Continue Reading
Pandora defeats ASCAP again, winning appeal of 2014 royalty case
Pandora has prevailed in an appeal case brought by ASCAP, which sought to overturn a court judgment in March, 2014. ASCAP announced in August that it would pursue an appeal of that ruling. Continue Reading
Tidal brings on new PR firm
Premium streaming service Tidal has signed on a new public relations and marketing firm. The company’s duties in that department will now be managed by MWW, which also represents online businesses Netflix and Eventbrite. Continue Reading
SoundCloud unleashes podcast hosting for everyone, with aggressive pricing
SoundCloud has taken its podcasting service out of beta and made it live for all users. The new podcast hosting additions include RSS feed distribution, embeddable podcast players, integration with social networks, and timed comments. Continue Reading
The saga continues: Grooveshark returns as a clone
The legal saga centered around the Grooveshark name appears to be getting a bizarre epilogue. Last week, Grooveshark finally resigned itself to its fate and shuttered its doors. However, the long-beleagured site and its legally uncertain approach to streaming music appears to have returned to the web. Continue Reading
Rumor Fact(ory): Apple reportedly lacks labels deals ahead of Beats launch
The music industry has been waiting for Apple to unveil its new vision for Beats Music, and the streaming service’s debut is expected to happen during the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference next month. However, Billboard has reported that Apple allegedly may not have any of the licensing deals with major labels that are necessary for the service to meet that launch date. Continue Reading
AudioBoom partners with WideOrbit for ad-injected monetization of podcasts
Media software company WideOrbit announced that audioBoom, the spoken-word, on-demand listening platform, has selected WO On Demand to monetize its podcasts. The technical solution injects pre-recorded advertisements into podcasts — a category which is dominated by host-read native advertising. Continue Reading