We’ve been hearing whispers about SoundCloud and its outlook for months, with people across the industry questioning whether the audio platform is hovering on the brink of glory or disaster. The latest hints point to positive news, as rumors circulate that it is on the cusp of agreeing to a licensing deal with longtime critic Universal Music Group. Continue Reading
Midroll Media, freshly in its new home as a wholly owned subsidiary of E.W. Scripps, announced today the lauch of Howl Premium, a subscription service that delivers ad-free, curated podcast listening. A Neftflix-like approach to podcast discovery? Continue Reading
Mad Genius Radio, a lean-back listening platform that allows stream customization by mixing genres and balancing how each type of music is weighted in the stream, will close on Thursday, August 20. Founder Eric Neumann contacted RAIN with the news. Continue Reading
In what has come to be known as the “freemium debate,” arguments focus on whether ad-supported listening to vast catalogs of music, with limited interactivity, effectively funnel users to music subscription plans that yield high-margin royalty payments to labels and artists. The CEO of UMG thinks it’s all about balance. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web. TODAY: Apple reveals streaming numbers of Dr. Dre’s exclusive album release; Spotify helps an artist know where to plan tour stops; the price of music subscriptions is examined in the context of what people paid for music in 1999. Continue Reading
Fresh from its celebration over AT&T’s commitment to ask its phone builders to activate internal FM reception chips, Emmis-owned NextRadio campaigned for T-Mobile to do the same. Today CEO John Legere agreed. Good momentum for NextRadio, but still an uphill climb before radio benefits. Continue Reading
The highest office in the U.S. indirectly endorses streaming and is a good “get” for Spotify, which announced today that the White House has placed to summer playlists on the service, purportedly hand-built by the President. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: New gadget selects Spotify music by tempo; Napster critiques Spotify, Apple; Forbes believes in radio; Billboard reviews the web radio landscape. Continue Reading
India-based streaming service Saavn has launched a campaign aimed at curbing music piracy in the country. The push uses the #SaavnVsPiracy hashtag and features videos by prominent Indian actors discussing the damage caused by piracy. Saavn said that 90% of total music revenue in India is generated by pirated music sites. Continue Reading
Curation is one of the biggest buzzwords in the radio business these days, and Sirius XM has hopped on the bandwagon. The satellite radio company announced the launch of four new music channels. Continue Reading
When a big success hits the start-up world, it typically spawns a series of clones. In this case, we have a new service positioning itself as “the Snapchat of music.” Msty is a mobile app that lets its users send song clips via message to their friends, accompanied by images and snippets of text. The unusual name stands for “my song to you.” Continue Reading
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The weekly update of the streaming audio industry, from RAIN News. THIS WEEK: A podcasting “upfront”; one-trillion streams; new music service from a phone maker; Rdio does radio; Apple’s new patent. Continue Reading