An examination of SEC filings revealed that Rdio has raised more than $108 million through four separate securities sales over the past year and change. Its parent company, Pulser Media, raised $25 million in April, $4.4 million in December, $3.8 million in November, and $75 million in September of last year, according to Billboard. Continue Reading
College radio stations, represented by College Broadcasters, Inc. (CBI), will see their webcast royalty rates for the use of music recordings unchanged in the looming 2016-2020 royalty period. Most stations will use a simplified “proxy” reporting method to SoundExchange, an easier administrative process than the fastidious reporting that commercial stations must supply. Continue Reading
iHeartMedia (formerly Clear Channel) has announced a partnership with Omnicom Media Group, the media services division of Omnicom Group, a leading global advertising company.
The deal gives each company special access to assets, information, and technology of the other. We spoke with Jeff Howard, President, National Sales at iHeartMedia. “We’re looking for companies that want to transform the industry,” he told RAIN News. Continue Reading
SoundHound has opened a new office in Boston and also announced several additions to its sales and marketing team. According to the press release, these steps are part of the sound recognition company’s efforts to solidify its presence for ad agencies and brands looking to connect with young music fans. Continue Reading
Samsung’s Milk Music streaming service quickly rose to the top of the app charts after launching in South Korea. Within six days of launching in the company’s home country, Milk reached the top of the Google Play free app category with more than 500,000 downloads. Continue Reading
Located in Brandon, VT, classical Vermont is the purest of pureplays — simple, uncluttered, attractive, with good programming for fans of symphonic, chamber, and solo instrumental music. Classical Vermont is straight-ahead, hardcore European and American art music. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the Internet: Prince criticizes U2; do lawsuits for pre-1972 royalties threaten digital music?; Spotify’s semi-secret info sessions; what’s up at The Echo Nest. Continue Reading
The Pono Music crowdfunding campaign has been successful (to put it mildly) in the fundraising stage, but most of those contributors are still waiting to see what their pledges have created. Eamonn Forde of The Guardian was able to get hands-on time with one of the Pono Player prototypes and shared his experience. He said the improvements in sound quality that Pono delivered were impressive on both expensive headphones and cheap earbuds. Since that was the top promise made by Neil Young and his colleagues, that’s a relief to hear. Continue Reading
Deezer may be getting a leg up in the South African market for music streaming thanks to a partnership with Vodacom Group. Bloomberg cited an unnamed person familiar with the negotiations who said the Vodafone unit would offer its customers access to Deezer through an exclusive year-long deal. Neither Deezer nor Vodacom offered comment on the report. Continue Reading
The long-awaited dot-RADIO domain (e.g. BrandName.radio) is a step closer to becoming reality, but not without a new chapter in a controversy which started last October. Today, BRS Media, which administers the purchase of dot-FM and dot-AM domains, will announce it has filed a Reconsideration Request to ICANN against its preliminary choice for administrator — the European Broadcast Union (EBU). We spoke to BRS Media CEO George Bundy for his insights. Continue Reading
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An eight-minute blast of news you need to know in streaming music and online audio. The weekly update of news you need to know in streaming music and online audio, from RAIN News. This week: Sirius XM, Rosanne Cash, audio on the brain, Grooveshark, Google, eMusic, Spotify, and the RIAA. Continue Reading
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is accepting comments for the Digital Audio Ad Service Template (DAAST), which was released on September 8. Click through for a link to the review document, and how to submit comments. Continue Reading