Kickstarter shared a slightly belated year-in-review, compiling data about the projects that were successfully crowd-funded on the platform in 2014. Music was the top category, barely edging out Film & Video with just over 4,000 projects funded. Continue Reading
It’s a big week for Rivet Radio, an up-and-coming listening platform for on-demand audio. A new partnership with American Public Media (APM), the second-largest producer of public radio programming, is complemented by new connected-car distribution agreements. Continue Reading
The well publicized success of audio programming Serial, which achieved cult status and breakthrough metrics for a pureplay podcast (online only, not an archived radio show), has the podcast industry hoping for rising tide which lifts all boats. It’s not only podcast creators looking at 2015 as a potential growth year for the category. Distribution platforms have much to gain from an anticipated surge of interest in on-demand talk-based audio. Continue Reading
Qualcomm AllPlay is refreshing its existing product with a commercial rollout, the company announced at CES. Several new music partners, including SoundCloud and Tidal, will be supported on the wireless streaming service, joining iHeartRadio, Rhapsody/Napster, and SomaFM. Qualcomm is attempting to reduce home-listening silos with this open-source solution to remote streaming. Continue Reading
Matthew Ogle, a co-founder for This Is My Jam, has joined Spotify to take on a product role. According to Ogle’s blog post announcing the change, he’ll be overseeing discovery and personalization features on the streaming music platform. Continue Reading
Today, we wrote about how The Overflow’s Christian and gospel music streaming app could be signaling a new trend toward niche genre services. Fitting then that shortly after publishing, we heard that Naxos announced the global launch of a classical music service. ClassicsOnline HD is both a streaming service and a download store specializing in high-definition and lossless classical music files. Continue Reading
A new streaming service called The Overflow has crossed the border from Canada, bringing its database of Christian music to U.S. listeners. For now, it is only available as an iOS app, but Billboard reported that a web version is in the works. The company uses 7digital, which recently embarked on project for higher-quality audio formats in streaming. Continue Reading
How are you feeling? First day back at work? Did you indulge in a last-ditch celebratory fling last night? Decompressing from a glut of cheery holiday music and New Year’s jubilance? Healing Music Radio is the ticket to post-holiday recovery. Continue Reading
Audio ad-representation firm AdLarge continues a recent streak of news by announcing an exclusive national advertising sales-rep agreement with Hotspot.fm, an Internet radio app. Spokespeople for Hotspot.fm told RAIN News that the app is recently launched to the U.S. market. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Amazon Prime may roll out in India; assessing Azoff’s ammo against YouTube; in-car listening as public performance? Continue Reading
One of this year’s emerging stories for the business side of music is a shift toward artist patronage. In Patreon’s first year, donations totaled just $259,000. This year, fans gave $10 million in support of a wide range of creative ventures, according to Polygon. Continue Reading
Streaming audio is a many-faceted industry. At RAIN News we observe, report, and analyze ongoing narratives pertaining to many aspects of online audio — business models, user interfaces, revenue metrics, audience growth, legal wrangles, and many more. What catches the interest of our readers? Continue Reading