Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Sonos gets SoundCloud; Taylor Swift waxes optimistic about the music business; the sound of deep space. Continue Reading
Don’t let the 1996-era, stoner-vibe website (www.waxtraxradio.com) put you off. Allow the retro design to put you in the classic rock spirit. Waxtrax’s excellent deep-cut playlist shouldn’t be missed by classic genre fans. This Arizona-based Internet station is an ad-free, privately funded indie station. You won’t find a purer pureplay anywhere. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthwhile reads from around the web: Deezer closes Canadian office but splashes “Coming Soon” to U.S. users: Deezer is reportedly closing its Canadian office, but that cost-saving exercise does not affect the service to Canadian users.… Continue Reading
Clear Channel issued a press release announcing some structural changes in the company. iHeartRadio is re-positioned, and its former executive owner, Brian Lakamp, is promoted to a broader role steering Clear Channel’s technology capability and digital ventures. Continue Reading
Nominate your station or music service! Continue Reading
One month ago we reported that ROK Mobile was gearing up for a July 4 launch of its music app (ROK Music) and unlimited cell-service. Both have happened, though the wireless service portion is a tightly limited roll-out. Here’s the deal: $50/month for unlimited streaming, and a brand new music service. T-Mobile is in the unlimited-music space now, too. Can ROK differentiate itself enough to lure consumers? Continue Reading
A cease-fire has reportedly been established in the confusing hostility between Google-owned YouTube, which is building a subscription-based, music-only streaming service to start this summer, and indie-label groups that wish to have their content included. After an apparent break in talks, marked by protests from the label side, negotiations have resumed Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthwhile reads from around the web. TODAY: the U.K.’s main top-40 hits chart adds streaming data. Ariana Grande lands on top. Also, a fascinating timeline called America’s Soundtrack commemorates historical moments with music. Continue Reading
Rdio announced the acquisition of TastemakerX, a music intelligence company which will effectively replacing The Echo Nest as Rdio’s song-recommendation provider. Rdio announced that it was ending its technology partnership with The Echo Nest shortly after Spotify acquired the music-intel firm. Continue Reading
adStream is a journal of ad-spotting in music services. We spent an interesting hour stalking ads on Slacker Radio, to check spot load and see (or hear) which brands were extending their campaigns onto Slacker, which brands itself “the most complete music service on earth.” We found rock-steady regularity in Slacker’s ad pacing. Continue Reading
Internet radio platform Songza has built its reputation on the so-called Concierge method of music curation. The Concierge service seeks to understand the user’s mood and activity, match it to time of day, local weather, and other signals, combine all that with historical music preferences, and deliver a perfect soundtrack (playlist) for the moment.
This method of playlist discovery has been imitated, most recently by “The Sentence” in Beats Music. Rhapsody, iHeartRadio, and others have also gone down this path to varying extents.
Wanting to know more about the anatomy of Songza Concierge, and also how it ties into monetization through ad sales, we spoke with Elias Roman, CEO. Continue Reading
Lew Dickey, CEO of the second-largest radio group in the U.S., Cumulus Media, positioned his company during an Associated Press interview that is getting buzz today. Dickey is quoted as skeptical of Pandora’s audience metrics, and taking a long view of the digital side of radio. Continue Reading