RAIN Hotspots: Week of June 23-27

RAIN Hotspots — the five most-read articles of the week. this week: A Pandora exec talks to investors about ad revenue and his car … Kurt Hanson’s latest blog post is a tour-de-force of analysis … more copyirght hearings in the U.S. capitol … one radio station cuts its ad load in half … RAIN Poll results. Continue Reading

SoundCloud re-launches on iPhone with reduced features and ultra-simple listening

SoundCloud continues to drive toward its stated goal of being “the YouTube of audio,” this week releasing an updated iPhone app experience that makes listening easier and prettier. At the same time there are indications that Soundcloud creators and uploaders are driven farther down a path of alienation that started with earlier changes to the service. Continue Reading

The business of podcasts: conversation with Adam Sachs, new Midroll Media CEO

Two weeks ago podcast production and distribution company Earwolf merged with The Midroll, a podcast advertising agency spawned from Earwolf’s monetization efforts, to form Midroll Media. RAIN spoke with new Midroll Media CEO Adam Sachs about the merger’s values, how podcast ads are sold, and the future of on-demand talk programming. Continue Reading

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House hearing #2 re-treads music licensing issues; hammers radio on performance royalties

by Brad Hill

The Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives held its second hearing on music licensing regulations, hosting a panel of music-industry executives who delivered prepared statements and answered questions. As with the first hearing on June 10, four contentious issues framed today’s proceeding:

  • Broadcast radio’s exemption from performance royalties
  • Pre-1972 recordings unprotected by copyright, and receiving no royalties
  • Uneven payments across different types of musicians
  • Consent Decrees which govern how ASCAP and BMI collect and distribute songwriter royalties

All four pillars of copyright discontent got some play today. Broadcast radio took a severe beating, but unlike the first hearing, the radio industry was represented. Continue Reading

adStream: McDonalds “Think With Your Mouth” campaign

adStream is a journal of ad-spottings in online music services that highlight how commercials (audio and visual) can be an integrated part of the online listening experience.

We noted that the McDonalds “Think With Your Mouth” campaign for Big Mac sandwiches won an award at Cannes Lions this year, and we have been spotting the digital placements in streaming music services, including iHeartRadio. Continue Reading

Vadio partners with Vevo, provides “Radio worth watching”

Last week Vadio, a video-technology platform, announced a partnership with Vevo, a music video portal. The deal gives Vadio access to Vevo videos, for inclusion in curated video streams that Vadio synchs up with radio station webcasts. Vevo embodies a catalog of 100,000 high-quality song videos, concert events, and original programming. The alliance allows Vadio to enhance its existing repertoire of videos from which it curates programming for radio stations and other clients. We talked to Vadio CEO Bryce Clemmer to get more context. Continue Reading