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
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 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
In a retrospective, even sentimental blog post, Jelli announced that it is shutting down the Jelli User-Controlled Radio platform and station apps. The plug will be pulled this Sunday at midnight (PDT), completing a pivot that started two years ago when Jelli began building a suite of ad-tech products for radio stations. Continue Reading
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
Canadian music industry outlet FYI Music News reports that Spotify and Beats Music will open their on-demand platforms to Canadian users, but not immediately. According to the report, Spotify will cross the border in October. Beats will give Canadians a New Year gift in January, 2015. Continue Reading
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:
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