We received a mobile notification from iHeartRadio announcing a nonstop Michael Jackson station called 24/7 MJ Radio, in commemoration of the 5th anniversary of MJ’s death. Activating the notification did not take us directly to 24/7 MJ Radio, surprisingly, but a quick use of iHeart’s search function found it quickly and the listening began. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthwhile reads from around the web. Spotify reportedly preps for IPO; House hearing on music copyrights tomorrow; Pandora grabs revenue executive from Yahoo. Continue Reading
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
Amazon said Happy Monday to the world this morning with a press release that cheered a successful first week for Prime Music. Particulars were in short supply, but Amazon says that uptake of the new streaming music service exceeded expectations, with users accessing tens of millions of songs. Continue Reading
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
The five most-read articles this week. The Summer of Copyright … YouTube ready to block indie labels as it prepares its new service … Edison Research’s new “Share of Ear” study … Google and 8tracks … iHeartRadio’s new 5.0 version of its app. Continue Reading
Amazon released its much-awaited Fire phone this week, stepping into competitive waters with Apple and Google on the hardware side. At the same time, Amazon is stabbing into the music-identification space dominated by Shazam and SoundHound, each of which gives users quick song recognition and the ability to store “finds” in partner music services like Rdio and Spotify. Amazon’s most remarkable Fire phone feature is Firefly, which identifies music and much more. Continue Reading
Less than a week ago, interactive music service Earbits announced its sudden closure. Details were scant, but lack of funding seemed to be the problem, when CEO Joey Flores said, “We bit off more than we could chew.” Today, Flores sent a celebratory note to registered users announcing that a heroic (and unnamed) investor had stepped in to revive the service, which had been dark for five days. Continue Reading
SoundExchange released the first edition of a new quarterly royalty breakdown called Digital Radio Report — an animated infographic that promotes SoundExchange’s contribution to the economy of streaming music (plus comedy), and reveals general music-licensing information to demystify how royalties work. Continue Reading
Wireless company T-Mobile announced a change to its cell-phone service plans that potentially impacts how consumers choose their telecom providers, music services, and even cars. Called Music Freedom, it affords unlimited music streaming for “major” music services, regardless of the plan’s data cap. A related deal with Rhapsody sweetens the package. In an era when paying for data can be more burdensome than paying for music, this initiative could turn some heads. Continue Reading
In its most important structural change in years, and a meaningful expansion of its business model, on-demand music service Rhapsody has announced unRadio, and added the new listening experience to all its apps. At the same time, Rhapsody is starting a partnership with T-Mobile, wherein unRadio is available free of charge to T-Mobile wireless cell-phone customers.
As a stand-alone service, whether through T-Mobile or not, unRadio shrewdly combines lean-back listening, similar to Pandora, with on-demand interactivity, similar to Spotify and Rhapsody’s own Premier plan. Rhapsody is effectively straddling the gulf between free listening supported by advertising, and the full interactivity of a celestial music jukebox. It could hit a sweet spot for some music-lovers. Continue Reading
We are pleased to announce that we now offer job listings on the site. RAIN News reaches a concentrated audience of industry professionals in Internet radio, broadcast, and vendors to both industries, plus a more general readership of industry observers. A recent reader survey revealed that over 70% of respondents visit RAIN News at least once a week. Over 70% characterized RAIN News as “the leading industry publication for online audio.” Continue Reading