Reports are circulating today that telecom giant AT&T will discontinue the Muve Music service currently available to a portion of AT&T’s user base. AT&T is invested in its partnership with Beats Music, and owns Leap Wireless, Muve Music’s parent company. There is logic in this rumor, if it plays out. Continue Reading
8tracks, the highly differentiated music service that encourages users to create “online mixtapes,” today released a top-to-bottom redesign of its iOS app, and disclosed its latest audience and business metrics. “”We’re hoping this will be a big event in our history,” CEO David Porter told RAIN. Click for the app review. Continue Reading
XAPPmedia today announced a new addition to its executive team: Lisa Namerow, who moves over from Slacker Radio. Namerow was SVP of Strategic Partnerships at Slacker for about a year, and assumes a similarly focused role at XAPPmedia. Before her stint at Slacker, Namerow maintained an 11-year career at AOL, where she managed AOL Radio. Continue Reading
SoundCloud announced via email to its subscribers today that the “Classic” version of its site would be discontinued in one week. “We appreciate that this represents a change that some of you have been hoping we wouldn’t make,” the email stated, “but it’s something we must do.” Long-time SoundCloud users are disgruntled. Continue Reading
Last week British music service Bloom.FM abruptly shut down to new sign-ups when its sole investor withdrew funding. Bloom CEO Oleg Fomenko has been forthright and active on Twitter, raising hopes for new investment. We spoke to Oleg Fomenko about how the revival effort is going, and about his vision of a future in which music services can operate less precariously. Continue Reading
The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), a three-judge government panel charged with setting U.S. rules for music licensing and royalty rates, has posted a proposal for a change in webcast record-keeping and reporting to SoundExchange. Broadcast law attorney David Oxenford explains why every webcaster should be aware of the proposal, and participate in the call for comment. Continue Reading
Google expanded its streaming-music service into the Canadian market. The inelegantly-named Google Play Music All Access service is now available in 26 countries. Canada is a music-starved regional frontier, and Canadian music-lovers complain about poor choice of music services compared to their American neighbors. Continue Reading
Pandora announced the launch of Promoted Stations, a new music recommendation unit that features sponsor-branded listening stations by Taco Bell, Skechers, Toyota, and several other advertisers that have signed onto the program. The new ads are cycling through about 10% of Pandora’s listeners. Continue Reading
UPDATE: Not as dead as originally thought, according to Bloom’s CEO. British streaming-music service Bloom.fm abruptly went out of business after its primary investor withdrew funding, according to Bloom’s Tumblr blog announcement. Bloom.fm had been operating for a little over one year, and had acquired 1.1-million registered users. Continue Reading
Internet Radio Rewind is a weekly program bringing you a quick and concise catch-up of the week’s top stories. Click the Play button, and be ready for the coming week. This week: Sprint and Spotify tie the knot … Royalty-free radio … One music service dies a quick death (maybe) … Rdio makes news … and a 100-day report from Beats Music Continue Reading
RAIN Hotspots features the most-read articles of the week. This week — Kurt Hanson’s latest blog post; an in-depth conversation with Brian Lakamp, head of digital for Clear Channel; a radio group goes to court to avoid paying royalties, and Beats Music is 100 days old. Continue Reading
RadioIO, a streaming music service that provides a consumer-facing product and also provides music to businesses, acquire CrowdStream, which connects performing bands with their fans. Also this week, RadioIO launched consumer listening apps in the Apple and Android app stores. Continue Reading