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
Beats Music put out a dedicated iPad app yesterday. Newsworthy? Well, it is for users who have begged, pleaded, and demanded an iPad version of the music service app. There is consistency across Android and iOS — generally a good thing for multi-device users. Continue Reading
Beats Music CEO Ian Rogers has issued a 100-days report on the company blog. Part marketing and part affirmation of company strategy, Rogers’ key message is that the service’s content strategy — personally curated listening — works. Plus, a nifty infographic. Continue Reading
Rumor has turned to reality. Two weeks ago we reported that music service Spotify and telecom carrier Sprint were talking about a bundling plan that would put Spotify in front of Sprint’s 54-million customers. Today, the deal is done. Click for details. Continue Reading
The quest for great blues finds another watering hole in Aardvark Blues. This Internet-only station had us at Ana Popovic, the Serbian blues-rocker. If you tire of the blues, the same no-nonsense programming is available from the same Aardvark outfit on the rock side, at Aardvark Rock. Continue Reading
Yahoo has partnered with Live Nation in an agreement to co-distribute live-streamed concerts at a blistering pace — one concert a day (or night) “for several years.” Yahoo’s main competitive focus in this venture is Google, the leader in video content. Yahoo and Live Nation will funnel users to the the real-time concert stream, only highlights of which will be available later. Continue Reading