Bloomberg reports that Beats Music disclosed sign-up numbers to its private investors in February, and that the subscription-only service attracted paid users at an average of 1,000 per day for the first month. The online jukebox service launched on January 20, and enjoys the advantage of bundling with AT&T smartphone plans. Continue Reading
In November we reported that Turntable.FM, the venerable group-listening service, shifted course, closing its group-listening virtual rooms and starting a concert-streaming service. Now, founder Billy Chasen announces that Turntable Live shut down in January, her has moved on to another startup, and Turntable.FM is officially closed. Continue Reading
The court decision in the ASCAP vs. Pandora royalty-rate trial was released this morning. In the lengthy court document, presiding federal judge Denise Cote explains how ASCAP failed to achieve the escalated royalty rates it sought on behalf of its client publishers and composers. “ASCAP has not carried its burden.” Continue Reading
NCAA basketball and March Madness fans will not be tethered to broadcast this year. TuneIn announced an expanded partnership with WestwoodOne to carry live coverage of the Division 1 Men’s Basketball Champioship. The deal includes full play-by-play of all 67 games, plus the Women’s Final Four. Continue Reading
Real estate search site Trulia is making news this week by launching a $45-million ad campaign for its mobile app. Trulia is placing a big bet with a marketing campaign of this size — nearly six times larger than last year’s total media spend of $8-million. Interestingly, the Trulia campaign is leaning on streaming for its audio portion. Continue Reading
Pandora announced higher prices for its premium listening plan, Pandora One. The changes result from escalating royalty costs to labels and performers, according to the blog-post announcement, and will take effect for some subscribers this week. The price changes affect 3.3-million premium users, out of 250-million registered users. Continue Reading
Do you ever wish your classic rock station were … less classic? Obviously, lovers of the genre don’t mind hearing the same music over and over for years on end. But there is a deeper level to rock oldies that can result in a sweet moment of recognition: “Oh yeah! I haven’t thought about that song in ages!” Continue Reading
Napster — one of the most loved, loathed, and lasting brands in the history of online music. The Napster brand is audaciously being used by Ryan Lester, a college student taking some time off for personal projects. Lester has put up Napster.FM, implicitly arguing that a brand’s trademark does not extend across top-level domains — dot-com and dot-fm, for example. Continue Reading
Tom Conrad, Chief Technology Officer and EVP of Product at Pandora, announced today via a blog post that he will transition out of his full-time position in three months. Conrad’s double role as technology/product head will be filled by two people going forward. Chris Martin, previously VP of Engineering, is promoted to CTO. Continue Reading
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) released its report of 2013 sales and revenue today. (PDF here.) The main bullet point is that streaming is the fastest-growing segment of the recorded-music industry, and its revenue contributes to keeping the industry stable. Streaming has contributed a continually escalating percentage of total revenue since 2007. Continue Reading
RAIN Summit West will occur on Sunday, April 6th in Las Vegas. One afternoon panel is “Moving the Needle on Streaming Audio Ad Revenues,” moderated by Rockie Thomas, VP of Business Development at AdsWizz. Thomas will lead a discussion among a lineup of executives from SoundHound, Pandora, Spotify, Targetspot, Triton Digital. Continue Reading
The ASCAP vs. Pandora rate-setting trial, brought before a federal judge to determine how much Pandora must pay music publishers and composers to play recordings of their music, has ended in a preservation of Pandora’s existing rate. While Pandora hoped to lower that rate by a small amount, ASCAP hoped to raise payments by up to 62% Continue Reading