We spoke with Jack Isquith, SVP of Strategic Development and Content Strategy at Slacker, just before Beats Music launched. Isquith buoyantly welcomed Beats to the market, and described how Slacker has been in the human-curation model for years. Continue Reading
Frequent flyers are well acquainted with waiting on the tarmac. The aircraft is boarded, the door is closed, the plane taxis out to its takeoff position … and sits, unmoving, while passengers grow irritable. Lots of irritability among Beats users today. Our test apps have failed entirely. Continue Reading
Nothing whatsoever at stake, in reputation or credibility. It is sheer fun. Comparing predictions from Spotify and Shazam is interesting because those two apps are used differently. Spotify streams music from a server catalog; Shazam identifies music playing anywhere. Continue Reading
RAIN Enterprises announced today that Jason Calacanis, one of the world’s most celebrated and successful digital entrepreneurs, will be the keynote speaker at this year’s RAIN Summit West on April 6th in Las Vegas. He will deliver his annual and much-awaited State of Media address at RAIN Summit West. Continue Reading
When Spotify and Topspin announced today that bands would be able to sell t-shirts and other branded merchandise through the music service, it hit four birds with one stone. Continue Reading
Stealing Beats thunder? Not really. Kim Dotcom, founder of the explosively named Baboom music service, which semi-announced its existence in November, is taking advantage of the U.S. holiday to get a jump on the much-publicized Beats Music debut tomorrow. But Baboom is a blip beside Beats. Continue Reading
Synergy and enhancement — those are the touchstones of Radionomy’s acquisition of ShoutCast and Winamp from AOL, which closed last week. We spoke with Thierry Ascarez, VP of Business Development for Radionomy, about how he views the integration of two iconic brands into Radionomy’s Internet radio platform. Continue Reading
The quick and concise summary of the past week. Refresh your neurons, and prepare for the coming week. It’s going to be an eventful one! Continue Reading
This week’s most-read articles! An odd reader survey, Kurt Hanson’s latest blog post, Spotify goes free in a new way, preview of Beats Music, Shazam and SoundHound take from radio and give to streaming, and the Net Neutrality law goes down. Continue Reading
It’s as if Beats Music were a meteor headed for earth, and inhabitants on the ground were feeling the heat of its approach. Rdio has followed Spotify, making its web listening free and unlimited. Even Pandora has added a feature to counter Beats Music’s emphasis on curated listening. Continue Reading
Beats Music is launching next Tuesday, aiming squarely at Spotify’s subscription business. Spotify set the stage in December by freeing previous listening restrictions that applied to non-paying users. (That side of the business is ad-supported.) Today, Spotify makes more news by revealing a restriction most people didn’t know about, then lifting it. Continue Reading
Pandora announced its inclusion in the newly-introduced 2015 Chrysler 200. It is the first Chrysler to feature built-in Pandora access in the dash. Chrysler is the 25th major car company to partner with Pandora for in-car Internet radio listening. The 200 model made a splash at this week’s Detroit Auto Show. Continue Reading