“Hit” and “slammed” are the descriptors you see everywhere today, conveying the court decision in the Capital Records vs. MP3Tunes lawsuit. A milestone in the years-long trial, the jury found MP3Tunes founder and CEO Michael Robertson personally liable for music copyright infringement. Click through for old screenshots and a 2005 conversation with Robertson. Continue Reading
Patrick Main is a “Peetnik” — he works for Peet’s Coffee & Tea, a 300-store chain that predates Starbucks. As Bar Quality Manager, Patrick Main is involved in every aspect of the customer experience in a Peet’s store, and a good choice to manage the latest feature — new music soundtracks in collaboration with Pandora. Continue Reading
The Journal Broadcast Group has launched a streaming music app that hopes to attract an audience seeking music with fewer commercials. Radio League is a pureplay online music app. We spoke with Michael Gay, VP of Interactive Media at Journal Broadcast. Continue Reading
Pandora has struck a partnership with Peet’s Coffee & Tea, in a new kind of deal for the market-leading Internet radio service. Peet’s is providing four branded, hand-curated stations to Pandora, and also playing those stations continuously in its 111 stores. Continue Reading
Spotify announced today a half-off subscription rate for college students. the normal $9.99/month subscription rate is dropped to $4.99 for qualified students. The announcement comes days after Pandora hiked its subscription price by 25% — to $4.99 per month. 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. When clicking past a song in the Pandora web app, we noticed a… Continue Reading
iTunes Radio took its first step away from music today, by adding a customized NPR news station to its presets. Not a specific local station, the new offering is simply called “NPR,” and contains no discrete tracks, voting up/down, or other interactive features that exist with songs. Continue Reading
The exodus of high-profile music services from music-technology provider The Echo Nest picked up momentum today as music service Rhapsody and its subsidiary Napster announced that they will “wind down” their partnerships. They join Rdio, which peeled away from The Echo Nest soon after it was acquired by competitor Spotify. Continue Reading
Apple is mulling a subscription music service, reports are swirling that Apple might consider creating an Android app for iTunes, distributing the world’s largest music store outside of the Apple ecosystem for the first time. The news is a significant indicator of Apple’s openness to new business paths. Continue Reading
In a day loaded with rumors of new ambitions emanating from Apple, comes a report that the company is considering a Netflix-like streaming TV service, and is having discussions with cable giant Comcast about paying for high-quality last-mile streaming into homes. Continue Reading
Apple is reportedly considering launching a subscription music service. If it does, the new service will complement Apple’s two existing music businesses, iTunes Music Store, and iTunes Radio, while adding yet another on-demand music service to the crowded U.S. market. Continue Reading
Weekend Perspective: a quick and concise catch-up of the week’s news. Refresh your neurons for the coming week! ASCAP, Pandora, the growth of streaming music in 2013 representing an increasing portion of the overall music industry. Music service news items. Also, one band’s Spotify scheme. Continue Reading