Spotify isn’t the only service expanding internationally this week. Rdio is keeping pace, adding 22 countries for a total of 51 national markets. After recent layoffs, Rdio promised to scale its business. It just did. Continue Reading
“Let’s get to today’s announcements,” said founder Daniel Ek after a quick intro at the Spotify Event in New York today. There were three main headlines, each one certain to make some people happy. It’s about mobile, international, and getting the Led out. Continue Reading
Podcast app Stitcher has opened up public nominations for The 2013 Stitcher Awards. You can enter favorites across 19 categories such as Best Investigative Reporting and Best Storytelling. After this round, visitors vote for winners. Continue Reading
Pandora is scrutinized for its usage metrics — active listeners, listening hours, and share of market. Behind all that is the sales effort which funds the enterprise. 2013 has been a pivotal year in which Pandora built out a local sales network that resembles the revenue support systems of large media companies. Continue Reading
If the holiday rush is starting to jangle your nerves, turn on Calm Stream, a Russian downtempo electronica station. Even the site is soothing, with its snow-white background and minimal, no-hassle, in-line music player. Continue Reading
Yahoo acquired concert-streaming platform Evntlive, which immediately shut down its ongoing operation. The Evntlive site carries an announcement of the takeover. No world on how much Yahoo spent. Evntlive was seed-funded at $2.3-million. In a takeover/shutdown of this sort, it… Continue Reading
Spotify will announce free mobile access to its listening platform, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources. If true (we think it is), the announcement will probably be part of a Spotify media event in New York on Wednesday of next week. Continue Reading
The “Spotify Debate” has been raised to a new level. It features the same debate points, but now presented as dueling websites. Until now, the war of words and philosophies was waged in sniping blog posts and interview quotes among… Continue Reading
Pandora CFO Mike Herring addressed the Credit Suisse 2013 Technology Conference this week. The format was a moderated Q&A session. We pulled out three subjects within which Herring’s responses were of particular interest: ratings measurement, how Pandora sells ads, and… Continue Reading
The Save Winamp alliance and Change.org are plugging away at AOL, which announced the sunsetting of Winamp and ShoutCast as ongoing products, as of December 20. (See RAIN coverage here.) Yesterday in RAIN, Jennifer Lane commented that the Winamp closure… Continue Reading
In what is widely interpreted a patent trolling, some radio broadcasters using HD digital transmission technology (HD Radio) alongside their analog signals are being sued by Delaware Radio Technologies and Wyncomm LLC for patent infringement. The spate of lawsuits has… Continue Reading
After months of leaks, the outlook for Beats Music is suddenly more specific and official. The service will debut in January, as announced by CEO Ian Rogers in his blog. “We’re nearly ready for liftoff. Thanks to your diligent testing… Continue Reading