The five most-read articles this week. Pandora’s astounding valuation; a unique new advertising partnership; a guest column by Jennifer Lane; a new music service is like Pinterest for music; Nielsen reports sharp growth of streaming music in 2013. Continue Reading
Rob Greenlee has been working with podcasts since 1999, is currently content manager for podcasts for Windows Phone, the latest role in a long series of positions with Microsoft. He is co-host of The New Media Show, a video podcast about the business of podcasting. We spoke with Rob Greenlee about The New Media Show, and the business of podcasting generally. Continue Reading
Faisal Sultan is the founder and owner of FRISKY radio, a 12-year-old EDM pureplay station. He worked for several years at AOL, as an engineer and product lead for ShoutCast, Winamp, and AOL Radio. We spoke with Faisal Sultan about how he built his pureplay station, how the business is framed, and his feelings about the ShoutCast product he helped create. Continue Reading
FRISKY is a capricious name for an Internet station that plays serious electronica. listeners get a beautiful stream at a high bitrate of 128 (MP3 or AAC) — actually two streams, the main FRISKY channel, and the newer CHILL stream. Founder Faisal Sultan comes from AOL, where he was a product lead on ShoutCast, Winamp, and AOL Radio. Continue Reading
Sitting between plug-in dashboards and full-service dashboards sits the connected-car aftermarket, where Pioneer is a leading manufacturer. The Pioneer NEX line comprises five head-unit models with a range of information and entertainment functions. Aha Radio and Pandora are promoted as built-in audio services. Continue Reading
Whyd is a so-called scraping platform. It builds its content library from sources which make their content available to other sites. YouTube and SoundCloud are the two main attractions at this point. The mechanism Whyd uses is elegant. Whyd is leveraging two fairly powerful advantages over major-league apps. Continue Reading
Existing Xbox Music subscribers are doubtless pleased today, if they carry their subscriptions on iPhones and iPads. The iOS version of the jukebox service released an important update that allows cacheing of playlists to the device, for offline listening. But — possible server crush broke our updated app. Continue Reading
The NY Post reports unnamed sources indicating that Beats Music, headed for launch this month, will splash into the market with Super Bowl ads and other media purchases. Beats Music has a steep hill to climb, entering a crowded U.S. streaming audio market. Continue Reading
Pure, the audio company responsible for the Jongo line of wireless speakers, is having an eventful CES week. The company has announced additions to its product lineup, and taken square aim at WiFi-speaker market leader Sonos. Continue Reading
It’s press release week – err, I mean CES week – in our industry this week, a time when lots of folks gather in Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show, and announce innovative products and projects. Two announcements in particular caught my attention yesterday. Continue Reading
Google, along with four car companies and a chip maker, has announced a consortium called the Open Automotive Alliance. The concept of Android cars is obviously desirable from Google’s viewpoint. For automakers, partnering with an established tech company solves a couple of serious problems plaguing the car industry. Continue Reading
From CES, Pandora announces a new in-car advertising initiative. Ford, BP, State Farm, and Taco Bell have signed on as anchor national advertisers. The new advertising launch applies to Pandora listening that is “natively” installed in cars. There are currently 130 car models which contain native Pandora integration. Continue Reading