Free Market Royalty Act: As promised (or threatened, depending on one’s perspective), on Monday morning Rep. Mel Watt introduced a bill that would have broadcast radio pay artist royalties, evening the playing field (again, depending on vantage) for Internet radio… Continue Reading
There are two big differences between Napster-style file-sharing and subscription music streaming like Rhapsody and Spotify. The first is that unauthorized file-sharing is, you know, unauthorized. Ad hoc sharing on peer-to-peer platforms infringes copyright, harms musicians to some degree (to… Continue Reading
Pink Floyd drummer uncharacteristically praises music streaming. The iconic rock band has been a staunch and excoriating opponent of Pandora in the past, criticising the leading Internet radio platform for seeking lower royalty payouts. Speaking independently of the band, drummer… Continue Reading
Creative curation is Internet radio’s latest programming vogue. Songza, for which “life moment” playlists are the cornerstone of the service’s “Concierge” programming strategy, emblemizes the approach of serving the user in action, furnishing a music stream that matches daypart, activity,… Continue Reading
The ability to pivot, moving in a new direction from the same vantage, is crucial in basketball and business. Livio, whose acquisition by Ford has lit up the connected-car niche, pivoted adroitly from making internet radio devices to writing car… Continue Reading
Steven Kritzman, SVP of Sales for Pandora, was on this week’s Advertising Week panel which presented new survey research titled “The New MainStream,” a study measuring adoption of Internet radio among Americans who are online. (As a side point, see… Continue Reading
Amazon caused a media ripple yesterday when it connected its previously independent Amazon Cloud Player with its MP3 Store. The Cloud Player is an online music locker where customers can store their owned tracks (whether purchased from Amazon or not),… Continue Reading
In-car infotainment platform Aha by Harman announced that the new 2014 Mazda3 (for American and Japanese markets, as well as select other North American and Asian countries) will offer access to Aha’s free service of more than 40,000 audio and… Continue Reading
Grooveshark, considered by many to be a bad boy of music streaming platforms, may be gradually emerging from a tangle of legal assaults. Last month the service scored a licensing agreement with Sony/ATV. A previous agreement with EMI was undermined… Continue Reading
Pandora founder and Chief Strategy Officer Tim Westergren was spotlighted in a hosted Q&A session at the Goldman Sachs “Communacopia” conference yesterday. (Transcript here; elaborate registration required.) In a wide-ranging discussion, Westergren elaborated on Pandora’s business priorities, the state of… Continue Reading
Edison Research has released a new study of streaming audio adoption, indicating that over half of the American online population listens to Internet radio. The research package, titled “The New MainStream” (get it?) details survey results of 3,014 connected Americans… Continue Reading
In what CBS Radio President and CEO Dan Mason calls an unprecedented deal involving a sports/entertainment arena and a radio group (see the Inside Radio interview here), the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn is partnering with the powerhouse broadcast network to… Continue Reading