RAIN Hotspots: Dec. 9 – Dec. 13
The five most-read article this week. Pandora VP speaks out; Spotify’s big announcement; the state of HD Radio; YouTube has more Led Zeppelin than Spotify; TuneIn’s year-end review.
News
YouTube, sleeping giant, is winning the streaming-music race (including Led Zeppelin)
An unofficial revenue report reveals YouTube as a financial giant. On the content side, YouTube is winning the streaming-music war before launching its rumored music service. Led Zeppelin signed an “exclusive” streaming deal with Spotify, but already has a much larger presence on YouTube. Continue Reading
Rdio is expanding, too
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
Spotify unlocks mobile, expands internationally, and adds Led Zeppelin
“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
Stitcher podcast awards now open for nominations
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
2013 a big year for Pandora local sales
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
Pureplay of the Day: Calm Stream
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 steps into live concert streaming
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
Why Spotify’s upcoming announcement matters
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
SpotifyArtists vs. SpotifyForArtists spoof site
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 on ratings, ad sales, and subscriptions
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” movement raises its voice
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