Mark Mulligan is one of the industry’s most astute observers and analysts. This guest column examines customer sharing, revenue cannibalization, and the next five years in music — “one of the music industry’s most dramatic periods of change. The last ten years might have been disruptive but the change that is coming will be even more transformative.” Continue Reading
It has been nearly a year since the rumor broke that Google would create a subscription music plan for YouTube. During this long (and continuing) lead-up, speculation and bafflement has been rampant. Here are three reasons the new service will succeed, and three reasons it won’t. Continue Reading
Michael Cooper of The New York Times wrote a round-up of all the available options he could find for streaming classical and opera music. These genres certainly don’t dominate the discussions of digital media. In fact, opera and classical are seen as a niche audience, and that has created an uphill battle for those artists to negotiate good deals on mainstream streaming services. Continue Reading
In this guest column, RAIN Enterprises CEO Jennifer Lane explains why it’s crucial to focus on digital platforms. Core spot revenue is still important to the industry, but recent news developments indicate that broadcasters would be well served to be aggressive in growing their share of the digital pie. Continue Reading
Debates over the digital music industry have been raging fast and furious of late. This week, INgrooves Music Group CEO and Founder Robb McDaniels wrote a guest post for Hypebot with his opinions on the current state of affairs. He highlighted how much (or how little) artists can monetize on YouTube. Continue Reading
Tom McAlevey is the founder of Radical.FM, an Internet radio platform, whose resume includes founding TomsRadio, a different, pre-Spotify music service. He has posted an interesting, and intentionally provocative blog entry that explains how Pandora and Spotify could be profitable today, and pitilessly predicts the demise of AM/FM radio. Continue Reading
Broadcast law attorney David Oxenford writes about the Department of Justice review of ‘consent decress,’ which govern how ASCAP and BMI operate. “All music services need to watch and stay involved as this process develops,” Oxenford advises. “There are obviously important and complicated issues that will be considered in this review.” Continue Reading
“The once-ubiquitous FM radio is today primarily enjoyed in the car, where a growing variety of audio consumption occurs. But stored and streamed content on mobile devices is steadily marginalizing the broadcast portion of in-car listening, sucking the audience lifeblood out of the medium.” Connected-car analyst Roger Lanctot contributes this guest column that examines how Sprint is handling its NextRadio implementation of FM in smartphones. Continue Reading
RAIN founding editor Kurt Hanson reports from Tokyo, where he surveyed the tech, culture, and audio landscapes. This is his third illustrated report — including beer gardens, one-price menus, and their business implications. Continue Reading
Guest columnist James Cridland looks at NPR One, a new mobile app from National Public Radio. while U.K.-based Cridland admires the app’s features, he wishes for something similar from the BBC, which would inject local content for British users. Continue Reading
adStream is a journal of ad-stalking and interesting commercial sightings in online audio services. In Pandora, Promoted Stations are sponsored playlists branded by advertisers, and co-created with Pandora’s curation experts. The program launched in May with several advertising partners, but the sponsored stations are difficult to find. We found one. Continue Reading
In this Part 3 of his Summer of Copyright series, broadcast law attorney David Oxenford writes about a new music licensing comment period established by the U.S. Copyright Office. It is first an opportunity for all stakeholders and interested parties to weigh in. Second, the detailed request for comments illuminates how the Copyright Office seems to be prioritizing possible changes to music licensing. Continue Reading