Technology, hardware, and gadgets. WiFi speakers, digital dashboards, and more.
Mood Media has entered a partnership with Denon Electronics to make its Mood Mix available on the HEOS wireless multi-room sound system. This means that Mood Media’s commercially licensed streaming music service can be used more easily by businesses that own HEOS systems. Mood Mix is specifically designed for use as a soundtrack in retail environments. Continue Reading
Rumor has come to fact as Nielsen has acquired music data company Gracenote from parent company Tribune Media. The market-leading metadata company for music, video, and sports content, Gracenote instantly gives Nielsen an extraordinary level of intelligence about what’s playing, and where. Continue Reading
Podcast publishing and hosting service Podomatic has entered a partnership with AdvertiseCast to bring monetization tools to its clients. AdvertiseCast is an online marketplace for buying and selling audio advertising. One interesting aspect of this deal is that podcasters do not need to use Podomatic’s hosting service. Continue Reading
As promised in September, iHeartRadio has launched its two-tiered subscription product: iHeartRadio Plus, and iHeartRadio All Access powered by Napster.
Both are being rolled out in beta today, with a free 30-day trial. The new subscriptions service features two breakthrough functions: replaying and saving songs from live radio. Continue Reading
Zenith Media shared some results from its 2017 edition of Programmatic Marketing Forecasts. Programmatic already dominates digital display buying, and will to an even greater degree in 2017. Traditional media, including radio, are slower to adopt data-driven buying, but the report says they will. Continue Reading
BPI, the British Phonographic Industry, has created a new initiative focused on bringing technology into its work in new ways. The BPI Innovation Hub will meet quarterly to connect tech companies with record labels. Continue Reading
Today brings an announcement from AdsWizz that it has obtained a partnership with demand-side programmatic buying platform RTBiQ. The alliance leverages AdWave (the audio advertising platform owned by AdsWizz) to bring digital audio ad inventory to RTBiQ’s buyers. Continue Reading
StreamGuys, a content delivery network and streaming media provider, announced the launch of a new service for monitoring Internet stream host status. The tool is called IsMyStreamUp, and it is an automated service to track whether any online stream, content asset, or workflow is up and running correctly. Continue Reading
A new survey from Music Biz Consumer Insights and LOOP examined the growing role of digital audio for millennial drivers. Respondents aged 34 and younger are more likely to listen to digital audio in vehicles; 28% said they had streamed Internet radio in their cars in the past week, and the same percentage listened to digital files. Continue Reading
In a startling announcement, Samsung Electronics revealed that it will acquire Harmon International for $8-billion. The strategy targets the car as the next milestone mobile device. Harmon is best known as the builder of car audio systems (JBL and Harman/Kardon brands). Continue Reading
Google Play Music relaunched today, announcing an update that makes machine learning a bigger part of its listening experience. That means the platform will combine listeners’ individual music tastes with contextual information such as time of day and location to offer improved song recommendations. It all happens behind the scenes, based on Google’s understanding of the user. Another step closer to the “Me Button.” Continue Reading
YouTube has rolled out an app for watching its videos in virtual reality. All the videos on the platform allow the viewer to see the action as if they were physically present on the scene. This news is still interesting as a forecast for what digital entertainment might look like in ten years. Continue Reading