Technology, hardware, and gadgets. WiFi speakers, digital dashboards, and more.
Google’s launch event yesterday had some good news on the music side, launching a new piece of home entertainment tech. It’s the Chromecast Audio, a variant of the Chromecast stick specifically designed for streaming audio. This is the latest in Google’s push for a living room takeover. Continue Reading
Media software company WideOrbit will announce on Tuesday the launch of WO Programmatic Radio, a new marketplace for automated selling of radio ad inventory. The new platform matches buyers and to radio sellers using the WO Traffic sales and traffic service. Continue Reading
A newly released survey from Technorati is formatted as a report card on programmatic advertising efficacy, from the viewpoint of the buy- and sell-sides. In it, there is a sharp point of disagreement over the key values of programmatic platforms. Continue Reading
It’s full-steam ahead at Apple, which hosted an event to unveil several new products yesterday. The big star was a major update to its Apple TV set-top box. The new Apple TV features a new interface and voice integration thanks to Siri. Most of the entertainment updates were focused on video services, but the company did announce that its own Apple Music will be available through the device. Continue Reading
Triton Digital announced that is has received a quality certification from the Trustworthy Accountability Group, as part of that organization’s Inventory Quality Guidelines (IQG). Triton opted in to the certification program for the company’s a2x programmatic platform. Continue Reading
Triton Digital announced that Swedish podcast company Acast has joined Triton’s a2x programmatic advertising platform. The announcement marks another step in the fast-moving evolution of podcasting as a mature audio category. Continue Reading
Hubbard Radio has added its stations to Shazam for Radio, an interactive platform that gives participating stations a branded user experience within the Shazam app. Nineteen stations in seven markets will be placed on the platform. Continue Reading
In an unexpected announcement by NextRadio that will be greeted warmly by all advocates of FM reception in smartphones, AT&T has added FM chip activation to the specification list that it gives OEM phone makers. This development carries a hopeful message to Emmis-owned NextRadio, and the stations which participate in that app. Continue Reading
The Berklee Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship has released the results of a year-long study of the contemporary music industry, a whitepaper with recommendations for creating better rights tracking for music creators and owners. The whitepaper is a primer, a backgrounder, and an advocacy document. Continue Reading
While streaming audio is a mobile-first content category (over 60% of stream listening occurs in iOS and Android devices, according to Triton Digital’s Webcast Metrics), desktop listening is hardly dead. Recognizing that, iHeartRadio launched a desktop app for Apple Mac computers. Continue Reading
Spotify has sent an email to Apple iOS subscribers, suggesting they cancel their Spotify Premium accounts, if those subscriptions were purchased through the Spotify app, and re-subscribe on Spotify’s website. There is an implied blame of Apple in Spotify’s communication that could be misplaced. We suggest a different approach. Continue Reading
UPDATE: The social media juggernaut spoke to Billboard following yesterday’s leak at Music Ally, which alleged that Facebook is planning a video service to compete with YouTube and a pure music service to compete with Spotify. Facebook said in a statement that it has “no plans to go into music streaming.” Continue Reading