The Entertainment Retailers Association has released its 2016 report, and the findings add to the body of numbers pointing to rapid streaming growth in the UK. The report named music as the country’s fastest-growing entertainment sector, with sales growing 4.6% over the previous year to £1.1 billion ($1.3 billion). Continue Reading
Nielsen has released its Total Audience Report for Q3 2016. Radio inched back up to its Q3 2014 levels of 1:52 in media consumption in an average day. Live TV still holds the lion’s share at 4:06. During the period, AM/FM radio had a monthly reach of nearly 263.84 million, up from 260.43 million in the year-ago period. Continue Reading
A collective of record labels, streaming platforms, and advocacy organizations leveraged the CES spotlight to announce a commitment to high-resolution (hi-res) audio streaming. The loosely-articulated mission continues an industry trend whose mileposts have been as varied as Neil Young’s Pono venture, Tidal’s hi-res streaming subscription service, and the small but notable resurgence of vinyl records. Continue Reading
Harman International’s JBL brand has added a new home speaker product that offers wireless playback without a Bluetooth connection. The JBL Playlist has Google Chromecast built in, which means owners of the speaker can use the it to stream music, radio, or podcasts from their other devices. Continue Reading
After years of preparation and planning, Norway is slated to begin its total transition to digital radio on January 11. The country’s remaining FM stations will be shut down region by region starting at 11:11 AM. Continue Reading
iHeartRadio has officially launched its two new streaming audio services, rolling them out widely after a month of testing. The two services emerging from beta are iHeartRadio Plus and iHeartRadio All Access Powered By Napster. Both were introduced in December; RAIN News conducted a review of the new features. Continue Reading
Podtrac has issued its list of top podcast publishers for December 2016. The list, a monthly catalog of the top clients using Podtrac’s measurement systems, comes out each month. Total global unique streams and downloads for December were 186 million, a drop of 8% from the previous month. Continue Reading
The past year has shown how difficult it can be to make predictions. Here, guest columnist Steve Goldstein does something different, laying out key trends. Here are four “mega” trends which will likely affect podcasting in 2017. Continue Reading
Ford and Toyota have formed the SmartDeviceLink Consortium, an alliance of car companies and software developers intended to create alternatives to Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, the leading suppliers of smartphone integration in dashboards. The effort hopes to bring some oxygen into a closed duopoly governed by the world’s two leading operating systems. Continue Reading
Spotify and GroupM, which struck an alliance in November, have executed a study (Streaming State of Mind) into streaming media consumption, listener demographics, mobile listening, and ad spend. Part of Spotify’s effort to evangelize streaming audio to advertisers, this deep and expansive survey delivers interesting insights. Continue Reading
James Cridland’s Future of Radio is a column by the Australia-based radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: a youTuber’s revenue; Donald FM; loss of serendipity. Continue Reading
SESAC has been acquired by the Blackstone Group. The collection and licensing society bills itself as the only one in the U.S. handling public performance, mechanical, synchronization and other rights under a single umbrella. Financial details of the acquisition have not been revealed, but the deal is projected to close by the end of Q1 2017. Continue Reading