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
Everybody seems to want SoundCloud to be acquired, though the company itself does not publicly contribute to speculation. The latest? A report of unnamed sources saying Google is now investigating a SoundCloud purchase. Continue Reading
Pandora is announcing today the wide release of its two newest ad formats: Muted Video and Responsive Mobile Display, after six months of testing with a handful of launch advertisers. Test partners included Denny’s, Google, Express, and the Lexus Dealers Association. The beta period enabled Pandora to develop usage metrics. Continue Reading
BuzzAngle Music issued an annual report about music consumption in 2016. Overall music consumption increased 4.9% over 2015, from 394.5 million album project units to 413.9 million project units. Streaming consumption skyrocketed up 82.6% to 250 billion streams for the year. Continue Reading
The British Phonographic Industry released its official 2016 annual report. Total music consumption for the year rose 1.5% to 123 million album equivalent sales. The past year saw 45 billion audio streams served to UK listeners. Continue Reading
Happy New Year!
RAIN News is pleased to present predictions from 29 thought-leading guest futurists. 2017 will carry forward the audio industry’s reputation for quick, disruptive change. Continue Reading
Almost exactly one year after Live365 went dark, sending thousands of small webcasters scrambling for new platforms or giving up their stations, Live365 is back. Details are scarce, but this is what we know now. Continue Reading
Yesterday we posted the #1 story for 2016, based on readership of our articles. Today, the RAIN News roundup of how the online audio industry evolved in 2016. Seventy-four articles show the development of internet radio, music services, small webcasting, podcasting and the business ecosystem surrounding all of it in 2016. Happy browsing! Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: A Forbes columnist revisits successful 2016 predictions for the music and music-service industry, and ventures to predict 2017 events. General Counsel of the RIAA explains why 2017 will be a “critical year.” Continue Reading
Tidal has published a year-end video that promotes the exclusive-release strategy the music service followed in 2016. While exclusive album releases have gotten the most attention (and there have been 32 of them this year), Tidal touted exclusives in other categories. Continue Reading
When it comes to music, news, and podcast listening, Amazon Alexa (in the Echo and Dot devices) is far less equipped than you might think from all the buzz. But the promise is that Alexa will get smarter over time, as new skills are learned. Even now, the experience is compelling. Continue Reading
Guest columnist Corey Layton of Australian podcast company Whooshkaa looks ahead to podcasting in 2017, with predictions about sports shows, podcast discovery, monetization, and technology. Continue Reading