RAIN News’ top picks for CES 2016 sessions

Whether you’re on the show floor or just following the action from home on livestreams and social media, this year’s Consumer Electronics Show promises to have lots of valuable insights for the digital audio industry. This year, we could see developments in topics such as connected cars, home audio, audio quality, mobile devices, headphones, digital distribution, and advertising technology. Continue Reading

The Download on Podcasts: Podcasting’s new year’s resolution (or should be)

sponsored by PodcastOne

Nearly two years ago, an article that questioned why audio doesn’t go viral, went viral. The article’s complaint has not been fully answered. Recently WNYC posted one of its podcasts to Facebook, but had to wrap it in a video because Facebook doesn’t have native audio. Podcasting might be the catalyst which changes the lack of social sharing in audio. Continue Reading

U.S. Copyright Office to review safe harbor provisions

The U.S. Copyright Office announced that it is undertaking a public study of the country’s safe harbor provisions. Section 512 was introduced in 1998 as part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and its safe harbor laws provide some liability limitations on usage for Internet-based services. The rules focus on protecting services from liability due to copyright infringements occurring in user-generated content. Continue Reading

Consumer digital spending grows; digital advertising grows faster

Consumer spending on digital products will grow a projected 5.1% to $2.1-trillion in 2019, according to McKinsey’s newly released State of Global Media Spending report. Advertiser spending on digital is growing even faster, and the trend, when combined with new CRB webcaster rates, might have implications for radio stations. Continue Reading

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Live365 suffers a collision of misfortunes, lays off most employees and vacates office

Live365, one of the most venerable brands in this industry, is affected by shifting regulations that change the cost of music on January. In addition, the company’s investors have pulled support from the company, forcing an immediate financial crisis. RAIN News has learned that as a result, nearly the entire staff was laid off this week. Continue Reading