While Pandora, iHeartMedia, and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) are content with new CRB rates, the royalty ruling puts smaller streamers on shaky ground, we’ve heard from several sources. Click for comments by Rusty Hodge, Kurt Hanson, Brian McAndrews, and David Porter. Continue Reading
On the Move tracks hires, promotions, and other notable personnel changes within the online audio industry. Today’s moves include shuffled positions for iBiquity leaders now that the DTS acquisition is finished. Also CueSongs has promoted within its licensing department. Continue Reading
Global media holding company Vivendi announced today that it has acquired a majority share (64.4%) of Radionomy Group, taking a stake in pureplay online radio and streaming audio advertising. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: The most-covered Christmas songs; where are Spotify’s Shows?; Vox talks podcasting; a new feel for classic rock radio; the brain drain at the BBC. Continue Reading
In an open conference call that was bumped back three hours by a late-day release of webcaster rates by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), Pandora addressed the new rates and answered investor questions about the business going forward. Continue Reading
BPI and the Official Charts Company analyzed data about the most popular genres in streaming. The numbers showed that streaming of dance music is growing faster than other styles, with the number of audio streams in the year-to-date increasing 107% over 2014. Continue Reading
Mediaocean announced that it has integrated iHeartMedia’s digital ad inventory into its Spectra media management platform. All of iHeart’s digital output is included, from computer to phone, tablet to gaming systems, and is quantified by Triton Digital’s Webcast Metrics Local. Continue Reading
If it’s difficult to identify winners and losers in the new CRB webcaster rates, the official comments emanating from three major participants tell a story: Major webcasters OK with it; music industry not. Continue Reading
The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) unsurprisingly took a middle road, treading a line between the $.0011 that Pandora requested, and the $.0025 that SoundExchange argued for on behalf of music rights-holders. P stock shot upward in after-hours. The company scheduled a conference call for later this evening. Continue Reading
At 5:15 Eastern U.S. time, the Copyright Royalty Board released the outline of its Webcaster IV ruling, setting royalty rates paid by Internet radio to music labels for the 2016-2020. Pandora’s rate: $.0017 per stream for non-subscribing listeners. SoundExchange wanted that number to be $.0025. Continue Reading
SoundExchange released its third-quarter figures for payments made and received from digital radio. The rights manager paid out $204 million in the quarter to 87,219 payees. The timing of this release is pointed, as today the Copyright Royalty Board is slated to release its decision on the statutory royalty rates to be paid by non-interactive streaming platforms during 2016-2020. Pandora is one of the bigger players to be impacted by this ruling, but SoundExchange has just as much on the line. Continue Reading
Two developments came from the Spotify camp today. First, the company added a new mobile feature called Party. Second, the streaming service has caught Star Wars fever, and created a standalone site aimed at identifying a listener’s musical match from the film saga’s cast. Continue Reading