In this week’s earning call (see RAIN News coverage here), Sirius XM CEO James Meyer and CFO David Frear answered investor questions about connected cars, online streaming, and the recently settled pre-1972 lawsuits. Continue Reading
Even a cursory glance at the music industry headlines and market research will show that mobile is the wave of the future. We communicate, we entertain ourselves, everything happens on smartphones. In response, we’ve been seeing a surge of startups and programmers exploring just what the mobile music space might look like. This morning I explored an entry into the field of mobile apps for social music. This one is called Cymbal. Continue Reading
Classical music is a niche category, one which might be shrinking as its main demographic ages. Its presence on radio has reduced again and again over 60 years, even on public stations where specialized music can find audience. NPR station WGCU went HD with it. Continue Reading
Cumulus/Westwood One leveraged Amazon Prime Day by commissioning an Ipsos study of advertising effectiveness in promoting the event. With the result favoring traditional radio ads, the survey turned a pure digital story into a testimonial of analog reach and power to drive consumer action. Continue Reading
Sirius XM reported its Q2 earnings, and raised guidance on annual revenue and subscriber growth. The report followed and exceeded an exceptionally bullish Q1 report in April. Continue Reading
Music subscription service Rhapsody sent a notice that its Android app has been refreshed with new design and usability features. Version 5.0 includes several key changes, which we tested. Continue Reading
BPI and the Official Charts Company reported that weekly audio streams in the UK have exceeded the 500 million milestone. It’s the first time to reach that metric. The country is now forecast to reach 25 billion audio streams by the end of the year. Continue Reading
Samsung has entered into a partnership with Google Play Music, offering the owners of Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge devices a free subscription to the service for six months. This new arrangement means the end of Samsung’s bundle with Deezer, which gave six months access to the Premium+ plan. 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
Apple Music has reportedly signed up more than 10 million people in its first month. The data point comes from Hits, which credited unnamed sources from major labels. Apple Music is still in its free trial stage for any listeners, so these alleged millions haven’t yet paid for the service. Continue Reading
Pandora’s Sponsored Listening program, which began a beta launch period last October, emerges today as a full-throttle marketing opportunity for all advertisers. We spoke to Lizzie Widhelm, VP of Digital. Continue Reading
The Voltair controversy is a many-sided issue. When Randy Kabrich posted a piece of research that examined whether the audio processing technology increases ratings in Nielsen PPM markets, as Voltair claims to, Kurt Hanson was impressed — but suggests a different conclusion. Continue Reading