Line Music has officially launched in Japan. It will offer two price tiers, the first costing 500 yen (about $4) a month for 20 hours of streaming. The second tier costs 1,000 yen (about $8) for unlimited listening on the platform. The streaming service is owned by Japan-based messaging company Line, and it also has involvement from Universal Music Japan. Continue Reading
Pandora’s Chief Revenue Officer John Trimble says that a mere eight seconds might be the perfect ad length for mobile video. “Looking ahead, I could envision video and audio ads as short as eight seconds being something advertisers and listeners will be interested in,” he said. According to AdWeek, the radio service isn’t going to imminently make a switch to a new ad length, but is considering a broader effort to reach the coveted young demographics. Continue Reading
8tracks has secured a new cluster of content partnerships, and a new line of debt financing. The newly expanded library helps DJs build playlists more easily, and the financing will go to product and engineering. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: IAB research in mobile video; spotify offers an exclusive track; a rumor about Apple Music pricing in India. Continue Reading
The Download on Podcasts is a weekly feature sponsored by PodcastOne.
It seems like everyone is getting into podcasting — creators, networks, measurement companies, ad-tech companies, and now the transcription firm GMR Transcription, which announced the launch of an audio-to-text service. Does it make sense? We looked at two podcasts using the service.
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Czech Republic launches large T-DAB+ trial; Apple Music will be below standard audio quality; a rough outlook for indie Internet radio. Continue Reading
Attorneys from Universal Music Group have responded to an investigation that the label colluded with other leading music companies to push out free, ad-supported tiers from streaming services. In a letter responding to a subpoena, UMG denied having any agreements with Sony Music, Warner Music Group, or Apple to “impede the availability of third-party free or ad-supported music streaming services.” Continue Reading
Seven months after Taylor Swift withdrew her music from Spotify, and two days after Apple announced its subscription-only Apple Music service, Spotify has released a video which firmly defends the freemium model which offers free, ad-supported listening. The video is also remarkable for being the company’s most explicit and public-facing advocacy of free listening. Continue Reading
Spotify announced today that it has more than 20 million subscribers and 75 million active users on its streaming platform. The company started off 2015 with the announcement 60 million active users and 15 million paying subscribers, meaning Spotify grew quickly to hit this milestone. Spotify also closed a round of funding today valued at $526 million. Continue Reading
Thousands of broadcasters from around southeast Asia (primarily Malaysia, Indonesia, and other countries in the near region) — including hundreds of radio broadcasters — descended on Singapore last week for the region’s biggest broadcasting conference, BroadcastAsia2015. Kurt Hanson reports from Singapore. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Sonos CEO on streaming’s impact and NPR listeners get an F on their audio quality test. Continue Reading
Nielsen has released a Music 360 report focused on the Canadian market. The report found that time spent listening to music in Canada has risen 20% since 2013. Nielsen also found that streaming volume has increased 94% since it began tracking that metric for Canada in July 2014. Another interesting data point from that research was an assessment of how much the respondents would be willing to pay for streaming services. Continue Reading