In a highly engaged webinar yesterday, RAIN News and WideOrbit presented a RAIN Report webinar to hundreds of industry professionals on programmatic advertising for digital audio, called Programmatic Fast-Tracks Revenue Growth for Digital Audio. Click through for coverage and the webnar video. Continue Reading
Pandora is now legally free to acquire KXMZ, a South Dakota radio station. the FCC has ruled against a petition to deny Pandora’s application, saying that ASCAP failed to establish its case. Continue Reading
Pricewaterhouse Coopers released a report about the global entertainment and media markets. The research covered both the radio and music market segments. The report found that radio had total revenue of $20.67 billion in 2014. On the other hand, the music industry was valued at $15.06 in 2014 and total recorded music revenue was $6.01 billion. Continue Reading
Research company MusicWatch publicly released data points from its Annual Music Study, measuring relative popularity among leading streaming music outlets YouTube, Pandora, Spotify, iHeartRadio, VEVO, and iTunes Radio. The timing anticipates Apple’s expected announcement of its new on-demand music platform. Continue Reading
L.A. Reid may be making a bid for shares of Rhapsody. The chairman and CEO of Epic Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment, is allegedly working with a private equity investment group to purchase a large share of the streaming platform. Continue Reading
DGital Media, which launched its nascent podcast network last week, has moved quickly to bolster its monetization capacity and executive leadership. WYD Media, an ad sales organization that specializes in spoken-word audio brands, will be folded into DGital. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: YouTube’s Kyncl says all’s well with Music Key; who could Apple buy next?; Potential Sony class action following contract leak. Continue Reading
For most of their lives, sound recognition apps SoundHound and Shazam have been playing tag with each other. But recently, we’re starting to see each company carve out a more unique niche. Today SoundHound introduced a new personal assistant. The program is called Hound, and it will be a direct competitor to Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, or Google Now. Continue Reading
WNYC announced that it will take over the distribution of its shows Radiolab and On the Media. The public radio outlet will begin the distribution on Oct. 1, and will also self-distribute its new collaboration with the New Yorker. The move ends WYC’s distribution arrangement with NPR for those programs. Continue Reading
NPR has launched a new series dubbed “Streaming at the Tipping Point.” This collection of articles will address both the business and cultural impact of the transition to streaming, reflecting on the changes in how we experience music. One piece collected interviews with a range of individuals, including industry members, about what they thought a perfect world would be for streaming. Continue Reading
Research and consulting firm Atenga released a study of consumer demand for streaming music services. Atenga is a consumer intelligence platform with a specialty in pricing strategy. The purpose of this study was to find optimal price/revenue points for several online music services. Some results are surprising. Continue Reading