Radiotopia received an investment of $1 million from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The podcast network will use the money to add to its portfolio of shows and to hire an executive producer. It is the second time that the Knight Foundation has contributed to Radiotopia’s development; it also gave $200,000 in February 2014. Continue Reading
Australia’s music industry is adding a new weekly chart to reflect the popularity of streams. The Australian Recording Industry Association will launch the Top 40 Audio & Visual Streaming Chart on Monday, May 18. It will incorporate plays from all official music videos on YouTube. Continue Reading
In a Manhattan U.S. District Court, a ruling in the BMI vs. Pandora royalty rate case went in BMI’s direction late yesterday, raising the rate at which Pandora must pay for BMI-represented music by 43%. Continue Reading
Research company CivicScience probed the preferences and psychographics of Spotify and Pandora users to sketch a detailed image of how they differ. Using widely distributed web-bases surveys that yielded over 8,000 replies, CivicScience sought to understand demographic and behavioral differences. Continue Reading
Rdio has added a new subscription tier focused on mobile listening to its available offerings. Rdio Select offers elements of both lean-back and on-demand listening on mobile devices for $3.99 a month. It is an innovative, carefully considered competitive gambit. Continue Reading
Today brings a fresh batch of rumors and sneak peaks into Apple’s forthcoming music service, as usual courtesy of 9to5Mac. Unnamed industry sources told the site that despite being based on Beats Music, the new platform is likely to be called Apple Music. It is also expected to integrate social features similar to ones that Apple previously experimented with in the form of Ping. Continue Reading
Ad technology company XAPPmedia announced the closing of a $3.8-million round of new capital funding. The private investors were not disclosed. After a previous funding round of $3-million, XAPP’s total funding now stands at $6.8-million. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Vox on how radio plays into music’s future; Australia’s challenges with a digital radio rollout. Continue Reading
XAPPmedia released a new edition of its ongoing study of streaming audio advertising, the Internet Radio Ad Load Report. In addition to updating data released in the first report, this edition (PDF here), which covers Q1 2015, is enhanced with… Continue Reading
Ten years ago, when podcasting was relatively new, it was mainly downloaded content. Things have changed, thanks to high-speed mobile bandwidth, and consumer acceptance of streaming access as opposed to stored ownership. Why have some podcast apps failed to get with the times? A case study in frustration. Continue Reading
CD Baby announced the launch of its Pro tier in the UK. The Pro service includes publishing administration for collecting royalties. The company already has more than 35,000 artists using its distribution service in the UK. Continue Reading
TuneCore announced a partnership with digital entertainment network DanceOn. Under this deal, TuneCore will offer its independent artists more options for creating content and reaching audiences on YouTube. DanceOn is a dance-centric entertainment network that has generated more than 3 billion views and 20 million subscribers on Google’s video service. Continue Reading