ComScore’s latest data covered trends in the U.S. smartphone market, including an assessment of the most popular apps as of October 2014. Only two music apps make the top 15: Pandora with 41.6% reach and iTunes Radio/iCloud at 21.9% reach. Continue Reading
An up-and-coming streaming service named Musx announced seed funding of $500,000, according to VentureBeat. It’s an iOS app designed for social sharing of music. Members can post songs from YouTube or SoundCloud. As has become common in these mobile apps, users can create their own playlists. Musx adds a collaborative angle, so friends can build playlists together. Continue Reading
Rdio announced a tighter integration with the Roku set-top box. Roku remote controls in the U.S. will add a shortcut button for the music service for direct access to the app. The Rdio channel has also be redesigned with improved navigation, and it will appear by default in the “My Channels” section of the navigation menu. Continue Reading
Music-ID app Shazam announced a mobile app refresh in its ongoing (unspoken) battle with SoundHound for user loyalty. Charts and listening are the two pillars on which the new Shazam rests. Continue Reading
When the New York Times referred to music consumption as a “culture of free,” XAPPmedia CMO Bret Kinsella took to his keyboard to compose a sharp rebuttal. “Don’t fall for the narrative,” he cautions. Continue Reading
SoundCloud is in discussions to raise new funding to the tune of $150 million at a valuation of more than $1.2 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported. According to two sources familiar with the negotiaions, the music platform is looking to raise money as it works to secure licensing deals with major labels. If SoundCloud successfully secures its high valuation and large funding, then it may be in a better position to play ball with Universal Music Group or Sony Music Entertainment. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Trying (and failing) to love hi-rez streaming; iHeartRadio partners (briefly) with Uber; Apple’s antitrust suit and today’s DRM. Continue Reading
The Association of National Advertisers (ANA), a leadership group that represents 640 companies carrying 10,000 brands and spending 250-billion marketing dollars, declared “Programmatic” its 2014 Word of the Year. The ANA surveyed 349 participating members to choose that term. What is the future of programmatic advertising in audio? Continue Reading
In what could be described as a refutation of Spotify’s feature-bristling desktop app, subscription music service Rhapsody is prompting desktop users to try a beta refresh which streamlines the look-and-feel. We’re sold. Continue Reading
In the latest move to bring order to the legal wild west of its video landscape, YouTube has added extra information to the YouTube Audio Library. This database now gives information about what happens when you upload a particular song to accompany your video. This means you can check whether the song might be deleted by the rights holder or if restrictions apply before uploading the audio clip. Continue Reading
Bop.fm rolled out its first mobile app today for iOS devices. I’ve been following this company closely of late because its big claim to fame is syncing up multiple music services under one umbrella. For anyone who listens to lots of music styles across many platforms, the idea is certainly appealing. The new mobile program doesn’t have quite as many streaming options as the desktop version, but it still links up three popular ones: YouTube, Spotify Premium, and Soundcloud. Continue Reading
adStream is an ad-stalking journal in streaming audio.
We usually study audio ads in adStream, but when our eyes are on the screen it is impossible to ignore the steady parade of banner ads in some music services. Interestingly, TUNE released a whitepaper study of the effectiveness of app-download ads. Continue Reading