Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Will Spotify restrict free listening?; Napster and the ‘culture of free’; mobile boosts global ad revenue. Continue Reading
Australian telecommunication company Telstra announced that it is shuttering Bigpond Music, its online music download store. “The download-to-own music market has changed a lot,” a rep from Telstra said. “We believe the best way for us to continue to provide great music services to our customers is via a partner model.” Continue Reading
Dave Van Dyke of Bridge Ratings Media Research has published some recent data about pureplay listening in a LinkedIn post. “Something interesting is happening on the internet streaming front,” Van Dyke writes. He projects that time spent listening to pureplay streaming will exceed terrestrial simulcasting by next year. Continue Reading
“A wide stream of great music awaits you,” the tagline of The Wise Choice promises. It is definitely wide. Today we heard obscure world music and classical guitar mixed up with Elton John and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Enya. Sting. Armik. Carole King. If you like your listening to leap over genre boundaries, you’ll have an enjoyable time with this station. Continue Reading
Month-over-month webcast listening was moved upward in September, according to Triton Digital’s monthly Webcast Metrics Top 20 Ranker. The upward movement was nearly unanimous among the top-20 entities measured by Triton. Year-over-year and year-to-date gains were also apparent in September. Continue Reading
In an interview with Dow Jones, Grooveshark CEO Sam Tarantino discussed how the company might be able to stay afloat by completely legal avenues. The streaming platform is expected to launch a radio app called Broadcasts in January. A rep from the company called Broadcasts the “first compliant app” for Grooveshark. Continue Reading
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A six-minute blast of news you need to know in streaming music and online audio. This week: Spotify’s geo-targeted advertising; WTMJ ultra-mobile live webcasts; Pandora’s new app; Rhapsody’s birthday stats; Podcast One argues with Stitcher; Music Freedom expands. Continue Reading
Shazam jumped on the bandwagon of 2014 roundups with a listing of the top tracks and artists tagged in the song ID program. The findings fell pretty well in line with what Spotify and other music services have been reporting, but Shazam added some interesting predictions to its blog post by noting some of the artists it expects to break out in 2015. Continue Reading
Points of interest and worthy reads around the web: Rumored label negotiating tactics with Spotify; fuuture of podcasting; OpEd from Rhapsody borad members. Continue Reading
Following on the release of its global year-in-review earlier this week, Spotify has also added a tool so that individuals can check out their 2014 listening data. The feature breaks down your song choices over the past 12 months into very detailed genres. The data is interesting on its own, but Spotify took things a step further with Play it Forward, where the streaming platform can create a personalized playlist of songs based on what you liked most in 2014. Continue Reading
Sirius XM has agreed to a settlement of $3.8 million following claims that it engaged in misleading advertising and billing practices. The complaint was brought by 45 state consumer protection agencies that argued Sirius customers were having issues canceling their contracts. The agencies claimed that the satellite radio company offered extra incentives to staff members who retained customers who wanted to end their subscriptions. Continue Reading
Nielsen released its Q3 Total Audience Report, formerly called the Cross Platform Report. The name change signifies a philosophical reconception as well as new marketplace realities. In the metrics, AM/FM time-spent listening dropped slightly year-over-year, but it is the generational shift which really stands out. Continue Reading