In a leaked internal memo published by Billboard, CEO and Chairman of Universal Music Group, Lucian Grainge, promised a continued commitment to artist development, and pledged to “re-design business models” as necessary. The memo comes at a time when major labels are engaged in publicized contract renewal discussions with Spotify. Continue Reading
The best-of lists continued today with an installment from Adweek. The magazine polled its readers on the top apps of the year for a range of industries, and iHeartRadio was chosen as the Hottest Music App of 2014. iHeart secured 44% of the votes to top the list. Continue Reading
When Taylor Swift and her label chose to remove the pop singer’s latest album and back catalog from Spotify, they unintentionally sparked the emergence of some fascinating data about online music listening habits. First came Nielsen’s discovery that Swift’s YouTube streaming counts ballooned from the moment her audio streams dropped. Second, we now have data showing that she added the most subscribers on the video network during November. Continue Reading
Ready for an antidote to the ordinary? The extraordinary All-Transistor Radio, a project of Magic Transistor, is the answer. More eccentric than college radio, All-Transistor Radio is programmed by a disparate affiliation of music collectors around the world. Continue Reading
In an interview with “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer, Neil Young revealed that Pono Music will have an automotive angle. He said the company is working with Harman to give Pono access within the 2016 Lincoln Continental. Tesla is also expected to bring Pono into its digital dashboard once the music store is ready. Continue Reading
We learned that Aupeo is readying an update and re-branding of its Personal Radio product, soon to be re-named Personal Radio by Aupeo. Stay tuned for details during CES week in January. In the meantime, we spoke with CEO Holger Weiss, who Skyped with RAIN News from his Berlin office. Continue Reading
Most true music aficionados will always have a soft spot for the tradition of the mixtape. As more of our listening migrates onto computers and smartphones, our old tapes and CDs can start to seem like relics from a bygone time. Sure, you could turn to an online playlisting service, and many of them are quite good, but thus far none of those platforms has recaptured quite the same experience of making a mixtape for somebody. Today we took a look at Tapely, a site that aims to tap into that classic mixtape activity. Continue Reading
Pandora has released an infographic with data about U.S. listening habits during the holiday season. Utah clocked in as the state with the highest percentage of holiday music at 19%. Maine came in just behind at 17%. Holiday stations are vastly more prevalent for women, who are 88% more likely than men to create those channels. Continue Reading
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A six-minute blast of news you need to know in streaming music and online audio. This week: New research into music videos; PodcastOne’s breakthrough partnership; Fighting back against a podcast patent; Deezer gets a CEO…and music lyrics; Vessel — a new video service; Ed Sheeran loves Spotify and calls Taylor Swift a past-era artist. Continue Reading
It’s been an eventful week for Deezer with the addition of a new CEO and a new CMO. The streaming service is also incorporating a new feature this week called Lyrics. As you might guess, this means that listeners can hit a button in the music player and see all of the words to a track while it plays. Continue Reading
In a first-of-its-kind partnership, PodcastOne and the Associated Press (AP) are partnering to create one-minute news podcasts. Special insertion technology will automatically deliver the most current 60-second program to each listener. Eighteen shows will be produced each day, seven days a week. RAIN News spoke to PodcastOne founder Norman Pattiz. Continue Reading
Bandcamp made its name as a straightforward direct-to-fan platform, but it has expanded its offerings to give artists more power over the business side of their operations. The latest change opens the door to record labels as well. Bandcamp for Labels is a paid service that provides unified accounting and statistics for all acts under a particular brand. Continue Reading