How streaming created a hit before radio and without a record: Spotify study

Will Page, Director of Economics at Spotify, published a revealing analysis of how Meghan Trainor’s hit song “All About That Bass” became a charted hit, pushed more by streaming than by radio — and even before the track was available to purchase in the U.K. The cross-continental story raises questions about music distribution strategies in an era when online engagement can create hit without traditional levers. Continue Reading

Survey shows video driving music discovery, especially for younger listeners

Most of today’s online music services include some feature that encourages listeners to discover new artists and songs. According to a new study from MusicWatch, though, the biggest driver of discovery is actually online video. Numbers from the consumer research company showed that 34% of respondents said video services were the most influential source of new music discovery. Continue Reading

TargetSpot’s co-CEO Leigh Newsome on Big Data in audio advertising

Following up our coverage of the integrative partnership of audio ad network Targetspot and data company Quantcast, we wanted to understand the depth of integration, and what Big Data means for the online audio advertising industry. We chatted with TargetSpot co-CEO Leigh Newsome, and started by asking how this partnership is distinguished from previous work the two companies have done together. Continue Reading

Mark Mulligan: Why It Is Time To Make YouTube Look Less Like Spotify And More Like Pandora

by Mark Mulligan

Midia Research founder Mark Mulligan analyzes the “freemium” space by comparing YouTube (and its new Music Key subscription service) to Spotify and Pandora. YouTube has changed from a marketing tool to a full-fledged listening destination, the author asserts, and should be modeled more like Pandora than Spotify. Continue Reading

EFF will argue against Personal Audio podcast patent in hearing

The Electronic Frontier Foundation will have a hearing today with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to argue its case for invalidating key claims of patents that Personal Audio has used to sue podcasters. The group’s legal counsel says that Personal Audio didn’t invent anything new or non-obvious related to podcasting, and thus should not have a patent. Continue Reading