Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: The return of cassettes; the return of vinyl; Nielsen on marketing to millennial men; more on Merlin/Pandora. Continue Reading
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A six-minute blast of news you need to know in streaming music and online audio. This week: Slacker reboot; Shazam sharpens its sword; Grooveshark plans redemption; Warner Music makes money from streaming; Webcast metrics for September; SoundCloud’s fundraising; Spotify tracks your listening Continue Reading
Soundcloud joins the year-end rush of app updates with an adjustment to its IOS app (iPhone only; iPad promised for next year). Playlisting has been added. Playlisting has been a sorely missing feature on the iOS side since June, when the current ultra-simple app was launched. Continue Reading
Joining Shazam, Spotify, and others, Pandora today released its top 25 spins for 2014. In addition to the top 25, Pandora has built a top-80 stream — warning users: “This is not your typical Pandora listening experience.” Continue Reading
Ford announced that it is replacing the MyFord Touch digital dashboard with a new system called Sync 3. Based on Sync AppLink, the new connected car platform is expected to first appear in 2015 Fords and Lincolns. Sync has defined Ford’s “plug-and-play in-car audio strategy, but the automaker also supports dashboard operating systems developed by Google and Apple. Continue Reading
Martin Bandier, chairman and CEO of Sony/ATV, has added his voice to the criticism of rates paid to music publishers for streaming. “We at Sony/ATV want these digital music services to be successful because they are a great way for music fans to listen to music and have the potential to generate significant new revenues for everyone,” he said. “However, this success should not come at the expense of songwriters whose songs are essential for these services to exist and thrive.” Continue Reading
Warner Music Group posted its financial report for the year ending Sept. 30, and the results included some impressive figures related to streaming. The company’s revenue rose 5.2% to $3.02 billion, it’s highest number since 2009. That total was bolstered by an increase of $150 million in revenue from streaming music. Continue Reading
New app. New logo. Sharpened focus. Slacker Radio has joined the year-end rush of music service upgrades (Rhapsody, YouTube Music Key, Shazam, Musx, Tidal) with a new iOS app that doubles down on Slacker’s signature hosted playlists. Continue Reading
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