BMI submitted a statement to the Department of Justice earlier this week with its proposed changes to the consent decree rules that govern collective licensing. The group’s main argument was that music publishers should be allowed to chose which rights they negotiate through the performing rights organizations. ASCAP echoed BMI’s sentiments in its own filing on Thursday. Continue Reading
Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, released a new market report that included data on Brits’ radio listening habits. The report found that live radio broadcasts accounted for the majority of most adults’ total listening time, but the figures were drastically different for the 16 to 24-year-old age bracket. Continue Reading
RAIN News founding editor Kurt Hanson today received the inaugural “Radio’s Most Innovative” award from Jacobs Media, which plans to celebrate many honorees on a series of “Innovation Fridays.” The award bestowal features an interview with Kurt, including his highly researched analysis and asssessment of different pizza types. Continue Reading
RealNetworks included some insights into the money situation at Rhapsody in the SEC filing for its second-quarter financial results. For the period, Rhapsody posted revenue of about $42.4 million, up from about $35.7 million in the second quarter of 2013. Despite the healthy jump in revenue, the service is still operating at a loss. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Behind Spotify’s algorithms; music royalties cheat sheet; Internet radio company Reciva snapped up Continue Reading
A new poll from Harris Interactive detailed the knowledge and preferences of prospective vehicle buyers about connected cars. Among those who were at least somewhat interested in owning a connected vehicle, 65 percent said they would prefer to have a built-in system. That’s good news for the projects currently in the works at the tech leaders, such as Apple’s CarPlay and Google’s Android Auto, because they’ll have a leg up in buyer interest. Continue Reading
Uprise.fm is a forthcoming streaming site that aims to make rare, unique, and live recordings available in the digital space. The project, scheduled for launch in the U.S. and Canada in 2015, recently signed on Daniel Lanois as its creative director and chief music curator. Continue Reading
All Def Digital, the cross-platform network spearheaded by Russell Simmons, secured $5 million in Series A financing. The funding will support the network’s growth, original programming, and initiatives for artist and talent development. This multimedia resource for the hip-hop community has also forged interesting ties to streaming music. Continue Reading
“The once-ubiquitous FM radio is today primarily enjoyed in the car, where a growing variety of audio consumption occurs. But stored and streamed content on mobile devices is steadily marginalizing the broadcast portion of in-car listening, sucking the audience lifeblood out of the medium.” Connected-car analyst Roger Lanctot contributes this guest column that examines how Sprint is handling its NextRadio implementation of FM in smartphones. Continue Reading
In June we reported on Entercom-owned Seattle station KNDD’s experiment in dramatically lowering its broadcast ad load. the station started a “Two minute promise,” in which no spot break would exceed that time, and each hour would be capped at six minutes. Today, the first signs of success for the KDNN test — higher ratings, and comments from Entercom CEO David Field. Continue Reading
ASCAP announced that it is appealing the decision it lost to Pandora in a federal rate-setting trial in March. ASCAP seeks to reverse a district court’s ruling that set a much lower royalty rate for Pandora’s use of music created or published by ASCAP members. In the earlier trial, federal judge Denis Cote was categorical in her rejection of ASCAP’s argument. the stakes are high enough to motivate ASCAP’s appeal. Continue Reading
Pandora inked its first direct record-label deal thanks to its new partnership with Merlin. Under this arrangement, Pandora will negotiate its payments directly with the independent rights group for the music Merlin represents rather than paying the Copyright Royalty Board’s statutory rates. Continue Reading