The impact of viral videos on music sales (maybe)

YouTube is the world’s largest distributor of streaming music, and an important music-discovery platform. Does extreme YouTube music popularity (virality) boost music sales? Nielsen takes a stab at answering that intriguing question, acknowledging that the results are inconclusive. But the graphic report is interesting. Continue Reading

adStream: Lexus localized

adStream is a journal of ad-stalking and interesting commercial sightings in online audio services.

Pandora has spent resources building a local ad-sales network working in over three-dozen markets, and deploys algorithmic tools to target ads by location. But in our ad-stalking experience, we don’t notice many location-specific commercials in our test account. We caught one the other day, though. Continue Reading

Rhapsody buys music discovery startups Exfm and Soundtracking

Rhapsody is bringing two music discovery startups into the fold with acquisitions announced today. Statements from Rhapsody about the acquisitions seemed to imply that neither standalone product would immediately be shuttered, but it does seem likely that the new team members will be putting their expertise toward some new features for the streaming platform. Continue Reading

Songza users now share their lives with Google, like it or not

Following its purchase of the platform in July, Google has revamped Songza’s terms of service. Songza members are required to agree to the new ToS from Google and its privacy policy, as well as agree to transfer their personal information from Songza to Google. Users who don’t agree to the Google terms will not be able to log in to their old accounts. Continue Reading

Beats Music CEO Ian Rogers to helm iTunes Radio too

Sources said that Beats Music CEO Ian Rogers will be overseeing iTunes Radio going forward in addition to his leadership of the Beats streaming service. The Wall Street Journal reported that having Rogers at the head of both the iTunes Radio and Beats Music could help keep a cohesive feel across the two services. Continue Reading

Internet Radio Rewind podcast #009: Swell Radio; Vevo; Pandora; NPR; Sirius; Radionomy

This weekly podcast is a quick and concise catch-up of must-know news in streaming music and online audio

This week: Swell Music shutters … Vevo looks for a buyer … Pandora releases earnings … NPR reinvents radio, again … Sirius and Radionomy have news.
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