RAIN founding editor Kurt Hanson reports from Tokyo, where he surveyed the tech, culture, and audio landscapes. This is his third illustrated report — including beer gardens, one-price menus, and their business implications. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web. Today — Google buys a raft of domain names that might indicate a name for its new service; IMMF publishes best practices for the digital music industry; U.S.-based Hindi-music service Saavn raising capital. Continue Reading
Things are looking pretty good for Sirius XM following its second-quarter earnings call. The company said revenue increased 10 percent, surpassing $1 billion. Net income for the period was $120 million, and the 2 cents per share earnings met the estimates set by Thomson Reuters analysts. Continue Reading
On April 30, 2012, Rick O’Dell was fed up. WLFM in Chicago switched away from the Smooth Jazz format (to Alt Rock), leaving the city’s terrestrial listeners without a station for that shiny genre. It had happened before, in 2009, when Clear Channel’s WNUA abandoned Smooth Jazz for Spanish-language programming. O’Dell saw an opportunity, and started a localized Smooth Jazz Internet-only station. Continue Reading
RAIN founding editor Kurt Hanson just returned from a trip to Tokyo, where he surveyed the tech, culture, and audio landscapes. This is his second illustrated report. Continue Reading
Guest columnist James Cridland looks at NPR One, a new mobile app from National Public Radio. while U.K.-based Cridland admires the app’s features, he wishes for something similar from the BBC, which would inject local content for British users. Continue Reading
adStream is a journal of ad-stalking and interesting commercial sightings in online audio services. In Pandora, Promoted Stations are sponsored playlists branded by advertisers, and co-created with Pandora’s curation experts. The program launched in May with several advertising partners, but the sponsored stations are difficult to find. We found one. Continue Reading
Vevo is keeping its eyes open for a buyer, but is trying to make internal changes first to make it a more appealing target. The service generates 6 billion views a month, and a large portion of those views are YouTube music videos. Is the window of opportunity shrinking as YouTube prepares its own music-video service? Continue Reading
RAIN CEO Jennifer lane looks at SmartReach Digital, a full-service digital agency formed by Entercom, one of the largest broadcasters in the U.S., and staffed with a team of experienced digital marketers. The idea is new and innovative to radio, but one that has taken hold with newspapers, tv, and other locally driven media outlets. Continue Reading
Rhapsody announced a major milestone this morning, reporting that it has surpassed 2 million paid subscribers across its music services. Considering the company was just touting 1.7 million subscribers in April, it’s making steady progress in attracting new listeners. In related news, Rhapsody expanded its available offerings in several international markets through its Napster division. Continue Reading
Jay Green, previously the National Account Director at PodcastOne, has joined AdLarge as VP, Digital Sales and Content Partnerships. Before PodcastOne, Green spent 12 years at Dial Global, in research and strategic operation roles. Continue Reading
Dating app Tinder created a place where members could forge new personal connections based on snap judgements of attraction. Now, two of the app’s veterans have launched a new project that applies the same idea and mechanics to music. Tinder co-founder Christopher Gulczynski and former design vice president Sarah Nick are the brains behind Next, which bills itself as a place for social music discovery. Continue Reading