Curation: The programming buzzword for 2014 which drives acquisitions

Posted on by Brad Hill

by Brad Hill

Google’s acquisition of Songza is widely regarded as a buy-in of Songza’s unique “Concierge” delivery of personalized music, based on each user’s activity and mood combined with other data signals. The backbone of Songza programming is assembled by a team of 60 music specialists, and their work is supplemented by a Big Data-fed algorithm which refines the output based on the listener’s history of song votes and song skips.

Songza’s formula, and those of other music services, which determine what a listener hears, all fall under the broad term “curation.” All music services that provide some degree of interactivity deploy a curation strategy. The underpinning of that strategy is subject to trend and vogue. How has music curation evolved, and what is the trend this year which is driving acquisitions?
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Google acquires Songza

Posted on by Brad Hill

After a few weeks of speculation, Google has acquired Internet radio platform Songza. Financial details have not been disclosed.
Google’s announcement says that no immediate changes will happen to Songza, but “Over the coming months, we’ll explore ways to bring what you love about Songza to Google Play Music. We’ll also look for opportunities to bring their great work to the music experience on YouTube and other Google products.” Continue Reading →

RAIN Internet Radio Awards are for broadcasters, too

Posted on by Brad Hill

Nominations are flowing into the five award categories of the Fifth Annual RAIN Internet Radio Awards. The nomination deadline, July 20, is approaching. As in previous years, broadcasting brands are included in the Best Streaming Broadcast Station category. This award is for the single broadcast station that has executed the best streaming strategy. Nominate your station now! Continue Reading →

The Songza business: Conversation with Elias Roman, CEO

Posted on by Brad Hill

Internet radio platform Songza has built its reputation on the so-called Concierge method of music curation. The Concierge service seeks to understand the user’s mood and activity, match it to time of day, local weather, and other signals, combine all that with historical music preferences, and deliver a perfect soundtrack (playlist) for the moment.

This method of playlist discovery has been imitated, most recently by “The Sentence” in Beats Music. Rhapsody, iHeartRadio, and others have also gone down this path to varying extents.

Wanting to know more about the anatomy of Songza Concierge, and also how it ties into monetization through ad sales, we spoke with Elias Roman, CEO. Continue Reading →

David Oxenford: Pandora Petitions FCC for Ruling to Acquire Radio Station

Posted on by Brad Hill

Remember when Internet radio leader Pandora bought a radio station last June? The idea was to get more favorable music licensing terms, but the deal was blocked by ASCAP and remained unclosed pending FCC approval. Now, that small station in South Dakota is in the news again, as Pandora files a petition with the FCC to declare Pandora’s eligibility to acquire the terrestrial broadcaster. Broadcast law attorney David Oxenford, who is involved in the case, explains everything. Continue Reading →

Audi announces HD and Internet audio in 2015 cars

Posted on by Brad Hill

Audi, which recently replaced BMW as the top-selling premium car company, has included HD Radio as standard equipment in the 2015 Audio A3, which is appearing in dealer lots now. At the same time, an announcement comes from Audi that it is adopting CarPlay, Apple’s digital-dashboard operating system. Specific car models are not identified, but at least some 2015 models will have CarPlay. Continue Reading →

Editor’s Notebook: Radio, disaster relief, and performance royalties

Posted on by Brad Hill

Inside Radio noted (paywall link here) that a group of Nebraska radio stations has donated $5,000 to the Red Cross for disaster relief after storms ripped through parts of the state. This sort of radio activism on behalf of local communities ties into traditional radio values of locality and community service. More particularly it resonates with recent arguments, in press releases and government hearings, against applying music-licensing performance royalties to broadcast radio. Continue Reading →