Pandora Earnings: Steady audience metrics disappoint investors

Posted on by Brad Hill

Pandora’s workmanlike earnings call conveyed the impression of offhand dominance in the field, but after-hours investors sent the stock careening down a steep slope, off 12% in early evening trading.

The company met financial expectations, but lowered guidance for the current quarter (Jul – Sep). Perhaps more influential to trigger-happy investors were the audience metrics, which showed no audience growth. There was expansion of listening hours, however, emphasized by CEO Brian McAndrews as the more important key in the revenue equation. Continue Reading →

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Kurt Hanson: Report from Tokyo

Posted on by Kurt Hanson

by Kurt Hanson

Over the past 14 years, RAIN has reported to you from around the world — including publishing a week’s worth of early RAIN issues from an Internet-enabled café in Copenhagen, reporting on a popular new trend among young people in Prague called “texting” (way back in 2002), and producing an early cellphone-only version of RAIN in Tokyo, and more.

Now, founding editor Kurt Hanson sends a bulletin and photos from Tokyo, where he is observing the tech and online music scenes. Continue Reading →

New research on “digitally native music consumers”; online music is the key category

Posted on by Brad Hill

MIDiA Research, recently launched by Mark Mulligan, has completed a study examining the characteristics, attitudes, and behavior of “digital natives.” The focus is mostly how they approach music. What are Digital Natives? A young demographic that has never known a world without online connectivity and unlimited music and audio choices. Understanding the mindset and decisions of that population shines light into the future of listening. Continue Reading →

Microsoft keeping Xbox Music, giving it an update

Posted on by Anna Washenko

Xbox Music will be getting an update in a few weeks, according to tweets from a Microsoft exec. Joe Belfiore, vice president for Windows Phone program management and design, said on Twitter that the service would be getting an upgrade in performance, fixes, and new features shortly. The news will come as a relief to fans of the service, which seemed like it could be on the chopping block based on Microsoft’s plans to streamline its in-house music and video teams. Continue Reading →

YouTube Music exec leaves to join startup, could impact subscription service

Posted on by Anna Washenko

Christopher LaRosa, a product manager for YouTube Music, is leaving to join an unnamed startup. He spent about seven years at the Google subsidiary and was a key player in expanding the musical content available via YouTube. Some of his projects included getting YouTube data to count toward the Billboard 100 singles chart and the still in-development subscription music program. Continue Reading →

Amazon’s Prime Music expands catalog and curated playlists

Posted on by Brad Hill

Amazon’s Prime Music, which launched in June, has enhanced its service with “hundreds of thousands of songs,” and a big raft of new house-curated playlists. The service is pressing its strategy of providing easy lean-back listening to music mixes to Prime members, and de-emphasizing lean-forward music searching and collecting. We took the opportunity to give the service a second review, this time in an Amazon Kindle Fire HD tablet, presumably the, er, prime interface for the platform. Continue Reading →

Russell Simmons’ YouTube network All Def Digital gets its top exec

Posted on by Anna Washenko

Sanjay Sharma has joined All Def Digital as president and CEO. The YouTube channel, launched by Def Jam’s Russell Simmons, is a resource focused on hip-hop music, comedy, and spoken word artists. From behind-the-scenes videos with new MCs to talk shows with the latest celebrity gossip and news, the channel is positioning itself as a multimedia resource for fans and performers alike. Sharma joins the company after almost five years at Machinima, another multichannel network that produces videos and web shows centered on video games and gamer lifestyle. Continue Reading →