Wells Fargo, the 4th-largest U.S. bank, has been spotted in Pandora this week with the bank’s new “Small is Huge” campaign. The placement uses Pandora’s most attention-getting ad unit in the desktop-browser player. Click for screenshot and video. Well Fargo recently changed its lead creative agency. Continue Reading
SoundExchange and a coalition of recording artists launched an awareness campaign called Project72, coordinated with the introduction of new legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives called The RESPECT Act. At stake is the earning power of records released before February 15, 1972. Continue Reading
Joining the emergent movement of online radio stations with local focus, RadioStPete (www.radiostpete.com) went online last summer. Covering local music and events in the Tampa/St. Petersburg, the station aspires to bring back radio with local values, an attribute its founders believe has been lost in the era of deregulation. Continue Reading
RAIN News announces the fifth annual RAIN Internet Radio Awards to recognize the creative, strategic, and technological achievements of the industry’s best webcast services. Webcasters and broadcasters in the Internet radio industry can enter the competition for awards in five categories. Continue Reading
Apple and Beats Electronics reached a final merger agreement in which Beats is folded into Apple, probably by September. Facts are emerging and suppositions are flowing. We voraciously scanned coverage around the web to deliver a hotlist of must-read reporting and opinion. Continue Reading
Ending its exercise in delayed gratification, Apple turned rumor into reality by acquiring Beats Electronics for $3-billion. Tellingly, Apple’s press release leads with the streaming music service. “Apple today announced it has agreed to acquire the critically acclaimed subscription streaming music service Beats Music, and Beats Electronics, which makes the popular Beats headphones, speakers and audio software.” Continue Reading
On one hand, Google’s newly-announced partnership with Sonos, which builds a highly regarded line of home WiFi speakers, is just another distribution agreement. On the other hand, the six-month trial represents the latest supposition that short trials of streaming services don’t convert well to paying accounts. Continue Reading
As expected, Spotify announced at a press event today that the music service is now available to Brazilian users. The expansion marks the 57th country of Spotify’s global reach. Brazil owns one of the ten largest economies in the world by any reckoning — by some accounts the sixth-largest. The country houses a population of 200-million people. Sixty-two percent of Brazil’s citizens are 29 or younger. Continue Reading
Today brings the latest update of a story that won’t die … and won’t start, for that matter. Claire Atkinson of the New York Post cites unnamed sources who claim that Apple’s rumor-factory acquisition of Beats Electronics will be finalized and announced this week. We review the Apple/Beats saga and latest leaks. Continue Reading
Steve Goldstein, Executive Vice President of Saga Communications bought a new car — a GM Acadia. when he turns it on, something is missing: Radio. In this guest column, Goldstein walks through the on-screen audio choices of a new digital dashboard, and articulates a crisis for radio. Continue Reading
We are happy to announce the first RAIN News Reader Survey! We’d love to know more about how you use RAIN, and what you’d like to see in our coverage of Internet radio and online audio. The survey is designed to be speedy. Enter a drawing for free registration at a RAIN Summit! Contribute your voice. Continue Reading
Items of interest in the music-app realm: Songza wins an award, Spotify suffers a tiny hack, Samsung will discontinue a music service. Continue Reading