UPDATE: Not as dead as originally thought, according to Bloom’s CEO. British streaming-music service Bloom.fm abruptly went out of business after its primary investor withdrew funding, according to Bloom’s Tumblr blog announcement. Bloom.fm had been operating for a little over one year, and had acquired 1.1-million registered users. Continue Reading
Song-skipping is a persuasive feature of personalized radio and on-demand services, driving about 50 percent of user, according to one study. Paul Lamere, director of the developer platform at The Echo Nest (now part of Spotify), analyzed millions of users and billions of song plays to tease out how quickly and often we skip songs. Continue Reading
Internet Radio Rewind is a weekly program bringing you a quick and concise catch-up of the week’s top stories. Click the Play button, and be ready for the coming week. This week: Sprint and Spotify tie the knot … Royalty-free radio … One music service dies a quick death (maybe) … Rdio makes news … and a 100-day report from Beats Music Continue Reading
RAIN Hotspots features the most-read articles of the week. This week — Kurt Hanson’s latest blog post; an in-depth conversation with Brian Lakamp, head of digital for Clear Channel; a radio group goes to court to avoid paying royalties, and Beats Music is 100 days old. Continue Reading
RadioIO, a streaming music service that provides a consumer-facing product and also provides music to businesses, acquire CrowdStream, which connects performing bands with their fans. Also this week, RadioIO launched consumer listening apps in the Apple and Android app stores. Continue Reading
One recipient of the recently-bestowed Edward R. Murrow Awards is Portland Radio Project, an Internet radio stream and website hub that received two Murrow commendations. RAIN spoke with two members of PRP’s founding team about the mission and operation of an Internet-only radio project focused on local community. Continue Reading
Beats Music put out a dedicated iPad app yesterday. Newsworthy? Well, it is for users who have begged, pleaded, and demanded an iPad version of the music service app. There is consistency across Android and iOS — generally a good thing for multi-device users. Continue Reading
A small Virginia radio group, VerStandig Broadcasting, has filed for a declarative judgment in a local district court, seeking to escape payment of performance royalties in its webcasts. The loophole exists in radio’s exemption from paying for the recordings it broadcasts over the air. Continue Reading
Zimmer Radio Group is comprised of 10 radio stations in the Columbia, Missouri region. The Zimmer brand is a second-generation radio emblem; John Zimmer’s father got started in the 1950s. “We’ve never defined ourselves as being in the radio business. We’re in the business of helping local businesses grow.” Continue Reading
Beats Music CEO Ian Rogers has issued a 100-days report on the company blog. Part marketing and part affirmation of company strategy, Rogers’ key message is that the service’s content strategy — personally curated listening — works. Plus, a nifty infographic. Continue Reading
In the course of Pandora’s three-year history as a public company, it has had pretty strong support from the stock analyst world. However, consistently during that period there’s been one major bear — Rich Greenfield, of the research firm BTIG. Greenfield has issued approximately 29 analyst reports on Pandora, every one of them negative. Kurt Hanson analyzes. Continue Reading
In the course of Pandora’s three-year history as a public company, it has had pretty strong support from the stock analyst world. However, consistently during that period there’s been one major bear — Rich Greenfield, of the research firm BTIG. Greenfield has issued approximately 29 analyst reports on Pandora, every one of them negative. Kurt Hanson analyzes. Continue Reading