As expected, Beats Music made its TV-ad debut with a Super Bowl commercial starring Ellen DeGeneres. It hit Beats’ consistent marketing angle of delivering music that is just right for each listener. How does Spotify’s marketing contrast? Continue Reading
Slacker has hired Nintendo exec Duncan Orrell-Jones to be CEO of the Internet radio company, replacing existing CEO Jim Cady, who will stay on the board of directors. The Slacker press release notes that the music service began in 2010, but we peg the company launch in 2007. Continue Reading
The five most-read posts of the past week. Apple ignores iTunes Radio; SoundCloud raises cash and competes with YouTube; guest columns by Kurt Hanson and Patrick Reynolds; Continue Reading
Time is running out for webcasters, large and small, to file for participation in the royalty-setting process of the Copyright Royalty Board. The outcome will determine the cost of recorded music to webcasters for 2015-2020. Continue Reading
Pandora bulls are stampeding. Goldman Sachs issued an investor report which projected a potential doubling of stock value. P stock vaulted well into uncharted territory, and into a new valuation realm with a $7-billion market capitalization. Continue Reading
At the top of the new year we reported that Gracenote was moving into a new dimension of music intelligence with a new project called Gracenote Rhythm. Today Gracenote announced a partnership with Next Big Sound, which measures music consumption trends. Continue Reading
Expanding a deal struck earlier this month, Rdio and Shazam now announce that their collaboration is extended to 29 non-U.S. countries. The still-new feature lets Rdio subscribers create an auto-playlist that holds all of their Shazam-ID’d music. Continue Reading
The ultimate in music discovery? Forgotify is based on a startling Spotify factoid that was revealed in the service’s fifth birthday anniversary last year: 20 percent of its vast music catalog goes unheard — not even a single play. Continue Reading
BlackBerry, the once-dominant, now-beleaguered phone maker, has updated its BB10 unit (that’s the phone with a physical keyboard) with an activated FM chip. That’s nice for BlackBerry’s small audience, and is the latest indicator of a gradual trend. Continue Reading
Kurt Hanson looks at a recent survey, and analyzes why music download sales lost ground in 2013, especially in the fourth quarter. A bit of arithmetic connects the trend to music subscription growth. Art Linkletter is unexpectedly involved. Continue Reading
A study authored by Sam Milkman of Music Forecasting seeks to understand why iTunes Radio does not drive iTunes music purchases in greater volume. The important part of the survey is what Milkman learned about usage habits and attitudes. Continue Reading
With the arrival of Beats Music on the scene last week, it’s getting pretty crowded in the category of subscription-based, on-demand music services — a field that also includes Spotify, Rhapsody, and Rdio, all of which are trying to convert… Continue Reading