The latest music/telecom partnership is on the way, as Spotify and Sprint reportedly work on a bundling deal to be announced later this month, perhaps modeled on the tie-up of Beats Music with AT&T, which offers discounted music subscription to families using the cell-phone service. Continue Reading
Deezer and Samsung announced a partnership that would give buyers of Samsung’s Galaxy S5 phone a free six-month trial of Deezer’s subscription music service. The plan would work in selected countries only, where Paris-based Deezer operates the service. The Samsung deal takes a page from SiriusXM’s distribution strategy in cars. Continue Reading
RAIN Hotspots — the five most-read articles of the week. Pandora and Nielsen Audio dominated the week, with some Jason Calacanis thrown in. Our report of Calacanis’ keynote address at RAIN Summit West was the second-most read post. Continue Reading
Bloom.FM, an on-demand music app, report-tweeted it has been knocked out of the iTunes Radio ad rotation after spending 2,000 British pounds a month on commercials for its service. Bloom.FM spokespeople are enjoying their new image as a prospective iTunes Radio killer. Continue Reading
RAIN Summit West, the premiere educational and networking conference for the online audio industry, occurred on April 6 in Las Vegas. A powerful agenda included an all-star lineup of executives and celebrated thought leaders participating in 14 onstage events. Click for the full audio of the all-day event, organized as a playlist. Stream in full, or pick single session. Continue Reading
If integrated broadcast and webcast ratings is the holy grail of radio audience measurement, Nielsen Audio took a new step toward holistic metrics this week when SVP Farshad Family broadly described how it intends to track online radio streams. A three-pronged approach would deliver listening data. Continue Reading
Digital measurement firm comScore released new data on mobile and smartphone usage last week. Two streaming apps, YouTube and Pandora, are in the top five. Pandora’s mobile strategy is the key to the streaming platform’s amazing success. With more than 70% of their listeners on mobile, Pandora understood that concept early and capitalized on it. Continue Reading
Spotify is making a splash as it enters Asian countries with lower prices for its premium subscription service. Spotify has entered its 56th country, entering the Philippines with a $3 price (converted to U.S. dollars) for subscription. If that seems cheap, consider contrasting GDPs. Continue Reading
A recent Media Technology Monitor study indicates strong year-over-year growth in consumption of streaming music among Canadian listeners, as reported by eMarketer. Survey data collected last fall shows a doubling of stream listening from the previous year, from 11% of the survey population to 22%. the sample contained English-speaking Canadian adults. Continue Reading
Veteran digital-music executive Ted Cohen moderated the “Listener’s Choice” panel at RAIN Summit West on Sunday in Las Vegas. His mission was to tease insights from music-service executives about how they differentiate, attract listeners, and navigate business realities of a crowded market. (AUDIO) Continue Reading
In this guest article, IP attorney Angus MacDonald of the University of California analyzes the recently-released 2013 annual report from SoundExchange, and Pandora’s financial statements, to conclude that Pandora pays over 50% of SoundExchange collections to labels. What does this mean for U.S. regulations in the next royalty period? Continue Reading
This morning Billboard reported Nielsen SoundScan’s sales and streaming numbers for the first quarter. Track and album sales are down, at an accelerating pace. Meanwhile, streaming is up, and an interesting revenue calculation indicates that streaming growth outpaces the decrease in downloads. Continue Reading