This week’s most-read articles! An odd reader survey, Kurt Hanson’s latest blog post, Spotify goes free in a new way, preview of Beats Music, Shazam and SoundHound take from radio and give to streaming, and the Net Neutrality law goes down. Continue Reading
Radio plays a strategic advantage over digital: non-variety. An interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal emphasizes the divide between the music-discovery advantage of music services compared to radio, but also spotlights what might be an odd competitive advantage of radio’s increasingly narrow playlists. Continue Reading
AYTM Market Research released a survey of mobile music consumers, which quantifies the devices they use, their listening sources, and whether they pay. Most of the survey’s results are unsurprising, but a startling number of respondents pay for multiple subscription services. Continue Reading
It’s as if Beats Music were a meteor headed for earth, and inhabitants on the ground were feeling the heat of its approach. Rdio has followed Spotify, making its web listening free and unlimited. Even Pandora has added a feature to counter Beats Music’s emphasis on curated listening. Continue Reading
Beats Music is launching next Tuesday, aiming squarely at Spotify’s subscription business. Spotify set the stage in December by freeing previous listening restrictions that applied to non-paying users. (That side of the business is ad-supported.) Today, Spotify makes more news by revealing a restriction most people didn’t know about, then lifting it. Continue Reading
BIA/Kelsey has published a study of mobile advertising growth, sponsored by mobile ad network Verve Mobile. While serving as promotion for Verve, the report also identifies data points and defines new advertising technologies. The key technology focus of this report is “Attribution,” which purports to quantify the effectiveness of mobile ads, post-impression. Continue Reading
Pandora announced its inclusion in the newly-introduced 2015 Chrysler 200. It is the first Chrysler to feature built-in Pandora access in the dash. Chrysler is the 25th major car company to partner with Pandora for in-car Internet radio listening. The 200 model made a splash at this week’s Detroit Auto Show. Continue Reading
For the second consecutive month Internet listening reached an all-time high in November, according to data released by Triton Digital in its Webcast Metrics Top 20 Ranker. Click through to see the high points plus long-term historical analysis. New this month: a cohort of three publishers with startling three-month listening growth. Continue Reading
Today Pandora announced the addition of personalized recommendations in its iOS and Android mobile apps. The new feature is most useful in accounts seeded with song stations, not artist stations. The update brings new choices to the app, gets listening started faster, and is clearly an activity and user-retainment tactic. Continue Reading
The deal is reportedly worth high single-digit millions to AOL, which will plow some of that cash back to Radionomy as a 12% investment stake. Mergers and acquisitions are always defined by their “synergy,” but sometimes the chemistry can be hard to discern. This one is awash with synergy. Continue Reading
Net neutrality advocates were bitterly disappointed, if not totally surprised, by today’s ruling against the Federal Communications Commission by a Washington D.C. appeals court. The court’s decision might be paraphrased like this: “You classified the Internet wrong. What are you going to do now?” We’re wondering the same thing. Continue Reading
Korean tech giant Samsung is talking to Paris-based music service Deezer about a partnership or investment stake. Samsung is best known to U.S. consumers as a device maker (smartphones, TVS), but is also a network LTE provider and infrastructure partner to phone companies. Continue Reading