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
A just-released report claims that iTunes Radio does not have much power to drive music download sales in iTunes. Music-recognition app Shazam might have an answer to that. Over five percent of Shazam users clicked “Buy” on Grammy night. Continue Reading
There’s a lot going on with streaming audio talk platforms that’s intriguing. Jennifer Lane listens to spoken audio in her car, and in a quest to find good sources she looks at Swell, Stitcher, and Spoken Layer. Also: A glance at the new Inside.com. Continue Reading
Yesterday we wondered whether SoundCloud could live up to its investors’ aspiration to be the “YouTube of Audio.” The new visual player is an excellent first step in that direction. Click through to see it in action. Continue Reading
Sweden released industry metrics for 2013, showing deepening loss of CD and download sales, countered by a large year-over-year gain in streaming revenue. How should American musicians prepare for a similar transition from sales to streams? Continue Reading
Pandora announced the latest in its Pandora Presents series — Imagine Dragons will headline a show on the Friday of Super Bowl weekend. Does Pandora’s claim to match headlining bands to the city’s listening preferences apply? Maybe to the opening acts. Continue Reading
Dear Songza: Idea, great. Execution, not so much. An email promotion of Songza’s “brand new music” playlists introduces a terrific idea — new releases in 59 categories. We found 18 of them. Hope turned to sorrow. Continue Reading
For those focused on music and online audio, it’s easy to forget that Apple is not a music company, but a hardware vendor. iTunes Radio is just a feature in a network ecosystem of products and services. And…not mentioned in yesterday’s earnings call. Continue Reading
A social manager gone rogue? Drunk tweeting? We don’t know, but Mashable was keeping a sharp eye on Spotify’s Twitter feed during the couple of days last week when Beats Music was down and out with connection problems. Continue Reading