Spotify announced a new programming tactic it calls a “radio show,” starring singer/songwriter Billy Bragg. A monthly production, the first episode will appear tomorrow, February 11. The program’s hook is a “talking playlist.” Continue Reading
IAB held its Digital Audio Agency Day on Wednesday morning, preceding RAIN Summit NYC. Attendees filled The Greene Center in downtown Manhattan to hear research, panel sessions, and a keynote from RAIN’s Kurt Hanson. Continue Reading
Pandora announced a new open submission process for independent artists and small labels who wish to place music in Pandora’s streams. The breakthrough aspect for independent musicians is ease of submission. Continue Reading
The first edition Nielsen’s quarterly State of the Media: Audio Today 2014 report is out. Although the report’s title uses the general term “audio,” the study is only about radio’s reach and radio’s listener behavior. As such, it provides an uplift for the radio industry. Continue Reading
Streaming music to one’s TV might not be the most intuitive use-case scenario, but it’s getting more popular. One reason is that the television sometimes is attached to the home’s best sound system. Beats Music and Rdio have integrated with Chromecast to enable that. Continue Reading
RAIN Summit NYC, “Pureplays and Podcasts Day,” occurred yesterday at The Greene Center. The event was sold out weeks in advance, and atrocious weather didn’t stop most attendees or dampen enthusiasm in the room. Here, a wrap-up of the first two panels. Continue Reading
Market-leading Internet radio service Pandora released its monthly audience metrics for January today, showing year-over-year growth in its key metrics. The month-over-month movement was flat or downward, after a sharp upward spike in the December report. Continue Reading
RAIN Summit NYC, Pureplays and Podcasts, is today. The conference is being held in The Greene Space in Manhattan, home to New York Public Radio and WNYC. The event has been sold to capacity for weeks, and WNYC is live-streaming from start to finish. Click through for the link. Continue Reading
As part of its monthly Top 20 Ranker of streaming listenership, Triton Digital’s December report, released on Tuesday, included a 2013 summary. Stream listening reached all-time highs in 2013, fueled by a rampaging increase in mobile listening. Continue Reading
This week commemorates the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. But for a kid in those years, radio was more influential than the TV. RAIN editor Brad Hill reminisces, with audio examples of two legendary DJs. Continue Reading
David Porter founded 8tracks in 2007 and launched it the next year (on 8/8/08) with a loan against his 401k. The business took its first institutional funding round in October, 2011. We talked to him about mood-activity music discovery, which his service originated. Continue Reading
Last year SoundExchange paid out $590-million to labels and performers, an all-time high. Over 10 years, it has distributed about $2-billion. 2013 was SoundExchange’s 10-year anniversary. SoundExchange collects royalties from Internet, satellite, and cable radio. Continue Reading