Viral Audio
Why is audio less viral than video? Audio has to work harder to be good. But when it is, it’s almost better. What are the elements that make great audio that people will want to share online? Continue Reading
Spotify announces merchandise sales for bands
When Spotify and Topspin announced today that bands would be able to sell t-shirts and other branded merchandise through the music service, it hit four birds with one stone. Continue Reading
Baboom music services launches a preview
Stealing Beats thunder? Not really. Kim Dotcom, founder of the explosively named Baboom music service, which semi-announced its existence in November, is taking advantage of the U.S. holiday to get a jump on the much-publicized Beats Music debut tomorrow. But Baboom is a blip beside Beats. Continue Reading
More on Radionomy’s acquisition of ShoutCast and Winamp
Synergy and enhancement — those are the touchstones of Radionomy’s acquisition of ShoutCast and Winamp from AOL, which closed last week. We spoke with Thierry Ascarez, VP of Business Development for Radionomy, about how he views the integration of two iconic brands into Radionomy’s Internet radio platform. Continue Reading
New government budget continues public radio funding
As hordes of Americans spend their Sunday evenings with Downton Abbey and Sherlock, it’s worth noting that the Senate’s new spending budget, passed last week, includes continued funding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). That money goes to public radio and TV. Continue Reading
Google Music Timeline — maximize your browser window!
Google takes “infographic” to the next level with a flowing interactive timeline of music genre popularity from 1950 to the present. You can see at a glance, as if from a cross-section of musical strata, how pop and rock displaced jazz in the 1960s, and how indie and hip-hop ate into those categories starting in the 1980s. Continue Reading
Weekend Perspective: Jan. 13 – 17
The quick and concise summary of the past week. Refresh your neurons, and prepare for the coming week. It’s going to be an eventful one! Continue Reading
Bill O’Reilly recommends Pandora
When an old-media celebrity makes a “Gee Whiz!” recommendation of an online service that’s been around for nearly six years, you know that the service is inching into the mainstream. That’s what makes Bill O’Reilly’s video endorsement of Pandora more than just amusing, but also significant. Continue Reading
RAIN Hotspots: Dec. 13 – 17
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 doubles down on non-discovery
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
New study measures mobile music listening; it’s mostly free, but with a surprise
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
As Beats Music looms, free music services circle the wagons
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