Pandora is scrutinized for its usage metrics — active listeners, listening hours, and share of market. Behind all that is the sales effort which funds the enterprise. 2013 has been a pivotal year in which Pandora built out a local sales network that resembles the revenue support systems of large media companies. Continue Reading
Songza updated its iOS and Android apps today, adding Chromecast capability. Google Chromecast is a thumb-sized WiFi device that plugs into a digital television’s HDMI port. when activated, Chromecast streams content from partner providers, or from anything playing on Google’s chrome browser. Continue Reading
If the holiday rush is starting to jangle your nerves, turn on Calm Stream, a Russian downtempo electronica station. Even the site is soothing, with its snow-white background and minimal, no-hassle, in-line music player. Continue Reading
Music service Rhapsody upgraded its Android app with something called Track Match, to solve the music-recognition need within its full-featured subscription platform. It’s a good idea — you hear something, tell Rhapsody to identify it, save it in your library. How well does it work? Continue Reading
Pandora updated its iOS app for Apple devices, adding a wake-up alarm. The app already had a timer feature that encouraged falling asleep to Pandora radio with a timed shut-off. Now users can fall asleep to Pandora, wake up to Pandora, and fortify the “hours listening” metrics Pandora publishes every month. We review the new feature. Continue Reading
Yahoo acquired concert-streaming platform Evntlive, which immediately shut down its ongoing operation. The Evntlive site carries an announcement of the takeover. No world on how much Yahoo spent. Evntlive was seed-funded at $2.3-million. In a takeover/shutdown of this sort, it… Continue Reading
How does alternative music become classic? Maybe Flashback Alternatives (www.flashbackalternatives.com) can help us puzzle it out. “The Past, Present, and Future of Classic Alternative Music” might be a head-scratching conundrum, but the music is good. We’ve been energized for Monday… Continue Reading
Spotify will announce free mobile access to its listening platform, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources. If true (we think it is), the announcement will probably be part of a Spotify media event in New York on Wednesday of next week. Continue Reading
Streaming music is gaining popularity fast, but lags behind the web in understanding its users.
Internet content sites can tag, track, and categorize people as they move about the web, creating deep and accurate user profiles that follow most of us as we move among digital properties. Combined with programmatic ad buying, it means that when a user visits a certain website for the first time, that site can display an ad that is more-or-less precisely relevant to that user. Advertisers pay more for effective targeting. Continue Reading
One reason that listening hours per week per capita to Internet radio are increasing (according to both the annual Arbitron-Edison “Infinite Dial” study and easy math you can do with monthly Triton Digital press releases) and listening hours per week… Continue Reading
The “Spotify Debate” has been raised to a new level. It features the same debate points, but now presented as dueling websites. Until now, the war of words and philosophies was waged in sniping blog posts and interview quotes among… Continue Reading
Pandora CFO Mike Herring addressed the Credit Suisse 2013 Technology Conference this week. The format was a moderated Q&A session. We pulled out three subjects within which Herring’s responses were of particular interest: ratings measurement, how Pandora sells ads, and… Continue Reading