In an increasingly crowded field of general streaming platforms hosting immense catalogs of music to serve the long tail of listening demand, two trends are emerging. First, services whose relationship to their catalog artists is keyed to non-financial values. For… Continue Reading
Every few days rumors are published about the impending launch of Beats Music. We know it will be soon. We’ve heard that there will be a subscription component — possibly all-subscription, like Rhapsody and Google All Access. We don’t know… Continue Reading
The marketing is impressive, the collateral design is dazzling, and the product itself is … slightly baffling, at first. BBC Playlister is a new feature woven throughout the BBC online music experience. The top layer is a tagging function, whereby… Continue Reading
Pureplay of the day spotlights adventures in off-road listening. The population of Burma (officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar) is about 60-million — less than Pandora’s base of active listeners. Only one percent of Burma’s population has Internet… Continue Reading
Two days ago we noted that iTunes Radio would probably expand its (currently U.S.-only) listening service to Canada, based on a viral spotting of a job listing. Now, Bloomberg reports on discussions with unnamed sources which clarify Apple’s roadmap in… Continue Reading
Turntable.fm is an interactive music service, but could more aptly be described as a social network focused on music. Started in 2011, the site formerly allowed users to upload shareable music on the site. Using the DMCA as a licensing… Continue Reading
As noted in Audio4cast, Pandora landed in 8th place in comScore’s measurement of top smartphone app usage for August. This metrics category is different from smartphone audience via the phone’s browser. Some top-15 media properties (like Gmail) might have their… Continue Reading
Classical music listening online is an uneven experience, and now has a new champion in Deezer, the 2006-founded, French-based listening platform with 30-million users and 4-million subscribers. Deezer has launched an app in cooperation with major classical labels Deutsche Grammophon,… Continue Reading
Does Internet radio solve piracy? Let’s be clear about the question. By “Internet radio” we mean all forms of interactive listening that reflect the consumer trend to access as a new form of ownership. In other words, reaching for the… Continue Reading
Rhapsody, one of the oldest listening platforms, a subscription-only pureplay, and lately a beleaguered business wracked with internal changes, has brought new features to its Radio product. “Radio” in this context means playlists. Until now, Rhapsody has offered a suite… Continue Reading
Crossing ecosystem boundaries can be as difficult as traveling across national borders. Google Music (both the download store and the All Access streaming-music app) is soon venturing into hostile fanboy territory by distributing its service to Apple mobile users. Engadget… Continue Reading
Earbits, an indie-music Internet radio platform, has operated since late 2011 on the web and in Android mobile devices. Now it has launched its first Apple iOS app, refreshing interest in its unique artist-reward system. Promoting itself as “Independent radio… Continue Reading