Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web:
Finding radio and audio in fall previews: Johanna Zorn, executive director of Third Coast International Audio Festival, penned a blog post questioning why audio and radio are so often missing from the media’s cultural fall previews. While most newspapers and magazines will cover movies, theater, music, and art in their fall previews, Zorn noted that audio events and show debuts are usually absent from those discussions. “Press must move beyond listicles ad infinitum citing the top 10, 20 or 50 podcasts of the week, month, or year,” she said. “That approach was okay a few years ago — when podcasts were a bit of a mystery — but now it’s time to actually consider the impact of audio storytelling.”
Consumer Data in the Music Industry: It’s a new paradigm, according to a cleverly written article (or dissertation) by Kristin Westcott Grant, an entertainment analyst and founder of Westcott Media. Using a fairy tale metaphor in which segments of the music ecosystem compete for control of data and the gold it represents, Grant has composed an illustrated description of how power is divided in music. Along the way, playlists are compared to radio, but with much more listener data coming out of them. “Now that music is streamed online, it is possible to get to know a fan like never before.” One upshot is that independent labels “have got the short end of the stick.
Finding potential breakouts in Pandora data: The Pandora Predictions Chart can be a fascinating glimpse into up-and-coming musicians. Emily Blake of Next Big Sound shared a look at the latest chart, pondering whether Forever In Your Mind has the potential to become the next boy band sensation.