The five most-read articles last week in RAIN. Thanks for reading!

Pandora is now over 50% of SoundExchange’s royalty collections

Jason Calacanis “State of Media” impresses at RAIN Summit West

Nielsen Audio announces how it will measure radio streaming

Pandora is a to-5 smartphone app

Nielsen: Album sales deteriorate in Q1; streaming grows

1. In a guest column, Angus MacDonald examined the numbers and determined that Pandora is contributing at least 50% of SoundExchange’s royalty collections — across all mediums. This startling conclusion leads MacDonald to assert that the recording industry needs a healthy Pandora, as much as Pandora needs fair royalty rates.
2. Jason Calacanis delivered a smashing keynote address at RAIN Summit West, and our review of it was the week’s second most-reat article.
3. Nielsen Audio made news at The NAB Show when an exec announced how the firm intended to measure online radio — at least, in broad strokes. Radio stations will need to implement software code in their online players and apps. No word on whether tradiional broadcast rating metrics (Cume and AQH) will exist in the streaming measurements.
4. Back to Pandora — comScore revealed that it is a top-5 mobile app, up there with Facebook and YouTube.
5. And back to Nielsen — a Q1 report showed that download sales spiked downward, reminiscent of how CD sales crashed starting in 2007. Streaming was up in Q1.