At a recent neighborhood potluck someone asked me about my business. As usual, once I started talking about online audio, everyone at the table identified with Pandora. After a discussion of the types of stations they like to listen to on Pandora, one person mentioned the problem they’ve been having of hearing the same two ads over and over whenever they listen. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: In a recent news post, Spotify asked Jacob Jolij, a cognitive psychology and neuroscience professor at the University of Groningen, to explain how music triggers particular emotional responses in listeners. Continue Reading
Jazz lovers can be hardcore fans, with specialty interests in historical eras, legendary performers, and certain instruments. The genre lends itself to more specialized coverage than what is normally found in the universal music services. For the lean-back jazz aficionado, two services — JazzRadio and AccuJazz — provide seemingly endless great listening tailored to mood and sub-genre. Continue Reading
One of the hottest trends in the transportation field nowadays is that of “car sharing,” a/k/a short-term, neighborhood-distributed car rentals, a la Zipcar. In this narrative, which is both hilarious and horrendous, founding editor Kurt Hanson describes the stunning failed experience of trying a newly-developed car-sharing service offered by legacy car-rental company Hertz. Spinning off a new business line separate from a firm’s core competency isn’t as easy as it might seem — and Kurt Hanson extends that point to the Internet radio industry. Continue Reading
“Wireless carriers are dragging their feet and won’t activate the FM chips that are in every smartphone.” That’s the blunt message in a website campaign mounted by NPR, American Public Media (APM), Educational Media Foundation (EMF), the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), and, of course, NextRadio. The campaign hopes to stir activism. Continue Reading
In a move that’s been rumored for several weeks now, Google announced yesterday that they’re buying the personalizable multichannel webcaster Songza. The purchase seems like an odd one for Google, given its historical preference for algorithmically-created products. The problem, however, is that music is difficult to program on a purely algorithmic basis: An intense Seals & Crofts song, for example, may sound acoustically similar to a mellow Led Zeppelin song, but an experienced music programmer (i.e., a human being) would be able to discern that they’re culturally very dissimilar.
RAIN founding editor Kurt Hanson explores why the Songza acquisition might be a smart investment for Google. Continue Reading
According to a Zipcar study released earlier this year, Millennials — that generational segment born after 1980 or so who are adults now — think that having a smartphone is a lot more important than having a car. Meanwhile, only 16% of persons over 35 would rather do without their phone than their car, and 40% of that age group put the car at the top of things they would not want to do without.
This wide discrepancy in the need to own a car has the auto industry back on its heels. It’s a sea change that has implications for all kinds of other business segments as well – including radio. Guest columnist Jennifer Lane proposes an opportunity for radio to engage with Millennials. Continue Reading
Audi, which recently replaced BMW as the top-selling premium car company, has included HD Radio as standard equipment in the 2015 Audio A3, which is appearing in dealer lots now. At the same time, an announcement comes from Audi that it is adopting CarPlay, Apple’s digital-dashboard operating system. Specific car models are not identified, but at least some 2015 models will have CarPlay. Continue Reading
Mark Mulligan is co-founder of MIDiA Consulting, and has been a digital music analyst for over a decade. In this guest column, he observes how a “new generation of retailer behemoths carves out new territory.” Noting that media companies risk becoming collateral damage in this trend, Mulligan lays some responsibility on record labels, both majors and indies. Original research from MIDiA Consulting offers an indicator of YouTube’s streaming impact. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthwhile reads from around the web. Spotify reportedly preps for IPO; House hearing on music copyrights tomorrow; Pandora grabs revenue executive from Yahoo. Continue Reading
adStream is a journal of ad-spottings in online music services that highlight how commercials (audio and visual) can be an integrated part of the online listening experience.
We noted that the McDonalds “Think With Your Mouth” campaign for Big Mac sandwiches won an award at Cannes Lions this year, and we have been spotting the digital placements in streaming music services, including iHeartRadio. Continue Reading
Amazon said Happy Monday to the world this morning with a press release that cheered a successful first week for Prime Music. Particulars were in short supply, but Amazon says that uptake of the new streaming music service exceeded expectations, with users accessing tens of millions of songs. Continue Reading