Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web. today, two examples of radio put to innovative use. In one, families send audio postcards to relatives in prison, as a follow-up to a call-in radio show. In another, an international magazine gains new readers through an investment in streaming and podcasting. Continue Reading
James Cridland’s Future of Radio is a column by the Australia-based radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: Much ado about podcasting; BBC attacked right and left; how US and Canadian radio differ. Continue Reading
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which advocates for digital radio transmission and tracks its progress, has released Market Insights: Digital Radio 2016. The report summarizes policy, technology, highlight content offerings, and the roll-out progress across 21 regions. Continue Reading
Sponsored column
This guest column by Gonzalo Alonso, Managing Director of advertising solutions company Audio.Ad, shines light on recently completed research into how and when U.S. Hispanic consumers listen to digital audio. Continue Reading
Facebook is not a very musical service, and has never seemed to care about audio content. Now, though, a report emerges that the 1.5-billion-user social platform is working with Warner Music to test a new product called Slideshow. Continue Reading
Increasingly vocal critics of YouTube have a heroic new champion, not new to the cause, but willing to dramatically escalate its rhetoric. Five-time Grammy-winner Maria Schneider, who has testified before Congress on “safe harbor” issues that affect musicians, released two blazingly critical documents. Together they comprise the harshest and most articulate indictment of an anti-YouTube stance taken by an increasing number of music rights-holders. Continue Reading
VuHaus, the public radio music video destination (profiled by RAIN News in January) is nearing its one-year anniversary. To celebrate, it plans to live-stream part of the NON-COMM Convention in Philadelphia on May 19. In January VuHaus obtained a renewal of its operating grant from CPB (Corporation for Public Broadcasting). Continue Reading
sponsored by PodcastOne
Audience measurement in podcasting is the most notorious issue that producers and network distributors face. But, infamous though podcast analytics are, not everybody is unhappy. One thing for sure though: Data drives digital audio forward. Continue Reading
SoundCloud Go received a French rollout this week, bringing the subscription tier to a new European market. The debut also brings ad-supported listening to that nation. SoundCloud’s advertising monetization is being exclusively managed by AdsWizz. Continue Reading
U.K. Culture Secretary John Whittingdale addressed the British House of Commons today, and released a whitepaper, laying out operational and programming principles that will formulate the next BBC Royal Charter — that is, in Whittingdale’s words, the constitutional basis for the BBC. The next 11-year term of the charter begins in 2017. Continue Reading
A coalition of performers staged an event dubbed Fair Play Fair Pay Day, gathering at Capitol Hill in support of proposed legislation that would charge royalty fees for sound recordings played on terrestrial radio. T-Bone Burnett, Rosanne Cash, and more than 40 other artists participated in the press conference. Speakers addressed both the topic of payment for radio airplay and safe harbors in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. Continue Reading
Universal Music Group posted its Q1 financials, which carried on the strong performance by streaming from its full-year 2015 report. Total revenue for the recorded music business edged up a fraction of a percent to €1.119 billion. Continue Reading