U.S. radio group Cumulus announced hiring Tommy Page as SVP of Brand Partnerships. Page comes from Pandora, where he held a similar role as VP of Artist and Brand Partnerships. Page’s career has wended through music, publishing, and online music service. Continue Reading
Cisneros Interactive, a digital advertising company addressing the U.S. Hispanic and Latin American audiences, has purchased a majority stake in Audio.Ad, a Latin American digital audio advertising network. Cisneros Interactive will exclusively market Audio.Ad digital inventory, through its RedMas subsidiary. Continue Reading
With podcasting top-of-mind in the online audio industry, a potential new player is Spotify, according to unnamed sources reported by Bloomberg Business. Competition with Apple? Catching up to Deezer? Continue Reading
Technology and strategy company Lochbridge surveyed nearly 1,500 consumers across age demographics to investigate demand for digital technology in the car — how much, what kind, and among whom. The demographic profile is clear-cut. Continue Reading
Listeners in the UK are getting a new set of DAB station options next year thanks to a new national digital radio multiplex getting assigned an operator. Sound Digital, which is a consortium of Arqiva, Bauer, and UTV Media GB, will run the set of 14 new stations. The consortium will be responsible for upgrading the equipment at these stations and reaching 75% of households with the set of stations. It will be required to begin broadcasting the new DAB stations by the middle of 2016. Continue Reading
James Cridland Weekly Links is a column by the U.K.’s radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: A new DAB radio multiplex in the U.K., and a boatload of hand-picked great reading about radio and digital radio. Continue Reading
Jay-Z’s efforts to purchase streaming services Tidal and WiMP from Aspiro generated a bit of drama, but the hi-res streaming service is relaunching today with even more celebrity backing. Performers including Madonna, Kanye West, Deadmau5, and Beyonce took to social media to tout the platform with the #TIDALforALL hashtag. While the star power can certainly help raise the profile for business (it currently has just 17,000 paid subscribers), it’s unclear whether the service will be getting any changes to its features or design under the new management. Continue Reading
Sony has launched its new music service for PlayStation video game consoles, completing a previously announced integration of Spotify into the gaming console. The so-called PlayStation Music platform is a close collaboration between Sony and Spotify. Continue Reading
We spoke to Steve Goldstein, founder of the newest podcast company, Amplifi Media. Goldstein executed a friendly exit from Saga Communications, where he was EVP and Group Program Director for nearly 30 years. Amplifi is founded on content development, and exploring white space in the burgeoning podcast category. Continue Reading
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THIS WEEK: Beats Music leaks; new startup merges listening and broadcasting; new podcast company Amplifi Media; Android Auto hits the road; new AMP bill benefits music producers. Continue Reading
Yesterday we looked at the growing number of companies catering to the business needs of independent musicians. Another one appeared on the horizon today. Loudr’s niche is obtaining mechanical licenses for artists and labels that want to monetize song covers through online services. Its new platform for this service is called Loudr Licensing, and it is one of the only options that’s available to any artist interested in getting a mechanical license. Continue Reading
Several publishers have been vocal about their interest in splitting from the performing rights organizations ASCAP and BMI. Their goal is to exert more control over digital rights management, pushing for increased royalty rates from online streaming services for their songwriters. However, a group of professional organizations and guilds centered on songwriting has released an open letter to publishers asking them to reconsider. Continue Reading