The Sydney Morning Herald interviewed Pandora Australia CEO Jane Huxley for insight about the streaming environment down under. Pandora is reportedly adding between 20,000 and 30,000 users a week, and has already passed the 2 million members milestone. Even though additional services have entered the streaming space in Australia, Huxley told the Herald that those companies were creating additional interest in the music platforms. Continue Reading
BBC-backed listening platform Radioplayer announced a new initiative intended to bring streaming of online-only programming into the app experience for the first time. Radioplayer serves an audience of 6-million monthly listeners. Continue Reading
British comedian, actor, and activist Russell Brand is starting a twice-weekly comedy podcast exclusively on audioBoom. Ad-rep firm Adlarge, which already exclusively represents audioBoom’s U.S. audience, will develop custom U.S. advertising opportunities in the new show. Continue Reading
As a preview of the upcoming The Infinite Dial webinar, Edison Research has released a tantalizing data point about podcast consumption. In its most recent annual survey of 12+ Americans, 17 percent listen to podcasts monthly, the highest number in Infinite Dial history. Continue Reading
Radioline, a European radio aggregation platform, has launched a new mobile app (iOS and Android) for users in the U.K. and France. The key new feature exports favorite tracks from radio streams to Spotify or Deezer. Besides a definite coolness factor in this feature, it represents an advance of an existing usability trend. Continue Reading
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THIS WEEK: Apple raids radio; YouTube Radio; A study of streaming ad loads; WNYC podcast chief leaves for startup; Spotify licenses Sony music for Europe; Pandora launches Artist Messaging; Tumblr music takedowns. Continue Reading
Starbucks, long the purveyor of lattes and cappuccinos, announced that it will stop selling CDs at its registers at the end of March. “Music will remain a key component of our coffeehouse and retail experience, however we will continue to evolve the format of our music offerings to ensure we’re offering relevant options for our customers,” a Starbucks rep told Billboard about the decision. Continue Reading
Hifi streaming service Tidal announced a new partnership with by:Larm, which runs a music festival and conference on March 4-7 in Oslo. As a result of this deal, Tidal will present the international section of by:Larm’s artist program. Tidal and WiMP’s editor-in-chief Sveinung Rindal will also hold a session during the conference focused on how others can take most advantage of streaming services. Continue Reading
Bridge Ratings issued a correlation study that sought to understand the relationship between a song’s streaming success, and that song’s digital download sales. Bridge discovered that a correlation does exist, all the more for the biggest hits. Continue Reading
Guest columnist Chris Price of New Slang Media writes about renowned DJ Zane Lowe leaving the BBC for Apple. If that represents a convergence of broadcast radio and Internet radio, the author — a fan of streaming audio — recommends five other lessons that online radio could learn from broadcast. Continue Reading
Snapchat has been making big waves in the field of social media, most recently getting valued at a staggering $19 billion. Today, it introduced the ability to add music to your videos. The update lets people have music playing from iTunes, Spotify, and SoundCloud on their phones and then appear in their Snaps. Continue Reading
A new report from XAPPmedia looks at streaming ad loads during and after the 2014 holiday season. It measures ad load per hour, the percentage of 30-second spots, and number of advertisers encountered during the listening, in addition to other interesting results. Continue Reading