Yesterday we wondered whether SoundCloud could live up to its investors’ aspiration to be the “YouTube of Audio.” The new visual player is an excellent first step in that direction. Click through to see it in action. Continue Reading
Sweden released industry metrics for 2013, showing deepening loss of CD and download sales, countered by a large year-over-year gain in streaming revenue. How should American musicians prepare for a similar transition from sales to streams? Continue Reading
Pandora announced the latest in its Pandora Presents series — Imagine Dragons will headline a show on the Friday of Super Bowl weekend. Does Pandora’s claim to match headlining bands to the city’s listening preferences apply? Maybe to the opening acts. Continue Reading
Dear Songza: Idea, great. Execution, not so much. An email promotion of Songza’s “brand new music” playlists introduces a terrific idea — new releases in 59 categories. We found 18 of them. Hope turned to sorrow. Continue Reading
For those focused on music and online audio, it’s easy to forget that Apple is not a music company, but a hardware vendor. iTunes Radio is just a feature in a network ecosystem of products and services. And…not mentioned in yesterday’s earnings call. Continue Reading
A social manager gone rogue? Drunk tweeting? We don’t know, but Mashable was keeping a sharp eye on Spotify’s Twitter feed during the couple of days last week when Beats Music was down and out with connection problems. Continue Reading
Patrick Reynolds is Chief Strategy Officer of Triton Digital. A forward-looking strategist, he has written articles for Forbes, TechCrunch, and Technorati, and has spoken at SXSW and NAB. We welcome Patrick to RAIN News as a regular guest contributor. Continue Reading
In December we reported revenue declines for CBS-owned Last.FM. Now the company has cut costs with a new video-music player powered by YouTube. The Scrobbler function, which has been Last.FM’s distinguishing feature, connects to the new player. Continue Reading
As the Copyright Review Board gears up for the two-year royalty rate-setting process, we spoke with attorney David Oxenford, about what was special about this royalty cycle, and whether the seven-year process can keep pace with a fast-changing streaming market. Continue Reading
It seems like a done deal, as Nielsen quickly started integrating Arbitron into its operations after a September acquisition, setting up the Nielsen Audio division and making small changes to ratings measurements. But a second part of the deal starts now. Continue Reading
John Popper, best known as the front man of Blues Traveler, clearly did his homework to prepare for questions about Pandora and streaming music. In a video interview on CNBC, when asked about songwriter royalties, Popper delivered a history lesson. Continue Reading
Although the deal closed last year, the news is breaking only now: SoundCloud scored $60M of new funding from Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) and the Chernin Group. Investors call SoundCloud the YouTube of audio. Isn’t YouTube already that? Continue Reading