Kurt Hanson compares the Uber car pickup service to Internet and satellite radio — insofar as they improve traditional feature sets and evolve expectations of quality. Then comes the challenge to radio station owners. Continue Reading
“Let’s get to today’s announcements,” said founder Daniel Ek after a quick intro at the Spotify Event in New York today. There were three main headlines, each one certain to make some people happy. It’s about mobile, international, and getting the Led out. Continue Reading
Podcast app Stitcher has opened up public nominations for The 2013 Stitcher Awards. You can enter favorites across 19 categories such as Best Investigative Reporting and Best Storytelling. After this round, visitors vote for winners. Continue Reading
Is HD Radio evolutionary, revolutionary, or neither? That depends on who you ask. The digital transmission technology is expanding its footprint — again, either slowly or quickly depending on who you’re talking to. We spoke to Bob Struble, President and CEO of iBiquity, the developer and owner of HD Radio technology. Continue Reading
There’s buzz and activity around podcasting these days. Podcasting isn’t new, but I think it’s become reinvigorated of late with a few players moving things forward. Continue Reading
Songza updated its iOS and Android apps today, adding Chromecast capability. Google Chromecast is a thumb-sized WiFi device that plugs into a digital television’s HDMI port. when activated, Chromecast streams content from partner providers, or from anything playing on Google’s chrome browser. Continue Reading
If the holiday rush is starting to jangle your nerves, turn on Calm Stream, a Russian downtempo electronica station. Even the site is soothing, with its snow-white background and minimal, no-hassle, in-line music player. Continue Reading
Music service Rhapsody upgraded its Android app with something called Track Match, to solve the music-recognition need within its full-featured subscription platform. It’s a good idea — you hear something, tell Rhapsody to identify it, save it in your library. How well does it work? Continue Reading
Pandora updated its iOS app for Apple devices, adding a wake-up alarm. The app already had a timer feature that encouraged falling asleep to Pandora radio with a timed shut-off. Now users can fall asleep to Pandora, wake up to Pandora, and fortify the “hours listening” metrics Pandora publishes every month. We review the new feature. Continue Reading
SUBSCRIBE NOW: It’s free! Things change quickly in podcasting, streaming music, internet radio and every aspect of online audio. Stay up to speed with the RAIN Daily Digest — the everyday heartbeat of Internet radio. We’ll send you a… Continue Reading
Spotify will announce free mobile access to its listening platform, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources. If true (we think it is), the announcement will probably be part of a Spotify media event in New York on Wednesday of next week. Continue Reading
Streaming music is gaining popularity fast, but lags behind the web in understanding its users.
Internet content sites can tag, track, and categorize people as they move about the web, creating deep and accurate user profiles that follow most of us as we move among digital properties. Combined with programmatic ad buying, it means that when a user visits a certain website for the first time, that site can display an ad that is more-or-less precisely relevant to that user. Advertisers pay more for effective targeting. Continue Reading