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The announcement from Google that it would add podcasts to its Play Music interactive music service shines a light into the gloomy and under-competitive realm of podcast discovery in Android devices. But it’s a relatively dim ray of light compared to the bold discovery paths that Apple provides to its audio users. Continue Reading
After announcing plans for an initial public offering, French streaming platform Deezer has postponed the event. Deezer officially said that less-ideal market conditions were the cause of the delay. Did Pandora’s rough ride on Wall Street this week contribute to the decision? Continue Reading
Google Play Music is adding support for podcasts, but only on Android devices. Podcasts will be subject to the same level of technical algorithm and human curation as music is on this platform, meaning listeners can take a lean-back approach and hear programming based on their mood or interests. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Behind the scenes with Amazon’s digital music exec; Bandcamp CEO talks new payment policy; Internet radio copyright explainer. Continue Reading
YouTube has entered an international deal with AMRA, the U.S.-based collecting society, to collect music royalties in more than 100 markets. The deal could streamline the process of collecting royalties for writers represented by AMRA and its parent company, Kobalt. Continue Reading
Omnifone has entered into a partnership with Japan’s Line Music. This deal will allow Line to access Omnifone’s global music licensing expertise and content services. The alliance will see Omnifone supporting the expansion of Line’s catalog by millions of tracks. Continue Reading
Sirius XM has released its third-quarter financial and audience data. The satellite radio company posted increases in quarterly earnings, revenue and subscriber numbers over the same period last year. Investor Q&A focused on streaming competition. Continue Reading
It’s a double dose of updates from Spotify today. First, the streaming platform introduced a feature dubbed Spotify In Residence. With these profiles, Spotify lets different artists take a spin at curating a special playlist in the style of a radio show. The second Spotify news comes from France, with reports that Spotify now has about 650,000 paying subscribers in that nation. Continue Reading
CISAC has released data about the global licensing figures it has received through collective licensing in 2014. The group represents creative rights across multiple disciplines including music. Its membership includes performing rights organizations such as ASCAP and BMI. Continue Reading
iHeartMedia has announced the first output from SoundBoard, an in-house creative agency for premium marketing integrations. The sponsor is Coca-Cola, in a new podcast called First Taste Fridays. The native ad staging is deep. Click to listen. Continue Reading
James Cridland Weekly Links is a column by the U.K.’s radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: A lonely man received a radio invitation; podcast apps should sense the acoustic environment; the world’s largest natural sound archive; much more. Continue Reading
Webcast listening in August moved up slightly from July’s numbers, according to Triton Digital’s Webcast Metrics Top 20 Ranker, released today. The aggregate of Triton’s top 20 measured clients moved one percentage point upward month-over-month. Year-over-year gains were powered by Pandora and iHeartMedia. Continue Reading