Wearables have been the big buzz of the tech world recently, and where the tech game goes, the app developers will follow. Rich Riley, CEO of Shazam, spoke with Gizmodo at MWC 2015 and said that the company is looking to push into the world of smaller screens and wrist access. “I think you’lll see us move into wearables in 2015,” he said. “You’ll see us do something there for sure.” Continue Reading
Later this month, creatives, thought leaders, pundits, and music fans alike will converge on Austin for SXSW. Pandora will be hosting a concert series at the event. In its blog post announcing the lineup, Pandora said that it would provide live broadcasts of all the performances. It already has the dedicated SXSW station up and running. Continue Reading
This week SoundCloud marked a milestone in its relatively new advertising program with an announcement that it has paid out $1-million in ad revenues since the program launched in August. It’s a good moment to take a look at one launch advertiser, Jaguar, in the service. Continue Reading
Lots of leaders and startups in the music industry have been exploring options for improving sound quality in online listening. We’ve seen lots of new platforms touting their hi-fi, lossless sound, but one of the top criticisms of those services is that people listen to them with mediocre headphones. A new Kickstarter project aims to literally amp up the sound quality for people even without top-shelf headphones. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Beats vs. Spotify; proposed new streaming model Continue Reading
ASCAP posted revenue of more than $1 billion last year, the first performance rights collector to do so. The company distributed more than $883 million in royalties to songwriters, composers, and publishers. ASCAP also said that it doubled the number of performances that it has processed for payment, paying out royalties for 500 billion musical moments. Continue Reading
A new Ipsos In-Car Audio Study, sponsored by iHeartMedia, reveals that most repondents listen to AM/FM radio in the car, and overwhelmingly like push-button radios in the dashboard. This column notes that the average American car is 11.4 years old, and that technology change is always resisted by a preference for the familiar. Continue Reading
Talk to app developers, psychologists, or productivity experts, and you’ll likely hear about the concept of gamification. The goal is to offer perks for completing tasks, turning an activity that could be a chore into a fun system with rules and rewards. It’s been used for educational purposes, for changing habits, and now some enterprising folks have turned gamification theory onto music discovery. Continue Reading
SoundCloud shared some insights about its program to help creators monetize their tracks. The On SoundCloud campaign has more than 100 people signed up as Premier Partners. Since the program launched in August, it has paid out more than $1 million in ad revenue to labels, audio partners, and artists. Continue Reading
It’s too much to say that the RAIN News editorial office is obsessed with Star Trek, but everyone here is a fan. As with many other people around the world, the momentous death of Leonard Nimoy affected us strongly. To find a streaming audio tribute, we turned to a source that is obsessed with Star Trek: Kurt Hanson’s AccuRadio. We weren’t disappointed. Continue Reading
Triton Digital is announcing today that it will launch audience measurement for podcasts, in partnership with Edison Research. The new product, called Webcast Metrics On Demand (WCMOD), is slated to be released later this year. Continue Reading
Edison Research announced a consumer survey milestone: Over half (53%) of U.S. adults (12+) listened to online radio in the past month. Sources include terrestrial station webcasts, online radio like Pandora, and other services like Spotify. The percentage translates to an estimated 143-million people. Continue Reading