The quest for great blues finds another watering hole in Aardvark Blues. This Internet-only station had us at Ana Popovic, the Serbian blues-rocker. If you tire of the blues, the same no-nonsense programming is available from the same Aardvark outfit on the rock side, at Aardvark Rock. Continue Reading
Listening to music and acquiring music are entwined. In 2014, collecting music has a new meaning, and increasingly occurs without the need of a traditional music product — physical or virtual. What collecting music means today. Continue Reading
Big data, the term used for collections of data that are so big that special processing is needed in order to use it, is a key component of customized music services. Big data processing is important on the advertising side as well. Jennifer Lane thinks about the possibilities that big data can offer to streaming audio. Continue Reading
Yahoo has partnered with Live Nation in an agreement to co-distribute live-streamed concerts at a blistering pace — one concert a day (or night) “for several years.” Yahoo’s main competitive focus in this venture is Google, the leader in video content. Yahoo and Live Nation will funnel users to the the real-time concert stream, only highlights of which will be available later. Continue Reading
Twenty years ago today, the entire National Public Radio staff received a memo describing the Internet, and offering email accounts to everyone. In 1994 the Web had been layered atop the existing Internet, but still competed with Gopher, an earlier non-commercial search and directory service. Continue Reading
In a Hollywood Reporter interview, singer Jared Leto of the band 30 Seconds to Mars offered his thoughts about streaming music. Leto has his doubts about the sustainability of streaming for musicians. But he points a huge measure of accountability at record labels. Continue Reading
On-demand music service Rdio announced a new affiliation with Musicians for Audio Quality, headed by The Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir. Putting its product where its affiliation is, Rdio is dramatically upgrading its entire 25-million-track library to hi-fi … or at least higher-fi. Hi-fi mobile music is a somewhat controversial concept, but is building momentum as a trend. Continue Reading
Brian Lakamp is the President of Digital at Clear Channel, and is the product owner of iHeartRadio, which he characterizes as “the national consumer brand” of Clear Channel. In a wide-ranging phone conversation, we spoke with Lakamp about iHeart’s digital strategy, listening to radio in the car, Clear Channel’s partnerships with record labels, and operating in a “six-screen world.” Continue Reading
Welcome to Internet Radio REWIND, an audio recap of the week. This weekly program is a quick and concise catch-up of the week’s top stories. Click the Play button, refresh your neurons, and be ready for the coming week. This week: CarPlay comes out to play; a field day for earnings; Samsung spills its marketing for Milk; the Electronic Frontier Foundation tries to rescue podcasting; and a birthday of the man who probably didn’t invent radio. Continue Reading
Spotify’s European head of label relations, Kevin Brown, told a British music publication that Spotify has gained one-million listeners in the U.K. over the past four months. This data point is spawning headlines that Spotify is bigger than iTunes in Europe. It’s an apples-to-oranges comparison. Continue Reading
RAIN Summit West: Fourteen knowledge-packed sessions in a full day of panel discussions, research reports, and two keynote addresses. It all happened on April 6 in Las Vegas. Click through for a video playlist of all sessions, for reliving, or post-event attending. Continue Reading
HEADLINE: Pandora met Wall street expectations in Q1, and grew key usage and revenue metrics.
HEADLINE: Pandora stock (P) is savagely down 15% as of this writing.
Why? The answer might lie in the company’s future guidance Continue Reading