The Journal Broadcast Group has launched a streaming music app that hopes to attract an audience seeking music with fewer commercials. Radio League is a pureplay online music app. We spoke with Michael Gay, VP of Interactive Media at Journal Broadcast. Continue Reading
In a continuation of a series of similar partnerships, Clear Channel has struck a revenue-sharing arrangement with Broken Bow records and Stoney Creek Records, both part of BBR Music Group. The agreement provides performance royalties to the labels and their artists, which Clear Channel (and all terrestrial radio) is not compelled to pay by government licensing regulations. Continue Reading
Pandora has struck a partnership with Peet’s Coffee & Tea, in a new kind of deal for the market-leading Internet radio service. Peet’s is providing four branded, hand-curated stations to Pandora, and also playing those stations continuously in its 111 stores. Continue Reading
Spotify announced today a half-off subscription rate for college students. the normal $9.99/month subscription rate is dropped to $4.99 for qualified students. The announcement comes days after Pandora hiked its subscription price by 25% — to $4.99 per month. Continue Reading
adStream is a journal of ad-spottings in online music services that highlight how commercials (audio and visual) can be an integrated part of the online listening experience. When clicking past a song in the Pandora web app, we noticed a… Continue Reading
The occasion of this brisk admonition was Radiodays Europe, an annual conference held this year in the Dublin Convention Center. Rosin brought new research with him (“iTunes Radio: Lessons from America”), based on The Infinite Dial 2014 survey but unreleased when that project was unveiled. Continue Reading
iTunes Radio took its first step away from music today, by adding a customized NPR news station to its presets. Not a specific local station, the new offering is simply called “NPR,” and contains no discrete tracks, voting up/down, or other interactive features that exist with songs. Continue Reading
iHeartRadio’s mobile news notifications don’t always play out well, when the user enters a live radio stream during a long commercial break. today, iHeart tried again, this time executing perfectly with stacked-up recorded bulletins about the Malaysian airplane without any commercials. Continue Reading
The exodus of high-profile music services from music-technology provider The Echo Nest picked up momentum today as music service Rhapsody and its subsidiary Napster announced that they will “wind down” their partnerships. They join Rdio, which peeled away from The Echo Nest soon after it was acquired by competitor Spotify. Continue Reading
Radiodays Europe kicked off today at the Dublin Convention Center. The annual event started in 2010, and attracts radio professionals from around the world. Change, and new realities for broadcast, are twin threads in the two-day agenda. Continue Reading
Apple is mulling a subscription music service, reports are swirling that Apple might consider creating an Android app for iTunes, distributing the world’s largest music store outside of the Apple ecosystem for the first time. The news is a significant indicator of Apple’s openness to new business paths. Continue Reading
In a day loaded with rumors of new ambitions emanating from Apple, comes a report that the company is considering a Netflix-like streaming TV service, and is having discussions with cable giant Comcast about paying for high-quality last-mile streaming into homes. Continue Reading