RAIN Hotspots highlights the five most-read article in the week. This week, 2013 music-business statistics were released, revealing the importance of streaming revenue, and the ASCP vs. Pandora trial generated several points of interest. Continue Reading
The Internation Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI) released its summary of digital music usage and revenue for 2013. As with the RIAA report issued this week, the IFPI document shows vigorous growth of streaming and subscription music, bolstering a general industry picture of declining physical sales. Continue Reading
Doc Searls is an author and a fellow of the Center for Information Technology & Society (CITS) at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has a lifelong love of radio, and recently wrote a prescription for the future of broadcasting: How to Rescue Radio. We spoke with Doc Searls about radio, programming, and the future. Continue Reading
The asynchronous debate about Spotify (good or evil?) continues, most recently with Dave Allen (Gang of Four) responding at length to David Byrne’s OpEd last week in The Guardian (RAIN comment here). If these dueling disquisitions were an endurance contest,… Continue Reading
Does Internet radio solve piracy? Let’s be clear about the question. By “Internet radio” we mean all forms of interactive listening that reflect the consumer trend to access as a new form of ownership. In other words, reaching for the… Continue Reading
Yesterday the nation’s largest radio broadcaster announced a deal with one of the big-three label groups to pay for the on-air use of sound recordings (see our coverage here). The Clear Channel/Warner Music Group agreement isn’t the first, but it’s… Continue Reading
Yesterday major record companies Sony, Universal, and Warner, along with smaller group ABKCO, filed copyright suit against satellite radio operator SiriusXM, alleging unauthorized use of pre-1972 sound recordings. Late last month SoundExchange, the record industry administrator of digital sound recording… Continue Reading