Another Kickstarter project called Music Wrap has hit the airwaves with a new approach to music technology. This one is a new take on headphones that attempts to offer safer listening, both in terms of ear protection and in remaining aware of one’s surroundings. Continue Reading
Just about anyone working in the broadcast or media worlds should be familiar with Studs Terkel. The Pulitzer Prize-winner made his name on his probing interviews with both the leading thinkers of the day and the average workaday citizens of the United States alike. Now, a new project by Chicago’s WFMT Radio Network aims to preserve and digitize Terkel’s radio shows. RAIN News readers have also been granted exclusive access to a pair of his interviews from the late 1960s. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Podcasting predictions for 2016; new music careers from podcasts; when companies make the software and the systems; Kickstarter’s independent fulfillment report. Continue Reading
Kickstarter has hired Molly Neuman as its head of music. Neuman steps into the newly created role from A2IM, where she was interim president following the departure of Rich Bengloff. Adding a new high-level leader to the management team shows that Kickstarter isn’t just looking to remain static in music. Continue Reading
Dimitri Vassilaros was a talk host on AM station KDKA, and his resume as broadcaster and journalist includes stints with CBS, Clear Channel/iHeart, Gannett, Tribune-Review, and Hearst. He has a new program in his sights, and has turned to Kickstarter to fund what he says will be both an online radio production, and a podcast. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Q&A about the Songwriters Equity Act; Mad Genius hits crowdfunding goal; Bandcamp hits $100 million in artist payouts. 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
We saw WiFi speakers dominating the news at CES this year, and the trend shows no sights of abating. Not only are many of the big tech brands getting in on the action, but recently smaller startups have been leveraging crowdfunding to try out their own innovations in that product niche. Continue Reading
Kickstarter shared a slightly belated year-in-review, compiling data about the projects that were successfully crowd-funded on the platform in 2014. Music was the top category, barely edging out Film & Video with just over 4,000 projects funded. Continue Reading
Prizm, a new entry in the WiFi speaker field, has successfully completed its Kickstarter fundraising. The device streams music from the cloud, pulling tracks from Deezer and Spotify premium accounts and from free SoundCloud accounts. The team is working on adding support for Rhapsody, Last.fm, and Rdio. Continue Reading
Pono Music already has more than $6 million at its disposal from Kickstarter, but Neil Young and company are looking to raise more with a slightly different crowdfunding approach. This time they’re using Crowdfunder, which is an equity crowdfunding platform. Pono is looking to raise $2.5 million, and they’ve already received $1.43 million in commitments. Continue Reading
Podcasting is a surging content category in online audio, but still off the mainstream path compared with Internet radio and music-service giants and their multi-billion-dollar valuations. Aggregators and producers such as Podcast One and Midroll Media are leveraging new platforms to raise awareness, and revenue, of online-only talk programs. Out on the fringe, some podcast creators are seeking funding and visibility on crowdfunding platforms.
Knowing about The Media Podcast project inspired us to survey crowdfunders Kickstarter and Indiegogo to observe how podcast creators are using them, and to what extent they are succeeding. Continue Reading