Subscription-based online music service Akazoo will be acquired by Modern Media Acquisition Corp. (MMAC), the company founded by ex-CEO of media group Cumulus, Lew Dickey. Complex stock maneuvering will result in new ticker symbol, but straight line for existing investors. Continue Reading
Radio group Cumulus Media and online music service Rdio forged their partnership last September, so yesterday’s earnings call from publicly traded Cumulus could be approached as a one-year anniversary of the terrestrial/online hook-up. In year-over-year growth in ad revenue, digital led the way, and Rdio led digital. Continue Reading
The five most-read articles of last week. Is the streaming-music business model fundamentally broken? (This was also our most-linked article.) iTunes Radio and Pandora: who is slaying whom? Lew Dickey (CEO, Cumulus) speaks out about streaming. Shazam starts a record label. More. Continue Reading
Cumulus Media conducted its earning call yesterday, during which CEO Lew Dickey spoke about the partnership with music subscription service Rdio, and about online music generally. Dickey’s remarks evangelized the values of streaming music, and recognized migration away from downloading. Continue Reading