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The weekly update of the streaming audio industry, from RAIN News. THIS WEEK: Adele’s history-making album; Pandora raises $300-million for ambitious 2016; Songza nears the end; Acast raids WNYC in U.S. launch. Continue Reading
Google acquired online radio platform Songza nearly a year and a half ago, July 1 2014, and today the announcement comes that the Songza brand, and stand-alone app, will be discontinued at the end of the year. Songza features and playlists will continue within Google Play, where they have resided since last October. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Spotify’s song of the summer; interview with Songza founder; iTunes VP says there’s “homework” to do. Continue Reading
Sore feet. Soothing balm. An unusual ingredient. Now connect this to radio programming. Neither could we. So, founding editor Kurt Hanson did. Continue Reading
On Thursday, Zenbu Magazines filed multiple proposed class-action lawsuits against several streaming services seeking to collect royalties on music recorded before 1972. The company targeted Beats Electronics, Sony Entertainment, Google, Rdio, Songza, Slacker, and Escape Media Group (which owns Grooveshark) in the complaints. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Google rolls out Songza feature in UK; British musicians might leave Bandcamp for tax reasons; Amazon’s holiday music winners. Continue Reading
The latest update to Google Play Music All Access reflect some of the features that entered Google’s hands when it purchased Songza. The streaming platform has adopted music stations to its Listen Now page that cater to particular moods or activities. This riff on Songza’s Concierge service considers the time of day, device used for listening, and other signals to assess what your state of mind or current actions might be, then supplies the appropriate music. Continue Reading
We’ve been looking for signs that YouTube and Google are making progress with a long-awaited music subscription service, and today Reuters has what seems to be a legit update. Reuters interviewed Jamie Rosenberg, Google’s vice president of digital content, about the company’s plans and learned that its music services are expected to see updates in the near future. Continue Reading
adStream is a journal of ad-stalking and interesting commercial sightings in online audio services. As we were browsing for a playlist recently in the web browser view of Songza, we encountered smart use of the palette to display two simultaneous campaigns. Continue Reading
T-Mobile today announced an expansion of its Music Freedom plan, in which smartphone subscribers get unmetered data streaming of music from partner sources. Six new services have been added to the original slate of services, announced in June. The newly added partners are AccuRadio, Black Planet, Grooveshark, Radio Paradise, Rdio and Songza. Detractors still wish for global access to data-free online music from any source. Continue Reading
Following its purchase of the platform in July, Google has revamped Songza’s terms of service. Songza members are required to agree to the new ToS from Google and its privacy policy, as well as agree to transfer their personal information from Songza to Google. Users who don’t agree to the Google terms will not be able to log in to their old accounts. Continue Reading
Although Google’s purchase of Songza is signed, sealed, and delivered, the tech press is still buzzing over the idea that the service wasn’t the primary acquisition target. Spotify has been the subject of frequent rumors about a buy-out by the search engine conglomerate. Continue Reading