On the Move tracks hires, promotions, and other notable personnel changes within the online audio industry. Today’s moves include a major exit from Sonos, a promotion at Vevo, and a new face joining Vine. Continue Reading
Sonos announced a big business shakeup, including layoffs and a new focus in how it will bring music into the home. In a blog post discussing the changes, CEO John MacFarlane spoke about how the home audio landscape is changing and how the company wants to stay at the forefront of that transition. He pointed to the growth of streaming, and subscription tiers in particular, and the increased interest in voice controls as the reasons for the pivot. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Spotify’s programmatic plans; when companies sponsor podcasts; Sonos taps into neurological research. Continue Reading
At the start of the year, annual tech show CES signaled heavy interest in at-home wireless speaker systems. And that trend has indeed been an undercurrent of the music and tech worlds through this year. Despite the arrival of more competition, Sonos is still one of the top choices in the field. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Interview with Midroll Media’s Erik Diehn; Ministry of Sound on the business of playlist curation; Microsoft’s Groove Music on Sonos. Continue Reading
Co-founder and CEO of WiFi-speaker company Sonos, John MacFarlane, published an article in Music Business Worldwide, in which he documents that 92% of all Listening through Sonos speakers is streamed, not owned music. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Sonos CEO on streaming’s impact and NPR listeners get an F on their audio quality test. Continue Reading
Deezer’s first foray into the U.S. was a much-discussed Elite plan that centered on an exclusive partnership with Sonos. As previously forecast, the Elite offering is now available in all of Deezer’s markets, but still only on Sonos speaker hardware.… Continue Reading
Deezer’s first foray into the U.S. market was a special Elite service offered for Sonos systems. Now that partnership is going global, with Elite access to become available for Sonos owners across Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Canada on March 19. Continue Reading
Sonos may be planning to open up its API to third-party apps. GigaOm noticed a job posting at the WiFi speaker company seeking a software test engineer to guide projects aimed at “allowing third party music services to easily integrate their apps with Sonos.” Since the job posting only recently appeared, it’s unclear when Sonos might be ready to open the doors to its API. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Sonos exec talks streaming and speakers; did iTunes end Single of the Week promo? Continue Reading
LG announced its foray into WiFi speakers with the Music Flow suite of products. The company will sell three speakers, three upgraded sound bars, and a portable, battery-powered speaker under this brand. The Music Flow speakers will support the new audio-only Google Cast software, which brings in several music services. LG also has product partnerships with iHeartRadio, Rhapsody, Spotify, and TuneIn. Continue Reading