YouTube has rolled out an app for watching its videos in virtual reality. All the videos on the platform allow the viewer to see the action as if they were physically present on the scene. This news is still interesting as a forecast for what digital entertainment might look like in ten years. Continue Reading
Nielsen’s latest data is a Live Event 360 report, which analyzes fan behavior around concerts. People who attended at least one concert or festival in the past year spent 60% of their average annual music budget on attending those performances. Although the Nielsen report is focused on finding brand and marketing opportunities around live shows, there’s also an intriguing perspective for digital music platforms. Continue Reading
Spotify made its first foray into Japan earlier this year, and the streaming music service has now ended its invite-only phase. During that period of limited access, the top track in Japan pulled in just 8,700 daily plays. Continue Reading
An upcoming webinar on protecting trademarks is positioning as a free learning experience for broadcasters and all media companies. “The protection of brands, slogans, positioning statements and program titles must be a high priority of any electronic media company,” says broadcast law attorney David Oxenford. Continue Reading
Pandora is officially seeking to hire a new full-time CFO. Mike Herring has been holding the position in addition to his role as President since Tim Westergren took over as CEO in March. Continue Reading
Podtrac has updated its monthly ranking of podcast publishers for October. The list tracks the top publishers from Podtrac’s client roster. The order of the rankings remained unchanged, aside from WBUR and TWiT swapping ninth and tenth. Continue Reading
The Download on Podcasting project, a collaboration of DMR/Interactive and Texas A&M University, has released two reports, one of which positions the podcast business as poised to reach $100-million dollars in revenue Continue Reading
Universal Music Group has made more than $1 billion in streaming revenue so far this year. The label released its financial results for the first nine months of 2016, and revenue from streaming and subscription services hit €1.03 billion ($1.1 billion). Continue Reading
Shazam and Songkick are combining their services. The audio identification app will integrate concert listings from Songkick starting in 2017. Concert data and information for hundreds of thousands of upcoming live shows will appear in the app. Continue Reading
In an alliance with TuneIn and AccuRadio, Pandora is announcing this morning the launch of the Harmonic Audio Network, an ad network for advertisers in streaming audio. The Harmonic Audio Network will be exclusively represented by Pandora’s sales force. The new network widens the audio inventory available to Pandora’s sales staff, and creates what the company is marketing as a trusted, high-quality marketing opportunity across three recognized brands. Continue Reading
Spotify’s push for new video content is continuing at break-neck speed. The latest release is an animated series titled “Drawn & Recorded.” The ten episodes will share stories from pop music history. Videos will appear on Spotify’s mobile and desktop versions. Continue Reading
Beatroot Music has raised £125,000 ($155,000) in equity funding for its work in metadata management. The financing came from Creative England, and follows a seed funding round in March 2015. Beatroot automatically generates metadata for back catalogs. Continue Reading