ROK Mobile is a new company which intends to join streaming music to mobile phone service more inseparably than ever before. The value equation of streaming music in a wireless phone plan, in an era when music listening is increasingly a mobile consumer behavior, is not lost on the founders of ROK Mobile, which will launch in the U.S. on July 4. Continue Reading
Beats Electronics (recently acquired by Apple) file a trademark revision dated April 25, expanding the protected use of its iBeats trademark.
Formerly assigned only to the in-ear Beats headphones product, the application for expanded protection covers uses that seem clearly aimed at potentially rebranding Beats Music, in whole or part. Continue Reading
RAIN Hotspots — the five most-read articles last week. Price Waterhouse Cooper predicts the music business … Steve Goldstein looks for radio in his new car … interview with the CEO of Commotion, a unique social app for radio … Siri gets Shazam … Pandora’s spot load in May. Continue Reading
The rumor factory is never idle for long these days. Days after Apple turned rumor into reality by acquiring Beats Electronics (including Beats Music), unnamed sources told the New York Post that Google is interested in grabbing Internet radio brand Songza, at a reported value of $15-million. Continue Reading
Internet Radio REWIND, an audio recap of the week. This weekly podcast is a quick and concise catch-up of the week’s top stories. This week: Apple’s announcements …. The future of the music industry … the U.S. government might change music licensing … and independent labels throw YouTube under the bus. Continue Reading
This week, the United States Department of Justice announced that it would review the consent decrees that set the rules for Performance Rights Organizations ASCAP and BMI for the licensing of musical works on all forms of broadcast and in venues. Guest commentary by Casey Rae, VP for Policy and Education at the Future of Music Coalition. Continue Reading
Can a music service deliver good comedy programming? That’s what we intended to find out. We turned off the tunes and hunted for laughs in major music services to see how well the genre was represented and serviced. Continue Reading
Boutique investment banking firm Coady Diemar released its June edition of the Random Bits note to investors. Focused on digital music, with particular attention to the Apple/Beats acquisition, the analysis concludes that the so-called access model is supplanting music ownership. Continue Reading
Apple has non-publicly introduced high-def audio into the new iOS 8 mobile operating system which will be launched later this year. Coupled with Apple’s acquisition of Beats Electronics, the addition of high-quality audio eats into the market Pono Music hopes to establish. Continue Reading
Music licensing is a hot topic in 2014 in the U.S., with all constituencies — broadcast, streaming, creators, labels, artists, lobbying groups — jockeying for position to make an argument for change … or trying to halt change. The U.S. government, which regulates the maddening thicket of music licensing rules and rates, is trying to understand all the angles just as industry observers are. Continue Reading
PPL (Phonographic Performers Limited), the British collection agency of performance royalties to labels and artists, announced its 2013 revenues, showing year-over-year growth in money collected, and clients served. PPL performs a parallel function in Britain’s music ecosystem as SoundExchange does in the U.S. Continue Reading
Most publicity around Pandora is U.S.-based, naturally enough since most of its business and audience are stateside. But Pandora is available in two other national markets — Australia and New Zealand. Today comes an announcement of Pandora partnering with Samsung in a distribution agreement that puts the Internet radio platform on Samsung Smart TVs. Continue Reading