Alphabet, the parent company for Google, reported its first-quarter financial results. CFO Ruth Porat said that “costs associated with operating our data centers including depreciation, (and) content acquisition costs, primarily for YouTube” were behind the higher spending during the period. Continue Reading
Shazam is expanding its brand and marketing tools, but the company hasn’t lost touch with its musical core. Kyrre Gørvell-Dahll, who performs under the stage name Kygo, is using the audio recognition app to launch his debut album. Continue Reading
Nielsen has voiced its intent to add a measurement system for on-demand audio and podcasts as part of its Digital Audio Ratings service. In this announcement, the ratings company promises to engage with one of the most vexing issues of the podcast industry — representing standard audience metrics to advertisers. Continue Reading
MTV is making a new push to re-prioritize the music in its programming. MTV President Sean Atkins showed off the channel’s new shows, and several of them return to the musical roots that initially made the network such a hit. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Forbes on podcasting; India and Internet radio; an oral history on CDs’ last days; call for “more innovators and fewer lawyers.” Continue Reading
Rhapsody International has named Mike Davis as its first CEO effective immediately. The company is the parent organization for the Rhapsody and Napster streaming services. Continue Reading
Sony has taken steps to assume sole ownership of the Sony/ATV publishing branch, buying out the stake owned by Michael Jackson’s estate. However, the move has raised some concerns among the other labels. Warner Music Group and a collection of independent labels have brought their concerns over the buyout before the European Commission. Continue Reading
Billboard has named Spotify as its official streaming partner for 2016. With this new deal, Spotify will power playback on more than 75 charts from the music organization. It will also supply tunes for a New Music Fridays editorial and for three new Spotify-centric charts. Continue Reading
Everyone has their preferred ways to relax. And we love to see digital media channels sharing a sense of humor and pop culture savvy. Thus we report that, for the stoners of the world, iHeartRadio is honoring today’s date (4/20) by featuring WeedStream on its homepage. Continue Reading
The lawsuit filed by David Lowery against Spotify has gotten a new wrinkle today. Lowery’s legal team has filed a request to see all the correspondence sent by the streaming service to potential participants in the class action suit related to Spotify’s recent settlement with the National Music Publishers Association. Continue Reading
Shazam announced a new feature focused on businesses looking to use the recognition app for marketing. Shazam for Brands adds more ability to create data-driven storytelling on top of the core Shazam functionality. It offers tools for data collection and analysis, branded content, and more scannable material for customers to engage with. Continue Reading
Jacobs Media has released the results of TechSurvey 12, its annual survey of P1 radio listeners in the U.S. and Canada. The expressed preferences in media usage showed little variation this year from the TechSurvey 11, but the latest results did see some changes in attitudes about digital services, car listening, and podcasts. Continue Reading