CDs are having a tough time of it on the sales charts, and some retailers seem to be throwing in the towel. Starbucks announced that it will no longer have discs for sale at its counters. Grocery chain Whole Foods may be considering the same move. Continue Reading
Pandora isn’t the only one getting in on the SXSW fun. NPR also is gearing up for the music facet of the event with the launch of an interactive app called The Austin 100. It features 100 songs from its recommended performers to see at the festival. Continue Reading
RealNetworks has released its 2014 financial data, and it includes a snapshot of the performance for Rhapsody. Rhapsody posted net revenue of $173.48 million in 2014 with a net loss of $21.34 million for the year ending Dec.31. Continue Reading
Guest columnist Jon Maples analyzes Rhapsody’s release of 2014 financial results. Revenue up for the on-demand music service. Losses up, too. What does it mean for the model? Continue Reading
The Download on Podcasts is a new weekly feature sponsored by PodcastOne.
Podcasting is generally known as a spoken-word audio category. But there is no technical roadblock to publishing musical podcasts. Legal restrictions are the problem — U.S. music licensing law that dates back to early days when podcasting operated differently than it does now. Everyone loses without an easier licensing framework for podcasts, but there are legal options. Continue Reading
Last July Mark Mulligan produced a study of “digital natives” — the generation which has never known a world without online connectivity and unlimited content. Another name for digital natives is Centennials, marking a demographic born in 1997 or later. A new infographic illustrates a research study about this key cohort. Continue Reading
Wearables have been the big buzz of the tech world recently, and where the tech game goes, the app developers will follow. Rich Riley, CEO of Shazam, spoke with Gizmodo at MWC 2015 and said that the company is looking to push into the world of smaller screens and wrist access. “I think you’lll see us move into wearables in 2015,” he said. “You’ll see us do something there for sure.” Continue Reading
Later this month, creatives, thought leaders, pundits, and music fans alike will converge on Austin for SXSW. Pandora will be hosting a concert series at the event. In its blog post announcing the lineup, Pandora said that it would provide live broadcasts of all the performances. It already has the dedicated SXSW station up and running. Continue Reading
This week SoundCloud marked a milestone in its relatively new advertising program with an announcement that it has paid out $1-million in ad revenues since the program launched in August. It’s a good moment to take a look at one launch advertiser, Jaguar, in the service. Continue Reading
Lots of leaders and startups in the music industry have been exploring options for improving sound quality in online listening. We’ve seen lots of new platforms touting their hi-fi, lossless sound, but one of the top criticisms of those services is that people listen to them with mediocre headphones. A new Kickstarter project aims to literally amp up the sound quality for people even without top-shelf headphones. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Beats vs. Spotify; proposed new streaming model Continue Reading
ASCAP posted revenue of more than $1 billion last year, the first performance rights collector to do so. The company distributed more than $883 million in royalties to songwriters, composers, and publishers. ASCAP also said that it doubled the number of performances that it has processed for payment, paying out royalties for 500 billion musical moments. Continue Reading