TuneCore, the online music distribution and publishing administration platform, announced the acquisition of DropKloud, a location-based app for content delivery. Musicians could use that capability to provide exclusive access to songs, share invitations to special events, or release other material for a specific concert. Continue Reading
Former Hulu CEO Jason Kilar and CTO Richard Tom are back to the video business with an intriguing property called Vessel. This service aims to offer early access to popular web video stars through windowing, showing their content to subscribers several days before the clips hit YouTube and other rival platforms. Continue Reading
Following up our coverage of the integrative partnership of audio ad network Targetspot and data company Quantcast, we wanted to understand the depth of integration, and what Big Data means for the online audio advertising industry. We chatted with TargetSpot co-CEO Leigh Newsome, and started by asking how this partnership is distinguished from previous work the two companies have done together. Continue Reading
France’s Bouygues Telecom has partnered with Spotify to include its streaming music in higher-end mobile plans, according to Telecompaper. The network has 10 million subscribers. Neither party has commented on the deal thus far. Continue Reading
William E. Kennard will join the board of directors at Ford Motor Co. effective Jan. 1. He is a former chairman of the FCC, as well as a former U.S. Ambassador to the EU. Before entering the government, Kennard’s career covered the areas of law, telecommunications, and private equity. Continue Reading
Midia Research founder Mark Mulligan analyzes the “freemium” space by comparing YouTube (and its new Music Key subscription service) to Spotify and Pandora. YouTube has changed from a marketing tool to a full-fledged listening destination, the author asserts, and should be modeled more like Pandora than Spotify. Continue Reading
The Electronic Frontier Foundation will have a hearing today with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to argue its case for invalidating key claims of patents that Personal Audio has used to sue podcasters. The group’s legal counsel says that Personal Audio didn’t invent anything new or non-obvious related to podcasting, and thus should not have a patent. Continue Reading
After our review of Slacker’s inventive new app, which represents a meaningful re-launch of the brand and its content focus, we wanted to dig deeper. Jack Isquith, SVP of Strategic Development and Content Programming, joined us on the phone for a chat about his priorities and the thinking behind Slacker’s reinvention. Continue Reading
Ad network TargetSpot announced a partnership with audience measurement company Quantcast, which will allow TargetSpot to more finely identify audience characteristics across its portfolio of streaming audio publishers. The agreement represents an important example of the Big Data movement in online audio, and the increasing expectation of targeted audience segments among advertisers. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Mixcloud’s anniversary data; Daniel Ek on misunderstood streaming; how China’s telecoms rule music. Continue Reading
Following our recent examination of native advertising growth for streaming audio, we were on the prowl for live campaign examples in podcasts. We found two instances of a podcast campaign by Casper mattresses, and those two examples demonstrate the range of ad-libbing that is possible when a podcast host is responsible for the marketing presentation. Click to listen. Continue Reading
Bose may be positioning itself to move beyond the hardware realm and add a listening service to its catalog. Hypebot has unearthed a job posting for a Senior User Experience Designer: Cloud Music Services at the respected sound company. The description calls for somebody who will “lead design and prototyping of our next generation streaming music platform and ecosystem of products.” According to the post, the ideal candidate would have work experience at one of the many streaming music companies dominating the digital airwaves. Continue Reading