Pandora’s Thumbprint Radio has racked up more than 5.5 billion spins. The personalized station, which debuted in December 2015, plays the tracks a listener has thumbed-up over time and includes recommendations based on those preferences. Continue Reading
iHeartMedia has partnered with Advertising Age to create a podcast called Tagline. The twice-a-month podcast will focus on the advertising, marketing and communications industries, with experts giving an inside look at their work. Continue Reading
Financial Times reported that Spotify is in “advanced talks” to acquire SoundCloud. The talks might be advanced, but sources told the publication that there were no details on how much money might change hands and the potential deal could still fall apart. We’ve been expecting to see more consolidation within the streaming music space, so this possible tie-up is an intriguing proposition. Continue Reading
Shazam announced two major milestones today. First, it has achieved profitability. Second, the Shazam mobile app has exceeded 1 billion downloads. Continue Reading
Lyor Cohen is joining the YouTube team as global head of music. The long-time music industry veteran is the CEO and founder of 300 Entertainment. He has also held long tenures in the upper ranks at Warner Music Group and Def Jam, including presiding over large mergers at both labels. Continue Reading
Ever since first getting wind of it, we have gotten a kick out of the name collision occurring between this column’s title and the new collaborative research project of DMR/Interactive and Texas A&M University: The Download on Podcasting. We also learned more about what the year-long research project is hoping to achieve. Continue Reading
Vevo’s chief revenue officer, Nic Jones, is departing the video distribution company. Jones had been with the business since 2011, and he will remain in the CRO position until the end of the year. Continue Reading
The percentage of media buying strategy dedicated to digital audio will grow from 7.5% today to 14.8% in two years, nearly a doubling of commitment to digital audio. That is the headline result of a newly released survey collaboration produced by AdAge and The Trade Desk. Continue Reading
RadioPlayer is poised for a launch in Canada. This push to bring RadioPlayer to the new market comes through a licensing agreement coordinated by the new Canadian Association of Broadcasters. The service is currently slated to roll out as a web, iOS, and Android app. Continue Reading
Spotify has added a Netflix executive to its board of directors. Ted Sarandos is chief content officer for the video streaming platform, and his expertise could be helpful for Spotify in looking to further expand its own video properties. Continue Reading
Google has launched several of its products in India. Google Play Music is one of the newly available services, but it’s only a partial version of what U.S. listeners have. Indian customers have not gotten the All Access streaming service and Play will not have radio or podcasts. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Billboard takes on Rdio; BuzzFeed takes on Apple Music; streaming services as Grammy winners? Continue Reading