Guest columnist Mark Mulligan projects the pace of disruption as consumers fade back from purchasing music downloads. “When new formats race to the fore it is easy to make the mistake of taking an eye off the legacy formats. This is risky because they usually still account for very large portions of existing revenue.” But a “download collapse” will happen to the iTunes Music Store. Continue Reading
Australian company Omny announced that is has developed podcast consumption analytics as part of Omny Studio, its publishing and hosting platform for on-demand audio. The intent of new analytics is to raise the game from traditional download metrics to a more granular view of how the programs are listened to. The company would like to develop an industry-wide standard. Continue Reading
The music industry critiques against YouTube have been joined by another influential voice. Irving Azoff, an artist manager and CEO/Chairman of Azoff MSG Entertainment, penned an open letter to the video platform with responses to YouTube’s recent blog post that aimed to address the current wave of artist and label concerns. Continue Reading
“Today, I’m happy to announce that on mobile alone YouTube now reaches more 18–49-year-olds than any network — broadcast or cable. In fact, we reach more 18–49-year-olds during primetime than the top 10 TV shows combined.”
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki made this announcement at an industry event targeting advertisers and agencies. Continue Reading
James Cridland’s Future of Radio is a column by the Australia-based radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: Digging into Pandora’s financial results, SEO for podcasts, and the BBC’s global news audience. Continue Reading
Spotify is planning to create 12 original video series. A few months after adding video clips to its mobile service, Spotify is introducing a roster of original shows, with episodes running just 15 minutes or less. This new content will initially roll out to the streaming service’s free and paid users in the U.S., the UK, Germany, and Sweden. Continue Reading
iHeartMedia President Rich Bressler called digital “a nice add-on to broadcast radio,” particularly in the social outreach of its main brand and its hundreds of stations. And he had more to say about programmatic advertising keeping the company in parity with natively digital media. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: A radio buy for Bauer; podcasting’s newest power player; NPR coming to Hollywood? Continue Reading
Apple Music has added a third subscription tier to its available options for listeners. It has unveiled a student membership that offers a 50% discount on the standard monthly rate. In the U.S., that means $4.99 a month. Continue Reading
Seems Drake is quite the tease. Even though he said in a Beats 1 interview that his new album Views would be exclusive to Apple Music for one week, fans on other platforms will have to wait a little longer. Continue Reading
8tracks is preparing a round of Regulation A crowdfunded securities funding, and the interest in supporting the playlisting company has been high so far. In an email to potential backers, 8tracks said it has received investment interest of more than $33 million from more than 35,000 people. Continue Reading
Warner Music Group reported its second quarter financial results, and streaming was the top source of revenue. “We are now the first major music company to report that streaming is the largest source of revenue in our recorded music business, surpassing our revenue from physical formats,” CEO Stephen Cooper said. Continue Reading