Less than a week ago, interactive music service Earbits announced its sudden closure. Details were scant, but lack of funding seemed to be the problem, when CEO Joey Flores said, “We bit off more than we could chew.” Today, Flores sent a celebratory note to registered users announcing that a heroic (and unnamed) investor had stepped in to revive the service, which had been dark for five days. Continue Reading
SoundExchange released the first edition of a new quarterly royalty breakdown called Digital Radio Report — an animated infographic that promotes SoundExchange’s contribution to the economy of streaming music (plus comedy), and reveals general music-licensing information to demystify how royalties work. Continue Reading
Would you pay for a YouTube music service? That’s a choice YouTube users will have by the end of the summer, according to recent reports.
It’s an unusual value proposition, because YouTube is already the most popular music-listening (and watching) platform in the world, with over a billion users. We don’t know many details about the new subscription service Google will roll out for YouTube, but we know it will be ad-free.
Vote your choice, and leave a comment! Selected comments will be published with poll results. Continue Reading
Wireless company T-Mobile announced a change to its cell-phone service plans that potentially impacts how consumers choose their telecom providers, music services, and even cars. Called Music Freedom, it affords unlimited music streaming for “major” music services, regardless of the plan’s data cap. A related deal with Rhapsody sweetens the package. In an era when paying for data can be more burdensome than paying for music, this initiative could turn some heads. Continue Reading
In its most important structural change in years, and a meaningful expansion of its business model, on-demand music service Rhapsody has announced unRadio, and added the new listening experience to all its apps. At the same time, Rhapsody is starting a partnership with T-Mobile, wherein unRadio is available free of charge to T-Mobile wireless cell-phone customers.
As a stand-alone service, whether through T-Mobile or not, unRadio shrewdly combines lean-back listening, similar to Pandora, with on-demand interactivity, similar to Spotify and Rhapsody’s own Premier plan. Rhapsody is effectively straddling the gulf between free listening supported by advertising, and the full interactivity of a celestial music jukebox. It could hit a sweet spot for some music-lovers. Continue Reading
We are pleased to announce that we now offer job listings on the site. RAIN News reaches a concentrated audience of industry professionals in Internet radio, broadcast, and vendors to both industries, plus a more general readership of industry observers. A recent reader survey revealed that over 70% of respondents visit RAIN News at least once a week. Over 70% characterized RAIN News as “the leading industry publication for online audio.” Continue Reading
Edison Research has released a summary of what it characterizes as a “groundbreaking” study of what American adults and teens listen to. Called Share of Ear, it is a new research franchise for Edison, which earlier this year released the 22nd edition of its annual The Infinite Dial study.
All told, the study reveals that Americans listen to just over four hours of audio per day. AM/FM radio accounts for 52.1% of those four hours each day. Internet music listening gets 11.6% of the “Ear.” Owned music, which represents non-streamed and non-broadcast listening, takes 20.3% of listening in the study. Continue Reading
We recently reported that Google was (or is) in acquisition talks with Internet radio service Songza. Part of that report indicated that Google might have been talking to other (unnamed) streaming-music platforms also. today, a report emerges that Google attempted to buy 8tracks, a popular and profitable listening service that specializes in crowd-sourced playlists. Continue Reading
Nominations are flowing into this year’s RAIN Internet Radio Awards. The Internet Radio Awards take self-nominations in five categories. Last year, Christian music station the blast won top prize in the Single Station Webcaster category. Will it be unseated in 2014? Continue Reading
Podcasting is a surging content category in online audio, but still off the mainstream path compared with Internet radio and music-service giants and their multi-billion-dollar valuations. Aggregators and producers such as Podcast One and Midroll Media are leveraging new platforms to raise awareness, and revenue, of online-only talk programs. Out on the fringe, some podcast creators are seeking funding and visibility on crowdfunding platforms.
Knowing about The Media Podcast project inspired us to survey crowdfunders Kickstarter and Indiegogo to observe how podcast creators are using them, and to what extent they are succeeding. Continue Reading
At RAIN Summit NYC in February, Gary Liu, Global Head of Industry Development at Spotify, suggested a novel advertising strategy during a panel session. Liu speculated that music-service listeners might be willing to play ads on demand, in order to clear out advertising for an extended stretch of uninterrupted music listening. There were some chuckles in the audience over that, but a report in AdAge indicates that Spotify will pitch a similar idea to advertisers at this week’s Cannes Lions festival. Continue Reading
YouTube’s contentious negotiations with some independent labels is about to reach a culminating point, as Google will soon begin removing videos of music owned by labels which have not signed a new licensing agreement. Open questions remain. Also, details about the long-rumored YouTube music service are starting to seep out. Continue Reading