Weekend Perspective: March 24 – 28
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Pandora is a $6.5-billion company and nobody is talking about iTunes Radio, including Apple
HARMAN and AdsWizz partner for uniquely targeted advertising in Aha Radio
Streaming services put focus on advertising innovations at CES
Whyd, a kind of Pinterest for music, goes public
Streaming music listening rose by 32 percent in 2013 (Nielsen)
Pandora announced a partnership with Peet’s Coffee & Tea, in which the two companies are collaborating on Peet’s-branded music stations. those stations will provide the soundtrack in all of the nearly 300 Peet’s stores. As such, the deal is the first extension of Pandora’s brand into a retail space. RAIN spoke with Pandora’s head of marketing, and with Patrick Main, a Peet’s employee who is programming the stations.
Larry Rosin, president of Edison Research, presented research information at the Radiodays conference in Dublin, warning European broadcasters that they will probably face the same digital disruptions that American radio stations have. The final slide of Rosin’s presentation made clear the warning: Don’t be complacent.
Serial entrepreneur Michael Robertson was handed a harsh jury verdict this week, charged by the court to pay damages of $41-million dollars in the Capital Records vs. MP3Tunes copyright infringement case. RAIN editor Brad Hill found a 2005 conversation with Robertson about his then-new company.
Journal Broadcast Group launched a very interesting music-listening app called Radio League. It is a pureplay app, not a radio web stream. We spoke with Michael J. Gay, head of the project at Journal Broadcast, who said the goal is “more music with fewer commercial interruptions.”
Music service news bites: Rhapsody is ending its relationship with The Echo Nest. Spotify offers a 50% subscription discount to college students. Last.FM terminates its radio subscription product. Songza partnered with The Weather Channel, so that local weather conditions can influence its music selections.