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RAIN 2/8: Pandora CEO Joe Kennedy to keynote at RAIN Summit North
·14 hours ago PANDORA CHIEF TO ADDRESS RAIN SUMMIT IN TORONTO ON MARCH 12RAIN is delighted to announce that Pandora CEO Joe Kennedy will deliver the keynote address at RAIN Summit North in Toronto. Kennedy will share his thoughts on the state of broadcast radio, streaming, and new media — and what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.
Pandora is the world’s leading online radio brand and recently announced their first profitable quarter (RAIN coverage here). The company has also been a leader in streaming to listeners away from computers: on mobile devices (which account for 30% of Pandora’s listening), Blu-ray players, HDTVs, home theater Kennedy is one of a long list of speakers who will be participating in RAIN Summit North on Friday, March 12 during Canadian Music Week (arguably North America’s premier radio and music conference). Jelli CEO Mike Dougherty, Slacker SVP/Strategic Development Jim Rondinelli, the founding president of Net Radio Sales (now Katz 360) Jennifer Lane, and Davis Wright Tremaine’s The Summit will take place from 2:45 PM to 5:45 PM in the Fairmont Royal York Hotel and will be followed by one of our legendary RAIN Reader Cocktail Parties. You can register for the event here. And to help new visitors discover this fantastic conference, RAIN readers who are attending CMW for the first time will be eligible for a 50% discount from registration prices! (Details on CMW’s Radio Active conference are here.) WASHINGTON POST TECH COLUMNIST FINDS A LOT TO LIKE ABOUT SONOS’ NET RADIO SYSTEMThe Washington Post‘s tech columnist Mike Musgrove says Sonos’ ZonePlayer S5 is the first device to make it easy and “graceful” to stream Internet radio to home stereo systems. The ZonePlayer S5 — basically a stand-alone speaker controlled via iPhone or home computer that streams Pandora, Last.fm and other webcasts — has received plenty of love already (like from The New York Times here and PC World here). Musgrove liked the sound quality and “all the nifty tricks,” but what about that hefty $400 price tag?
“Believe me, I don’t much like spending money, but this gadget performs a trick I’d wanted for years — and does it well. In the tech world, Sonos is a little like Apple: detractors say that there are other devices that do the same tricks for less, but fans say that you get what you pay for.” You can find the full review in The Washington Post here. LOGITECH’S SQUEEZEBOX TOUCH MAY BE AGAIN DELAYEDLogitech announced the Squeezebox Touch, an attractive touchscreen-wielding Wi-Fi radio, back in September (RAIN coverage here), but soon after said the devices wouldn’t be available until February. Now, Engadget reports the Squeezeboz Touch may not be available for another few months. Find out more here.Full story (and reader comments):  RAIN 2/8: Pandora CEO Joe Kennedy to keynote at RAIN Summit NorthMore RAIN
RAIN 2/5: Streaming music site TheSixyOne adds game-like features, visual beauty to Net radio experience
·4 days ago “QUESTS” AND OTHER FEATURES GO WELL BEYOND THE MUSIC“On TheSixtyOne, new artists make music and listeners decide what’s good. Ready?” This simple premise greets new visitors to TheSixtyOne, a streaming music site started in 2008. Then, like a curtain rising, the listener is presented with a striking full-screen image of an artist as the music starts to play. Little buttons ring the screen while snapshots, tour dates, artist bios and other information continually pop up. It’s a bit like getting thrown head-first into the deep end, but it’s well worth swimming your way through the plethora of features.
“Quests” are one of the more notable of those features. They’re quick goal-based games that earn users “reputation points,” almost like a radio RPG. For example, one quest is “In the Mood,” which requires users to listen to four different moods of music (moods are provided by listener tags) for at least 5 minutes. TheSixtyOne also features non-intrusive playback controls, song purchase options and a rich offering of artist information, all of which complement the beautiful visual design. All in all, I’ve never been so tempted by an streaming music site to hand over my email address and register for an account (which I soon did). There’s so much to do beyond just listen to music! TheSixtyOne also held my attention visually and I felt no temptation to minimize the site or switch to another tab. That would serve TheSixtyOne well if they added display advertisements. TheSixtyOne simply does an outstanding job adapting the radio experience to a computer screen. As an aside, this is perhaps the right approach for Internet radio when approaching something like the iPad. If users can’t multitask — can’t run Pandora in the background while writing emails or reviewing spreadsheets — then why not make streaming radio the destination? Shouldn’t Internet radio be worthy of filling that 9.7 inch touchscreen? TheSixtyOne already seems worthy of that role. — MS ALL ACCESS, TRITON DIGITAL TO PRESENT WEEKLY WEBINARS ON DIGITAL ISSUESAll Access, starting Wednesday, February 10, will present weekly webinars on digital issues affecting radio. The webinars, powered by Triton Digital, will be approximately 20 minutes long. Registration (here) is free. The first session, “Social Media 101,” will be hosted by Triton Media’s Jim Kerr with guests Mary Ann Halford of Bizworks360, Work+Life Fit CEO Cali Yost and David Parmet, CEO of Marketing Begins at Home. Find out more from All Access here.
SIRIUS XM DEBUTS APP FOR BLACKBERRY DEVICESSirius XM has launched an application for certain Blackberry devices. The Bold, Storm, Tour, Curve 8500 and 8900-series BlackBerrys are all compatible with the app, which tunes in to 120 channels from the satellite broadcaster, though the music is delivered via a 3G or Wi-Fi connection. IntoMobile.com has more on the new app here.OXX, DENON OFFER TABLETOP WI-FI RADIOS WITH FAMILIAR DESIGN, SOME NEW FEATURESOXX and Denon both have some new tabletop Wi-Fi radios out, both of which feature familiar rectangular designs but differ in features. Denon’s S52WT includes a CD player and iPod dock, along with two speakers. Meanwhile, the OXX Digital Classic DAB+ radio has one speaker but a crisp white look (pictured). OXX’s radio is available for $250 in Australia (more here), while the Denon S52WT is $299 (more here).Full story (and reader comments): RAIN 2/5: Streaming music site TheSixyOne adds game-like features, visual beauty to Net radio experience
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RAIN 2/4: Apple enables desktop browser previews of iPhone apps
·5 days ago YOU CAN SEE (BUT NOT TRY) APPS ON THE WEBApple today has enabled browser-based previews of iPhone/iPod Touch apps — without the need for iTunes.
It’s called the iTunes Preview feature. It was originally launched in November to enable users to browse music in the iTunes store from a Web browser (that is, without using the iTunes desktop software). Now, in addition to seeing available music, customers can click on an iPhone app link (like this one) and find out more about an app. Users see a “preview page” for the app with a logo, system requirements, price, and other info. Also included are a nice big screenshot or two, customer ratings, and more. What you don’t get is a preview of is the app itself “in action” (it’s only screenshots). Keep in mind that Apple did quietly later add audio previews to their iTunes Preview music browsing. Might we some day be able to “take an app for a spin” in a web browser before purchasing? Read more in TechCrunch here. STUDY: LET USERS PICK THEIR OWN PRE-ROLLA Hulu ad model called “The Ad Selector” allows users to pick which ad they must view before they get to their desired content, and it’s being called the “model of the future” for online video ads.
MediaPost reports on the VivaKi “Pool” project, a well-funded collaboration of the Publicis ad agency, some of its top clients (Allstate, Applebee’s, Capital One, Nestlé Purina PetCare) and top publishers (AOL, BBE, CBS Interactive, Discovery Communications, Hulu, Microsoft Advertising, Yahoo), aimed at developing more efficient and effective advertising solutions. MediaPost reports, “The Pool said it selected Hulu’s format after evaluating ’43 unique executions’ utilizing 29 distinct advertising models that were exposed to more than 25 million consumers.” Read their coverage here. RADIOTIME TO LET WEBCASTERS SPONSOR SEARCH RESULTS IN EXCHANGE WITH HIGHER PLACEMENTInternet radio tuning platform and aggregator RadioTime’s new Traffic Builder Campaign is aimed at helping webcasters attract more listeners to their stream. The program works in the same way as sponsored ads on search engine sites: webcasters “sponsor” the the results of certain search terms and a link to their stream is placed at the top of the list. Find out more from RadioTime’s press release here.
SLACKER RAISES $2 MILLION MORE IN FUNDINGSlacker has raised $2 million in debt round funding, according to the company’s recent regulatory filing. That filing apparently showed that Slacker had a goal of $6 million.
As part of its business, Slacker created and sold its own dedicated portable music device. But the development of the market for Net radio apps on smartphones, Slacker decided to phase out its own device and focus on mobile apps. (Slacker offers free ad-supported or premium streaming to the PC and via apps for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch, as well as Android and Blackberry, and Palm webOS-based devices.) The Internet radio company is backed by Austin Ventures, Centennial Ventures, Mission Ventures, Rho Ventures, and Sevin Rosen Funds. Social Tech has more on the story here. Full story (and reader comments):RAIN 2/4: Apple enables desktop browser previews of iPhone apps
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RAIN 2/3: Karmazin addresses competing with Net radio, for in-car listening and for Howard!
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Stories·6 days ago NOT SURPRISINGLY, HE PLAYS IT COOL ON BOTH FRONTSSirius XM CEO Mel Karmazin, at a New York roundtable event this morning, was reportedly asked what he thinks about the possibility of Howard Stern leaving satellite radio when his contract expires next year, and instead of returning to broadcast radio, “leaving for an outfit — like Pandora — looking to avail itself of the same ‘Stern Effect’ that spiked Sirius’ subscriber rolls…”
As tech writer John Paczkowski reports in The Wall Street Journal’s “All Things Digital” blog, Karmazin isn’t too worried. “Howard would be sought after by anyone,” he said. “There are a lot of choices for audio content, and obviously the Internet is one of them. But the question is who’s going to be the largest player? And I think that’s our spot to lose.” At the event, Karmazin also commented on new competition from Internet radio enabled by in-dash Internet connectivity. He believes satellite radio can effectively coexist in the car with Internet, as it has with iPods. “I think the Internet (in the car)… will be a good competitor… We look at how sat radio performs in the vehicles where people have the ability to put an iPod jack in and we don’t see much of a difference. We believe them to be complementary.” Read All Things Digital here. “THIS AMERICAN LIFE” EXPERIMENTS WITH PAID iPHONE ACCESS TO ITS ARCHIVESPublic Radio Exchange and Chicago Public Radio have released a $2.99 iPhone app that allows listeners on-demand access to the audio archives of the popular “This American Life” (TAL). Currently, downloads of the most recent TAL episode are available for free for seven days, after which they’re available as a 99 cent download from iTunes (though still available as a free on-demand stream on the TAL web site). The new app, GigaOm reports, offers a complete searchable library of the show’s 15-year history, plus “behind-the-scenes content, alerts and live show streams.” There’s more from GigaOm here.
STREAMTHEWORLD TO REVEAL iPAD APP AT NABStreamTheWorld already has a handful of iPhone apps available, from iRadioNOW (for Beasley Broadcast stations) to individual station apps like Q101 or 93.3 KGSR. But at the NAB Show in April, StreamTheWorld says they’ll reveal an app specially designed for the new iPad tablet. Most existing apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch will also run on the iPad. Tom Taylor has more in his Radio-Info newsletter here.
UK’S ABSOLUTE RADIO MAKES PODCASTS AVAILABLE TO KINDLE USERSThe details are in a video on Absolute Radio’s (the former Virgin Radio) One Golden Square blog. Very simply, the broadcaster is making podcasts of its most popular personalities’ shows available as audio files for the Amazon Kindle. View the intro video here.
Full story (and reader comments):RAIN 2/3: Karmazin addresses competing with Net radio, for in-car listening and for Howard!
RAIN 2/8: Pandora CEO Joe Kennedy to keynote at RAIN Summit North RAIN 2/5: Streaming music site TheSixyOne adds game-like features, visual beauty to Net radio experience RAIN 2/4: Apple enables desktop browser previews of iPhone apps RAIN 2/3: Karmazin addresses competing with Net radio, for in-car listening and for Howard! RAIN 2/2: Radio's battle with webcasters for local advertisers may have begun RAIN 2/1: Sixty million in U.S. will listen to Net radio this week, study says  |
Kurt Hanson's blog
Apple iPad: No Flash, no multitasking... yet·12 days ago In Monday’s blog, I speculated about the features that might be part of the highly-anticipated Apple tablet that was going to be announced on Wednesday (i.e., yesterday) — noting two key potential features that could have an impact on online radio listening. Feature #1 was the ability to multitask. That would mean that you could listen to Internet radio on an app while you simultaneously read an e-book or surfed the web or wrote an e-mail. Feature #2 was full support for Adobe Flash. That would permit users to launch most webcasters’ media players directly from their websites within the Safari browser, without the need for downloading a unique app for each one. (Such support would also allow viewing of, among other things, TV shows on Hulu.com.) Unfortunately, neither feature was part of the big announcement in San Francisco yesterday. That says to me that the iPhone and iPod Touch will, for now, be the better devices for Internet radio listening. They’re the perfect size and they’ve got great connectivity. The iPad (the name Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced yesterday) doesn’t really add anything to the equation.
Pictured above, a Starfleet-issued PADD (Personal Access Display Device) from the year 2374 (as seen on “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.”) Tablet computers have been called PADDs in the “Star Trek” universe for the last couple of decades. Did that influence the name of the Apple device? Well, Jobs did show some scenes from the recent “Star Trek” movie in his presentation… However, keep in mind that, in the long run, everything gets better. Compare an iPod circa 2004 (small black & white screen, does nothing but play MP3s, clunky) to an iPod Touch circa 2010 (vibrant large color screen, thousands of apps, elegant) and then project forward six more years. It’ll have everything we’re talking about and much more, including features and abilities that we probably can’t even imagine today. In fact, a year from now, there will no doubt be major improvements already. Progress continues. Plan for it! Full story (and reader comments):Apple iPad: No Flash, no multitasking... yet
Latest CRB royalty news
SoundExchange and "Pureplay" webcasters announce 2006-2015 royalty agreement
·217 days ago SoundExchange and a set of “Pureplay” webcasters on July 7 announced that they had reached an agreement for The deal includes a “discount” from the rates set by the Copyright Royalty Board for large webcasters, and offers smaller webcasters percentage-based payment options (specifics are here). The agreement is offered as an alternative to the CRB rates (RAIN coverage here) and covers royalties from 2006 to 2015 (2014 for small webcasters)… Full story (and reader comments):SoundExchange and "Pureplay" webcasters announce 2006-2015 royalty agreement
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systems and car dashboards (like Ford’s new My Ford Touch system, 
David Oxenford are among the many speakers. A full (preliminary) schedule of events can be found 
sound recording royalty rates for the period of 2006-2015.
