iHeartRadio

Clear Channel says it's topped 30 million registered users of its iHeartRadio webcasting platform, hitting the milestone in under two years since launch. The company says that makes iHeartRadio second only to Instagram as the fastest-growing digital service in Internet history.

While listeners can tune in to iHeartRadio broadcast streams without registering, registration is also free and not all accounts are actively used. This makes the "30 million" number a poor indicator of the service's reach.

Clear Channel says the iHeartRadio mobile app has been downloaded 175 million times, and more than 60 million monthly unique users come to the service across its digital network.

Clear Channel's iHeartRadio reached 29 million registered users in the first quarter, more than half of whom were on mobile devices like smartphones or tablets.

Mobile listening accounted for 55% of the service's total listening hours during the first quarter, which were up 31% year-over-year, the company revealed in yesterday's 2013Q1 earnings report.

Competitor Pandora says more than 75% of its listening is now on mobile devices (see The New York Times here). And though Pandora says its mobile revenue is now growing faster than its mobile audience (see RAIN here), the webcaster recently capped mobile listening at 40 hours a month for users of the free, ad-supported streaming (more here).

There's more on Clear Channel's Q1 earnings here.

The Media Audit says its new study "found that among top Hispanic radio markets, Pandora and iHeartRadio remain competitive when compared to Hispanic-programmed local radio stations that heavily focus on the Hispanic market."

In the Los Angeles metro, the nation's top Hispanic market, over a quarter (25.9%) of the market's nearly four million Hispanics report being weekly Pandora listeners. That's more than a million weekly listeners, "topping weekly listening of all Hispanic-programmed stations or radio clusters," says The Media Audit.

New York is the nation's top market overall. There, Pandora reaches over a third (34%) of metro New York's 3.2 million Hispanics every week. Clear Channel's iHeartRadio reaches 560-thousand New York Hispanics weekly. And nearly one in four of Miami's 1.7 million Hispanics are weekly Pandora listeners, "again ranking the popular Internet radio service number one among all Hispanic-programmed stations or radio clusters."

The Media Audit looked at Hispanic online radio listening in the nation's top ten markets (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and Atlanta). They say nearly a third (32.7%) of Hispanics in top ten U.S. markets have used Internet radio in the past month. Not many fewer (29.8%) are weekly listeners.

Read more from The Media Audit here.

Triton Digital's Webcast Metrics report (see today's coverage) includes analysis that indicates growing Internet radio listening is being driven by listening on mobile devices.

Now, there are special concerns and issues when it comes to monetizing this listening (compared to over-the-air or desktop streaming). This Sunday at RAIN Summit West, our panel "Profiting from Mobile" will address the question "What are the critical elements to making money with mobile?"

Contributing to the panel is Michael Dalfonzo, director of sales and revenue for Abacast, a software/services provider for online radio. Abacast recently launched cloud-based ad-insertion with partner ESPN (see RAIN here), and technology that allows song-skipping on live broadcast streams (more here and here). Dalfonzo (pictured right) is a broadcast radio programming vet, and an experienced consultant and researcher. He was also VP/Sales at Spacial Audio Solutions.

Speaking of ESPN, senior director of distribution & business strategy with ESPN Audio Patrick Polking joins us as well. ESPN Radio is the most-listened-to single live stream of any AM/FM broadcaster in the world, and mobile is an increasingly important component to that audience. ESPN SVP of production/pusiness divisions Traug Keller delivered the RAIN Summit West keynote last year (here), and took the occasion to preview the newly-updated ESPNRadio mobile app. Polking (pictured left) is a former financial analyst and led business development at Found, Inc.

Special thanks to Clear Channel SVP/local digital sales Michelle Savoy, pinch-hitting on the panel for Clear Channel's Rick Song. Before joining Clear Channel in November, Savoy spent over twelve years with Gannett Digital, specializing in revenue building, business development, and ad operations. The company announced today iHeartRadio's "Perfect For" feature and alarm clock function (which were added in January) are now available on the iHeartRadio Android app.

Moderating our "Profiting from Mobile" panel will be the IAB's Michael Theodore. Also speaking, Pandora's Steven Kritzman (more details here).

RAIN Summit West is this Sunday at the LVH Hotel in Las Vegas. The annual full-day Internet radio conference is a co-located education program of the NAB Show. Now in its 12th year, the Summit focuses on the intersection of radio and the Internet. Keynoting the even will be RAB president and CEO Erica Farber (more in RAIN here

The NPD Group looked at music listening in a younger (13-35) age range and found "Internet radio services accounted for nearly one-quarter (23%) of the average weekly music listening time," up from 17% a year ago. This nearly matches the 24% that AM/FM attracts for music listening among this age group.

NPD's Music Acquisition Monitor study ran during the fourth quarter of 2012.

More than half of Pandora and iHeartRadio listeners regularly use their mobile phone to listen, and about 20% of those listen in the car.

Not surprisingly, Pandora is winning the race among services. 39% of the 13-35 set regularly listen to Pandora's free streams (2% subscribe to Pandora's premium service). IHeartRadio attracts 11%, Spotify's free radio service 9% (no other competitor hit higher than the 3% mark).

Net radio accounted for just 13% of music listening in the 36-and-older set in the study.

"Driven by mobility and connectivity, music-streaming services are rapidly growing their share of the music listening experience for teens and young adults, at the expense of traditional music listening methods," said NPD SVP/Industry Analysis Russ Crupnick.

Crupnick will present his company's research this Sunday at RAIN Summit West in Las Vegas. NPD Group's Music Acquisition Monitor study is available here.

Clear Channel has set the dates for its third-annual iHeartRadio Music Festival. The fest will be September 20th and 21st, returning to Las Vegas's MGM Grand Hotel. Clear Channel will announce the line-up in summer.

The festival began in 2011 as a "relaunch" event to promote Clear Channel's online radio service iHeartRadio. Last year, over 17 million people listened and viewed the festival performances, which Clear Channel says generated over a billion "social impressions" and more than 50 million text-to-win contest entries.

Clear Channel is also bringing back the "Macy’s iHeartRadio Rising Star" contest, where the winning artist or group will perform at the festival.