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RAIN has upgraded (and moved)!
·1945 days ago
You can find the new site and our latest issues at kurthanson.com. Please be sure to update your bookmarks accordingly! Full story (and reader comments):  RAIN has upgraded (and moved)!More RAIN
RAIN 9/13: RAIN Summit Chicago takes place today!
·1947 days ago FIRST WINDY CITY SUMMIT KICKS OFF AT NOON; JOIN US AFTERWARDS FOR COCKTAILSRAIN Summit Chicago, our first-ever conference in RAIN’s hometown, starts today at noon and runs until 6:00pm.
After that we invite any readers (even if you don’t have a ticket to the sold-out Summit) to join us for cocktails from 6:00pm to 7:30pm at Truffles on the Blue Level (second-level) of the Hyatt Regency’s West Tower. You can find out more about the Summit here. Find below the full agenda for the Summit (or if you’re on a mobile device, find a mobile-friendly version right here). 12:00 – 12:05 — Introductions 12:05 – 12:35 — Panel: Online Tools That Drive Offline Listening Panelists: Michael Fischer (Triton Digital), Andy Friedman (Merlin Broadcasting), Joe Prus (Radio One), Annette Tonti (Mofuse). 12:35 – 12:42 — Pecha Kucha #1 12:45 – 1:15 — Panel: Mobile Streaming – Making It Work Panelists: Jim Cady (Slacker; pictured), Larry Leung (AirKast), Jake Sigal (Livio Radio). 1:20 – 1:50 — Panel: Sizing Up Your Audience
1:50 – 2:20 — Keynote: Kurt Hanson 2:20 – 2:50 — Panel: How to Advertise to Mobile Listeners Panelists: Amy Becker (TargetSpot), Jeff Pescatello (Radio Loyalty), Doug Sterne (Pandora). 2:50 – 3:20 — Networking Break 3:20 – 3:50 — Panel: Digital Face-Off Panelists: Shane Colton, Bob Merlotti (Digitas), Bob Monachino (Radio Bob Resort). 3:50 – 3:57 — Pecha Kucha #2 4:00 – 4:20 — Panel: Talk to My Lawyer Panelists: Angus MacDonald (Live365; pictured), David Oxenford (Davis Wright Tremaine), Colin Rushing (SoundExchange). 4:20 – 4:30 — Research Presentation: knowDigital 4:30 – 5:00 — Panel: Give Listeners What They Want Panelists: Brian Lakamp (Clear Channel), Lisa Namerow (AOL Radio), William Sanchez (Fox News Radio) 5:05 – 5:35 — Keynote: Tim Westergren 5:35 – 5:50 — Presentation of RAIN Internet Radio Awards 5:50 – 5:55 — Closing Remarks 6:00 – 7:30 — Cocktail Party RAIN 9/13: RAIN Summit Chicago takes place today!
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RAIN 9/12: First Summit in RAIN's hometown takes place tomorrow
·1948 days ago WELCOME TO THE DOZENS OF SPEAKERS, HUNDREDS OF ATTENDEES ARRIVING IN CHICAGOOur fall conference, RAIN Summit Chicago, takes place tomorrow at the Hyatt Regency.
RAIN is happy to welcome into Chicago: They’ll join more than 30 other panelists and speakers, including Pandora founder Tim Westergren and Slacker CEO Jim Cady. You can find the full agenda for tomorrow’s RAIN Summit Chicago here. The Summit is sold-out, but even if you don’t have a ticket you’re invited to join us for our RAIN Reader Cocktail Party. It takes place 6-7:30pm at Truffles on the Blue Level (second-level) of the Hyatt Regency (West Tower). RAIN Summit Chicago 2011 is sponsored (in part) by AdSwizz, Davis Wright Tremaine, Radio-Info, Live365 and Angel Street Capital.
NEW CUSTOMIZABLE iHEARTRADIO LANDS IN iPHONE APP STOREClear Channel has updated its iHeartRadio iPhone app to include the new Pandora-like custom radio features. The new beta update launched last week (RAIN coverage here).An update for iHeartRadio on Android devices is coming “in the near future,” said Clear Channel. The app includes most of the new features found on the new iHeartRadio website: thumbs-up and -down ratings, a dial to request more familiar or unfamiliar music and Clear Channel’s hundreds of AM/FM streams. TRITON DIGITAL LAUNCHES NEW SOCIAL, MOBILE RADIO SERVICESTriton Digital has launched a number of new ehancements and services “aimed at expanding radio stations’ abilities to capture audiences across social media and mobile devices.”
The updates include UGC (user-generated content) Contesting, Enhanced Social Media Integration, Mobile Marketing and Loyalty Club Registration, and QR Code Registration and Contesting. You can find Triton Digital’s full press release here. NEW PIONEER STEREOS PACK NET RADIO, AIRPLAY COMPATIBILITY Pioneer has announced a pair of new Wi-Fi stereos with Pandora, iHeartRadio and vTuner built-in.
The stereos also support Apple’s AirPlay system, allowing users to stream any audio from their iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad to the stereo. Prices start at $400 and Engadget has more coverage here. RAIN 9/12: First Summit in RAIN's hometown takes place tomorrow
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RAIN 9/9: Summer holidays, "doldrums" impact July Webcast Metrics, but audience up over last year
Stories·1951 days ago SLACKER, CUMULUS, EMF, ACCURADIO, PANDORA AMONG TOP YEAR-OVER-YEAR GAINERSFollowing the trend we’ve seen in years past, most webcasters were flat or down month-to-month in July 2011, according to Triton Digital’s newly-released Webcast Metrics. However, the combined audience of the Top 20-ranked webcasters was up 19% over last year (Domestic Mon-Sun 6a-12m daypart) — and may even have been higher if not for errors affecting the data from Pandora and ESPN Radio.
July is historically a light month, due in part to the 4th of July and general summer vacation “doldrums.” This year was no different (and accordingly we should expect significant rebounds in August and September). Pandora’s AAS (Average Active Sessions, which is essentially equivalent to AQH — i.e., average simultaneous listeners) was down 3% from June 2010 — though their numbers are affected by a tracking error in their mobile apps — while #2-ranked CBS Radio was down 11% and #3 Clear Channel dropped 10%. ESPN Radio’s AAS was down 37% month-to-month, but Triton Digital notes that ESPN Radio’s “data collection for the month of July was impacted due to a change in service provider.” The combined AAS of the Top 20-ranked webcasters was up 19% over July 2010. Slacker’s AAS grew 113% year-over-year (though Ando Media did not start tracking Slacker’s mobile listening until November 2010). Other strong year-over-year performances include Cumulus (97%), EMF (38%), AccuRadio (32%) and Pandora (31% — but, again, its July 2011 figures are lower than they might be due to a tracking error). You can find the Domestic and All Streams Mon-Sun 6a-12m rankings below. Find out more from Triton Digital’s Webcast Metrics report here (PDF) and find our coverage of June 2011’s ratings here.
PANDORA LAUNCHES WORKOUT STATIONSPandora has added twelve new workout-themed stations to its line-up of genre-based Internet radio channels. The new offerings include 80s Cardio, Classic Rock Power Workout, Yoga and Rap Strength Training.
Each station is “geared toward giving people energizing music to listen to while they’re exercising,” said Pandora VP of Corporate Communications Deborah Roth. You can find Pandora’s press release here. You can find the stations themselves here.
JELLI BRINGS CHAT, OTHER UPGRADES TO iPHONE APPCrowdsourcing radio service Jelli has upgraded its iPhone app to include a new chat feature, along with other improvements. In all, the company says the update helps the app “look more like Johnny Cash and feel more like a Little Red Corvette.” Radio Ink has more coverage here.
SLACKER PARTNERS WITH IN-CAR ENTERTAINMENT PLATFORMSlacker has partnered with in-car entertainment service Aha to bring the webcaster’s content (including on-demand offerings) to dashboard stereos. Aha powers audio systems from Pioneer. Slacker’s streams should go live in Aha’s platform this fall, Billboard reports (here).Full story (and reader comments): RAIN 9/9: Summer holidays, "doldrums" impact July Webcast Metrics, but audience up over last year
RAIN has upgraded (and moved)! RAIN 9/13: RAIN Summit Chicago takes place today! RAIN 9/12: First Summit in RAIN's hometown takes place tomorrow RAIN 9/9: Summer holidays, "doldrums" impact July Webcast Metrics, but audience up over last year RAIN 9/8: Clear Channel launches new customizable iHeartRadio beta; RAIN goes hands-on RAIN 9/7: Meet more speakers you'll hear at RAIN Summit Chicago in less than a week  |
Kurt Hanson's blog
Spotify is an "online music service," but that doesn't make it "radio"·2015 days ago There have been a lot of references in the trade press recently to the anticipated U.S. debut of Spotify that call it an “online radio service.” I believe that’s a misnomer. Here’s my rationale: For many decades now, consumers have listened to two forms of audio entertainment. To make the discussion easier, let’s focus on music. Basically, you can listen to the music you own, or you can listen to the radio. In the former case — listening to the music you own — you’re in control. You can say, “I think I’ll listen to ‘Heartache Tonight’ by the Eagles right now” and then you can do so. Or you can grab a stack of LPs and shuffle them and stack them on the changer on your turntable. (Putting a random stack of LPs on the changer on your turntable is the 1970s equivalent of hitting “shuffle” in iTunes.) In the latter case — listening to the radio — you typically have access to a wider library of music, but you give up some level of control. To be specific, someone else (or something else, such as a DJ or a radio station’s Selector or MusicMaster scheduling system or Pandora’s decision heuristics) is making the choices. (To add a bit more color to this, I would further argue that if your roommate is picking the songs from his collection, you may have given up control and gotten some more variety, but that’s not “radio” either. There’s got to be some component of it being done from a distance, and for the enjoyment of multiple other people than the music programmer himself or herself.) Pandora and other brands of Internet radio are modern versions of radio: An intelligence (i.e., some combination of people and computers) at a distance from you is creating programming for the enjoyment of numerous listeners. Spotify and Rhapsody, on the other hand, are modern versions of your music collection: You have access to a large library of songs and you can listen to them on demand in the order you want to listen to them. Yes, true, both Spotify and Rhapsody have a “radio” feature as part of their product offering. However, as far as we know, Rhapsody’s radio feature has never gotten a lot of consumer take-up. The fact Spotify and Rhapsody offer a radio component to their service doesn’t make them “an online radio service“ any more than the fact that McDonald’s has salads on the menu makes it “a salad restaurant.” McDonald’s isn’t a “salad restaurant,” and Spotify isn’t a “radio service” — at least as I understand how consumers are primarily using those brands today. In Spotify’s case: “Music service,” yes. But “radio,” no. [Want to debate this or help me fine-tune my definition of “radio”? Write me at [email protected].] Full story (and reader comments):Spotify is an "online music service," but that doesn't make it "radio"
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on mobile devices? What’s the formula for winning at the mobile streaming game? 
Panelists: Phillip Beswick (The Media Audit), Rob Favre (Triton Digital), Paul Krasinski (Arbitron).
