First NPR…now this….not to mention the Beats thing. Slowly but surely iTunes Radio is going to jump in this game in a big way.
Hot on the heels of the announcement that Apple had acquired the Beats Music streaming service for $3 billion to help bolster its own struggling competitor, 9to5Mac has learned that Apple is introducing a new ESPN station for iTunes Radio.
via Apple brings ESPN and 42 local NPR stations to iTunes Radio | 9to5Mac.
Great article in the Times about 10 days ago (this got bumped a few times by various audio-related news) and the best layman’s explanation of how cable works, and how unbundling would be bad for most.
For example, if you never watch sports, you might be better off not having to pay for ESPN, which charges the highest carriage fee of any basic cable channel. But Mr. Byzalov estimates that sports channel carriage fees would more than triple under unbundling, as most subscribers opt out and only die-hard sports fans buy in. Consumers who don’t care about sports at all would be better off, but casual sports fans would be worse off: They wouldn’t find it worth paying $37 for an unbundled cluster of sports channels, even if they would have paid the roughly $9 that it costs to get those channels as part of a bundled package.
via Why Unbundling Cable Would Not Save You Money – NYTimes.com.
I found about this last week and thought it seemed very very smart. Good link, click thru
Available for iPhone, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry 10, the app downloads the UKs Top 40 chart plus extra tracks and playlists to subscribers phones every week, charging O2 customers £1 a week and everyone else £4.99 a month.
There are so many interesting things going in on this space, its seems like someone has a cool idea every day.
Soundtrack Your Brand is hoping for an edge not just with the Spotify association — which is a significant edge on its own — but also added services. They include unlimited streamed music, scheduled playlists that can be customised at different venues, social features to share the music across Facebook, Twitter and stream it on your website; business support; and offline mode.Pricing is at two tiers, 349 Swedish Kronor per month $53 for “Spotify Business” for small and independent venues, and 799 SEK $121 for “Spotify Enterprise,” which has yet to launch and will be aimed at larger deployments.
via Ex-Beats, Spotify Execs Debut Soundtrack Your Brand To Stream Spotify In Public Venues | TechCrunch.
Great article from last week about some of the advantages Apple would have once they go all-in on streaming audio.
They’d make a useful slab of exclusivity for a streaming iTunes, while Apple’s relationships with artists including Coldplay, Beyoncé, Daft Punk, Adele, Justin Timberlake and others might serve it well in trying to secure big albums at the expense of rivals.
Note another recent Billboard report about Apple lobbying for more exclusives on iTunes – albeit the download store – after helping Beyoncé to sell nearly 829,000 copies in three days last December, through an exclusive digital deal.
via 7 ways a streaming iTunes could compete with Spotify and its rivals | Technology | theguardian.com.
I saw this one over the weekend, and it’s really fascinating/scary. The author uses specific companies, and the paragraph I isolated uses Comcast as the hypothetical provider. I am not here to pick on them (again this is just the author’s future, it isn’t like Comcast has gone and done this) but it’s a fascinating look at how things could go in a world of Internet fast lanes.
The entire article is worth the read, but here is a taste.
Everything in Comcast Country is fast. Yahoo is fast. Facebook is fast. You don’t know how much Rupert Murdoch paid for his fast lane, but it must be a lot: nothing loads as quickly as Fox News. Microsoft made a deal for its new console, so the Xbox lives in Comcast Country. You’d honestly rather play Killzone 7 than Titanfall: Black Ops, but PlayStation multiplayer costs extra. Everything outside of Comcast Country is slow, and you have to look at Comcast’s ads before you leave the border. But at least the ads don’t suck. Comcast knows everywhere you go on the internet, and it knows what you like. Yes, I do need a new bicycle, you think to yourself. But only from Amazon, not eBay. eBay is slow. Amazon is in Comcast Country.
via Your corporate internet nightmare starts now | The Verge.
I saw this tweet the other day.
This morning heard "Piano Man" & "Hotel California" within minutes of each other on the radio! Only on @Mix938FM can you hear that! Great!
— Ken Borland (@KenBorland) May 15, 2014
Hotel California and Piano Man. Two of the classic rockiest classic rock songs. And the nice fellow was excited enough to tweet about it!
It’s one of those fascinating things about radio. People will tell you they want more variety, except their behavior suggests they don’t. “Play the hits’ will never steer you wrong. Back to my comedy days, Jeff Foxworthy made a lot of money telling “You might be a redneck…” punchlines. Sure there are edgier comedians and there are “cooler” songs than Hotel California in 2014….but sometimes you have to just give them what they want.
Given the rate that the millennials are using Pandora I would pay attention to this. Data costs will continue to be an issue….for now.
I love the sub-conscious.
Last night my brain took me back to Comedy Central Radio. When I woke up I wondered why. Then I realized the date – we launched Comedy Central Radio last year on May 13th.
A year later things are….different?….weird??? My position at SiriusXM was eliminated. The main guy on the Comedy Central side of the deal is no longer with CC. My former #2 who I had groomed to replace me had left the comedy department for a good opportunity…so he isn’t there. So a foundation built, but other folks having stewardship. I didn’t see that one coming.
As I dusted off the cob-webs I headed off to brush my teeth and looked at the long sleeve shirt I had slept in, the one I had pulled out of the drawer to play beach volleyball in on a cool night. It says NYC Marathon 2013.
That’s the marathon that didn’t happen because of Sandy. I was supposed to run that one.
I have another shirt. It says NYC Marathon 2014. That one I ran. I had to put my head down and train again, but everything was OK in the end.
So that’s my personal takeaway this morning. Head down, keep running.
Check out some of the work I did creating Comedy Central Radio and the rest of my portfolio.
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I was happy to see that This Is Not Happening is making the leap from digital (web) to linear (TV). That was a show we partially incubated on CCR, and I think was part of the great possibilities of CCR.