SiliconANGLE » Media

Rdio Updates for Android 4.0 as Mobile Music Heats Up

Kristina Farrah — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:55:00 +0000

Rdio, the digital music service started by the creators of Skype, has unveiled their redesigned Android app. It’s available for download from the Android Market in US, Canada, Brazil, Germany, Australia and New Zealand —or as an update for those already using the service. It requires a Rdio Unlimited subscription to access the full service on mobile devices.

Some features included in the overhauled app are collections, playlists, new releases, top charts, recommendations, and support for Android Ice Cream Sandwich’s new remote control client. Android users can not only have immediate access to Rdio’s list of 12 million songs, but can leverage with its social features and extensive music discovery options as well.

“With the Rdio for Android redesign, we were focused on bringing Android users the best mobile music discovery application possible,” said Malthe Sigurdsson, VP of Product, Rdio. “We believe this launch further reinforces our commitment to creating the most visual, social and interactive experience of music across every platform.”

Rdio offers flexible subscription plans for continued access across a growing number of devices. Plan options include:

• Rdio Unlimited, $9.99/month: Unlimited Web and mobile streaming on all available devices, as well as wireless syncing to listen offline
• Rdio Unlimited Family: 2-3 person Rdio Unlimited accounts on one plan for discounted rate (2 for $17.99/month or 3 for $22.99/month)
• Rdio Web, $4.99/month: Unlimited Web streaming and access through Mac/Windows desktop apps

Mobile Music Mayhem

Meanwhile, Spotify’s having it tough these days because of the criticism it’s getting, despite dramatic growth. Three of the biggest albums in 2011 by Adele, Coldplay and Black Key were not available on the service or any of its rivals to avoid cannibalizing iTunes sales. “Spotify competes with download stores,” says Coldplay’s manager, Dave Holmes. Still, props to Spotify for earning the love of Warner Music chair Edgar Bronfman Jr., while he calls Google Music an “oxymoron.”

Rhapsody’s also eager to take over the mobile space, having recently launched a new tablet app to push original editorial content, helping it distinguish its brand from other digital music services. Pandora is also set to benefit from Facebook’s upcoming IPO, along with Zynga and Groupon though users are still complaining of its being pricey despite having 125 million users.

Futhermore, iTunes dealt with a few cloud problems with its song match service a few days ago. Songs that user uploaded to the service was unavailable for streaming or download. Apple also kicked out China’s most popular browser, Qihoo, out of iTunes.

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New Media Minute: How to Measure Social Buzz for a TV Show – Bluefin Labs

Daisy Whitney — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:28:15 +0000

Where will the next great breakthrough in marketing and
measurement come from? A lot of ad agencies are betting on a social
media metrics company called Bluefin labs. Every where I turn, I hear
this company’s name mentioned and here’s why – Bluefin Labs is helping
marketers pinpoint the precise social buzz of a TV show and the ads
within it, and that’s why agencies like Starcom, MediaVest and
Mediacom have signed on to use the company’s metrics to inform its
online and TV buys. For more details, check out this week’s New Media Minute.

[Thanks, Daisy.]

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New Media Minute: Online Video Buy Boosts TV Reach by 14%, Frequency by 18%, Study Finds

Daisy Whitney — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:15:48 +0000

What do you get when you combine a $500,000 online video buy
with a $2.6 million TV campaign? A 14% percent boost in reach, an 18%
jump in frequency and an 11% reduction in the cost of the impressions.
Or so says YuMe, the online video network that partnered with Nielsen
to study effectiveness of a cross-platform campaign. For details on
how online video boosted the efficiency of TV, check out this week’s
New Media Minute.

[Thanks, Daisy.]

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Rhapsody Buys Napster Service, Enters European Market

Saroj Kar — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:20:09 +0000

The streaming pioneer Rhapsody has bought Napster International for its campaign to extend its music service subscriptions beyond the US market. Rhapsody, which had already bought Napster’s U.S. division last year, will take on all employees of Napster International, and will continue to use the Napster services Germany and the UK.

Rhapsody was launched in 2001 as an on-demand music service in which users could pay a monthly fee to access the music library. Their catalog was quite limited, but with time the company managed to win contracts with EMI, BMG, Warner, Sony and Universal. Today it is one of the largest premium music service for subscribers in the U.S., with more than 1 million paying subscribers and more than 14 million titles from over 600 genres.

“The acquisition of Napster and its subscriber base in the UK and Germany gives us an ideal entry to the European market,” said the Rhapsody president, Jon Irwin. “Through the benefit of scale, the strength of our editorial programming, and strategic partnerships, we can now bring the Napster service to even more consumers on a variety of platforms.”

Global Expansion in Cloud Music Services

The digital music business saw unprecedented global expansion in 2011. According to labels’ IFPI umbrella, their global music subscribers’ user base has increased by 65 percent to 13.4 million in 2011. With rapid expansion into new markets by services such as iTunes, Spotify, Pandora and Google Music, the major international digital music services are now present in 58 countries.

Spotify has set a benchmark that others are following. One of the strategies the music cloud industry is following is to expand their spaces to new territory with their own new services. MOG, a cloud-music service that previously required all users to subscribe, has launched a Freeplay option, which allows users to earn more play hours if they are actively sharing music content, with an aim to reach to more listeners.

Pandora, the personalized radio service, is now reaching to more and more connected devices and streaming their services to overseas markets as well. The company hired a new CEO in China to expand in Asia. Pandora recently topped the Triton Digital latest Internet audio ranker for December 2011. The company experienced 50 to 100 percent growth in AQH ratings in all of the top radio markets.

Spotify Still Leads Europe’s Subscription Market

Spotify continues to lead the music subscription services in the Europe, while Napster ranks in second place. Although Napster has a strong presence in the German territory and will bring an estimated 350,000 extra customers to Rhapsody, they are still behind newcomer Spotify.

Spotify launched their services in the US last July, and plans to enter the German market very soon. In November, Spotify claimed more than 2.5 million paying subscribers. With 15 million tracks in its library, it is one of the most elegantly designed, independent mobile music subscription services around.

iTunes Global Revenue Reached $6 billion

Apple’s spectacular earnings, released last Tuesday, was a sign of impressive growth for iTunes. Apple’s iTunes sales jumped to $1.7 billion in the quarter ending on Dec. 31, 2011. iTunes recorded an impressive $6 billion in global revenue for the total calendar year of 2011. This includes sales of all content sold in the iTunes Store, from music to videos and apps.

The leader of cloud based music is still ruling the market, and Apple claims its iTunes library had 20 million songs in the most recent quarter.

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Digital Sales Continue to Bloom but Big Music is Stuck in the Past

Kit Dotson — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:01:34 +0000

Digital distribution and sales continue to move forward and have found themselves a bright niche in our Internet-connected world. As a result of having almost instant access to downloadable music and music services have caused people to flock to them and it’s obvious that people are extremely happy to spend their money on licensed music.

In an article published on AllThingsD by Peter Kafka, a recently released survey by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) [PDF] has revealed that global music digital sales increased by 8 percent last year. Apparently, this is the first time that statistic has grown since 2004 (when the IFPI started tracking that statistic.)

The current analysis suggests that a notable amount of this increase is from licensed music-subscription services such as Spotify and Deezer. In the report, the IFPI accounts for 32% of the music industry’s global revenues coming from digital music sales and ascribes 13 million paying users to paying users (up from 8 million last year.)

The cloud is also showing some penetration in the thoughts of music industry executives:

Afo Verde, president, Latin Region, Sony Music, says: “Broadband penetration in Latin America continues to grow and the region has become the number two cell phone market in the world, presenting a great opportunity to expand the digital music business. Subscription services are beginning to take root and we anticipate these will perform well, while download services will benefit from the rollout of cloud technology.”

We’ve seen cloud-technology affect digital segments across the board; in fact cloud-distributed gaming has been seeing a lot of expansion with a 40% increase over the past few years.

However, the IFPI, being a trade organization, has a strong bias involving piracy and wants vey much to make it out to be a much bigger boogeyman than it is. It uses the survey to speak not to the technologies that are enabling a greater number of people greater access to music (and thus makes them more likely to jump on board) but about how well legislation is working to curb music piracy.

If anything, this survey shows that people want to buy digital music, that subscription services are seeing a great deal of increase in subscriptions and people actively seek music there means that they’re not pirating it instead. In fact—add that when Spotify came to Sweden piracy went down 25%—it looks like the industry is managing to find what their audience wants and that’s reducing piracy far more than any legislation will ever be capable of.

In the words of Valve Software’s CEO Gabe Newell: “Piracy is almost always a service problem.”

Until the advent of the cloud and better service-based music platforms opens up devices and people to accessing and receiving music. With these services also comes increased quality and accessibility—things that piracy enables when the music industry fails to deliver—if instead of seeking legislation to buttress region locks, device-centric DRM, and anti-copying paradigms the music industry were to seek their audience instead they would probably find that when they open up to more devices and more people they will find more paying customers waiting there.

At least that seems to be the takeaway this survey has shown.

Digital Sales Continue to Bloom but Big Music is Stuck in the Past is a post from: SiliconANGLE
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CyberWar – Anonymous Attacks – Facebook Jan 28

John Casaretto — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:03:46 +0000

Breaking news: Anonymous is recruiting for an attack against Facebook January 28.

In what appears to be a legitimate posting, YouTube user AnonymousVoice777 has published a video that seems to be recruiting for an attack against Facebook on January 28^th.

Anonymous Message On How YOU Can Be A Part Of #OpGlobalBlackout FACEBOOK ATTACK

Hello. People of the world. We are anonymous. The time has come. An online War has begun between anonymous, the people, and the government of the united states. While SOPA and PIPA may be postponed from congress, this does not guarantee that our internet rights will be upheld. For those unaware, there is still ACTA or the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. You. The public. I have a proposal. Would you like to become part of the greatest internet protest and first official cyber war? Anonymous is in the hands of us all. It is time to take action. Operation global blackout is ongoing and everyone can be a part of it. In the description I have provided everything you will need. Our first target… Facebook… While it is true that facebook has at least 60,000 servers… It is still possible to bring it down… Anonymous needs the help of the people… The people who want to take a stand against the government… The people who want to make a difference… This is what we must do… But first… you must ask yourself, are you truly apart of the anonymous consciousness? Do you fully grasp our ideas and understand what we are. If you do… Then one thing is clear… Together… We the people… We anonymous… Can make a change… We’ve already crashed CBS… Warner Brothers… And FBI sites…

Facebook is our next aim… This will be enough to show them indeed that we are not, playing. Now I will give some general instructions on what to do in order to help crash facebook… First… you will need to download the L-O-I-C or, Low Orbit Ion Cannon from the link provided in the description… Once downloaded… Open the program and type in the URL space http://www.facebook.com and hit lock on… It will tell you facebooks ip address. Because there are different servers, there will be more than one ip address that will pop up on different instances, but they will all be similar. Next you will go to the box that says attack options. Change the threads to 1000. Then you will hit the button that says IMMA CHARGIN MAH LAZER… tHIS WILL NOT WORK if everyone does it at random times… This is why… I would like to conduct this operation at exactly 12 A M on January 28th 2012. A five day preparation… That way… We will have a stronger army built up to fight for our rights… Do not fear… There is no way you can get caught… Hundreds of thousands of us citizens and those of the anonymous idea will all be participating… They cannot take down that large of a group… This is your chance… Our chance… The fate of the internet… Rests in your hands… In owr, hands… Government Of The United States… Leaders of the new world order… You have been warned… Operation Global Blackout Part 2, Facebook. Engaged… We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. They should of Expected us…

YOU CAN CHANGE THE THREADS TO 1000 or 10,000 or more!

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New Media Minute: How Consumers Use Tablets, Mobile Devices in the Home – Words from a TV Exec

Daisy Whitney — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:34:51 +0000

Like most TV networks, Scripps Networks has launched programming on mobile devices and tablets. So far, the programmer has found that tablet usage is four to five times that of the other devices. We caught up with Scripps executive Jeff Meyer and he shared insights on what this means and where networks will go next with new media devices, as well as what the mobile market needs from advertising. For more details, check out this week’s New Media Minute.

[Thanks, Daisy!]

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An Inside Look at Intel’s Social Media Tracking Technology in Action

Tom Foremski — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:35:00 +0000

Above, is a demonstration of how Intel, the world’s largest chip maker, uses a proprietary monitoring technology called “Social Cockpit” to analyze the flood of social media buzz generated by the massive Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The Intel system works in real-time to identify and track individuals that have said anything online that’s related to a brand, a competitor, or a specific topic. The monitoring technology determines who they are, where they work, their job, their level of online influence, and records what they said, where they said it, and when.

[Cross-posted at Silicon Valley Watcher (http://s.tt/15co2)]

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New Mediia Minute: CES 2012 Outlook Connected TVs on Pace for Big Year

Art Lindsey III — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:21:07 +0000

The annual Consumer Electronics show has kicked off this week in
Las Vegas, with gadgets and TV galore. CE makers from Samsung to LG
are rolling out new connected TV partnerships, as these smart sets
accounted for 52 million sets sold last year. Now, in 2012,
manufacturers are promoting Internet-capable TVs even more to
distinguish themselves from the competition. For more on what’s on the
connected TV horizon, and whether 9% of consumers really have cut the
cord, watch this week’s New Media Minute.

[Thanks, Daisy!]

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Microsoft Stalls Plans for Web TV Streaming Subscriptions

Kit Dotson — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:03:18 +0000

From an exclusive story at Reuters it looks like Microsoft Corp has put subscription plans for broadcast television streaming to their Xbox LIVE platform on hold. Instead of becoming a replacement for cable, Microsoft is focusing on delivering cable programming via Xbox to already existing cable subscribers.

Similar to Netflix Inc, Microsoft’s service also would have allowed users the option of paying a monthly fee for a package of programming from someone other than a local cable or satellite TV company. But unlike Netflix, Microsoft had hoped to offer current shows and live networks on its service, which made it a much higher cost proposition.

According to much of the information coming from the recent revelation, the software giant has been in intense talks about content and pricing—but the content kept dwindling and the price kept rising. Eventually talks stalled on the point that Microsoft couldn’t countenance the licensing costs for the programming that they desired to jumpstart the service.

“They built Microsoft TV, they demoed it for us, they asked for rate cards but then said ‘ooh ah, that’s expensive,’” said one unnamed “senior media executive” involved in said talks.

The expectations of this program have been extremely high with the obvious direction that the software giant has been pulling the Xbox towards becoming an Internet media entertainment center moreso than just a video game console. It’s still up in the air if this change in Microsoft’s direction will affect their talks with FiOS TV/cable providers such as Comcast Cable and Verizon FiOS TV.

Not to be left behind, Microsoft is still working hard with content providers to deliver television programming via apps and the web—also accessible via Xbox LIVE subscriptions and Internet connection. For example at the Consumer Electronics Show this week Microsoft and News Corp announced a partnership that will stream Fox Broadcast, Fox News, IGN, and The Wall Street Journal via apps on the Xbox LIVE service.

With a multitude of Smart TVs and Google TV making their debut at CES 2012, this could be something of a completive sphere for Microsoft; especially if the company wants to make an impact in the market against devices that are being built directly into television sets.

The face-off is certainly coming in these departments alongside other streaming services such as Hulu, Netflix, and delivery by content powerhouses like Amazon.com and Google Inc. All of whom are being courted by various Web TV and Smart TV manufacturers to bring their content from the Internet into living rooms.

The Xbox has all the general-computing power necessary to run these apps but without the proper licensing, Microsoft wouldn’t have exclusive rights to much of the promoted content and therefore feel that they’re not getting the bang they want for their buck.

“This is an expensive business,” a second unnamed media executive said to Reuters, referring to the overall expense of Hollywood and TV endeavors—the making of programming, streaming, and delivery all collapse into the cost of licensing, but it seems that content producers could do worse than to get to their audience through Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE service.

With these talks on hold, we’ll see if Xbox LIVE’s entertainment push falls back to apps and licensing or if Microsoft will find a new way to push into the streaming television and movie ecosystem in a fashion that will capture an audience to make it profitable for all involved.

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