 RAIN 3/3: RAIN Summit West registration now one-third off ·Mar 3, 10:11 AM SPECIAL PRICING ONLY AVAILABLE UNTIL MARCH 20Time sure goes fast! It’s just over a month until RAIN Summit West 2011 gets underway in Las Vegas. If you haven’t registered yet, be sure to do so soon because tickets are sure to go fast — especially because of new special promotion we’re kicking off today!
First off, we’re offering a special early bird rate for Standard Registration. You get access to the full day of RAIN Summit West events, including the panels, keynote presentation from CBS Radio CEO/president Dan Mason, a boxed lunch and the poolside RAIN cocktail party all for $199. We’re also discounting our special Broadcasters and Webcasters price to $59. That gets Please register soon though, these special rates expire on March 20. Be sure to sign up before tickets sell out! RAIN Summit West 2011 takes place on April 11 in Las Vegas during the NAB Show. You can find out more — and register to attend — right here. We hope to see you there! CC INDICATES IT WILL USE THUMBPLAY TO BUILD PERSONALIZABLE STREAMING SERVICEEarlier this week Clear Channel acquired on-demand music subscription service Thumbplay (RAIN coverage here), a move Bob Pittman (pictured) — the company’s new chairman of media and entertainment platforms — was surely behind. But Pittman says Clear Channel wasn’t interested in Thumbplay’s on-demand service (which had 20,000 paying customers).
Instead, reports Billboard, Clear Channel will use Thumbplay’s technology to launch a personalizable radio service within “a couple of months.” Buying Thumbplay, rather than building such a service from the ground up, “speeds us to market tremendously,” said Pittman. Such a service could not only challenge Pandora but is a “potential death knell to Sirius XM,” predicts a Seeking Alpha columnist (here). He writes that the satellite radio broadcaster’s best hope is in big-name content like Stern and Dr. Laura. Pittman also dismissed Pandora, telling Billboard (here), “you can’t bond with a robot…It reminds me of AOL Instant Messenger. He continued to Ad Age (here), “I don’t think we see Pandora as straight competitive with what they do, but they have shown us there’s interest in custom radio.” All of this kind of rhetoric from Pittman shows Fred Jacobs of Jacobs Media (here) that here, at last, is a radio executive who recognizes “that streaming music services are indeed a big deal…Pittman sounds like a media exec, not a radio broadcaster.” SAAB ANNOUNCES IN-CAR WEB-CONNECTED SYSTEM BASED ON ANDROIDYet another automaker, this time Saab, has jumped into the web-connected dashboard entertainment game. Unlike others, Saab’s IQon system is built on Android and offers a range of APIs for developers to work with (like vehicle speed). No word on how exactly the system will connect to the Internet — if it connects without the aid of a smartphone it would be novel indeed.
There’s also no mention of Internet radio…yet. But come on, this thing connects to the Internet and runs on Android. We have little doubt Internet radio will be included once IQon finally reaches consumers. It’s still being shown off in concept cars for now. Android Central has more coverage here. Read more about in-car Internet radio systems from RAIN here. share: del.icio.us.  Reddit  Digg  Yahoo  Wink  Windows  Google  Newsvine 
CommentCommenting is closed for this article.  Other stories 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 RAIN 9/6: Clear Channel taps The Echo Nest to take on Pandora RAIN 9/2: RAIN reviews Spotify's radio-like product Artist Radio RAIN 9/1: UK online radio aggregator Radioplayer campaigns b'dcasters to create "all radio" ratings RAIN 8/31: Execs from Merlin, Triton Digital, jacAPPS and more to appear at RAIN Summit Chicago |
you access to all the same events as discussed above. You can register for 
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