 RAIN 3/8: Mog coming to cars, TVs, home music systems MUSIC SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE PARTNERS WITH MINI, LG, SAMSUNG, VIZIO AND SONOSThe New York Times reports music subscription service Mog has landed a series of partnerships to bring its service to TVs and car dashboards — moves that “could introduce it to millions of potential new customers.”
In the car, Mog has partnered with BMW’s Mini to be a part of their web-connected dashboard entertainment system. That platform already includes support for Pandora, as well as Mini’s own iPhone app built on TuneIn Radio’s directory (RAIN coverage here, here and here). “The car is the holy grail,” said Mog founder David Hyman. “I look at the satellite-radio market in America, with 20 million subscribers, and I don’t see why we shouldn’t be 20 million subscribers.” Additionally, LG, Samsung and Vizio will add Mog to their web-connected TVs (pictured left) and other devices, while home music system Sonos will also add the service. Hyman said more partnerships like this are on the way. He will appear at RAIN Summit West 2011 on April 11 in Las Vegas (more info here). Mog offers a range of subscription services, ranging from artist-based radio streams to on-demand offerings (RAIN coverage here). “I don’t think anybody in the music industry quite grasps how much of an important opportunity lies in the living room,” Forrester Research analyst Mark Mulligan told The New York Times (here). “And the window for that opportunity is closing ever more as every year goes by.” UPDATE: SAAB’S IN-CAR ANDROID SYSTEM NEEDS NO SMARTPHONELast week we wrote about Saab’s new Android-based IQon dashboard, web-connected entertainment system (here). We wondered if the system needed a smartphone to connect to the Internet, like so many other in-car entertainment systems.
Now CNet confirms (here) that, in fact, IQon includes “an embedded modem to connect to the Internet when the car is turned on. This means that even if you forget to bring your phone or don’t have an unlimited data plan, you’ll still be able to listen to Internet radio stations in the car.” Though details are still scarce, we’ll be keeping an eye on this one. Stay tuned! EDISON, ARBITRON: AWARENESS OF TWITTER “NEAR UNIVERSAL”In an update to “The Social Habit” study released last year, Edison Research and Arbitron have found that awareness of Twitter among Americans age 12 and up is now 92%.
“Awareness of Twitter is nearly universal,” Edison VP Tom Webster writes. “In fact, it’s difficult to see how it could be much higher.” That said, Edison and Arbitron estimate that usage stands at 8%, or 20 million Americans. That’s up from 17 million last year and agrees with an earlier study that pegged usage at 9% of Internet users in the U.S. (RAIN coverage here). The companies will release more details from the newly updated study later this spring. Edison has more coverage here. SPOTIFY REACHES 1m PAID SUBSCRIBERSOn-demand music service Spotify has collected over one million paying subscribers, the company recently announced. The number of total users — which Spotify did not discuss — “has been stuck at 10 million since about September,” Billboard reports.
Spotify is still not available in the U.S., meaning the company reached this landmark just capitalizing on the seven European markets it currently operates in. Additionally, the “last quarter million paying customers came faster than the previous three quarter million,” Billboard writes (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 |
