 RAIN 5/16: In Sweden, Spotify reaches more young people than radio, says study ·May 16, 10:30 AM WSJ: SPOTIFY “SHOULD BE SEEN AS A THREAT” TO U.S. BROADCASTERSOn-demand music subscription service Spotify reaches nearly half of Swedes age 35 and under, according to a new survey. That figure is “comfortably above the 38% reach of all commercial radio put together,” writes the Wall Street Journal. “These figures are likely to trouble the large commercial radio providers.”
“With the long-talked about U.S. launch drawing closer,” continues WSJ, “Spotify’s ability to attract audiences from commercial radio should also be seen as a threat to commercial radio providers in the U.S. market.” Though, keep in mind broadcast radio’s reach in the U.S. is well over 90% — much higher than it is in Sweden. The figures are less drastic when viewing the entire population in Sweden. The TNS Sifo study shows Spotify has a 22% reach among all Swedes compared to the 72% reach of all radio broadcasts. That said, WSJ writes that the survey “is an interesting account of how music streaming in short time has been able to change the way a population consumes audio entertainment.” Spotify is the European-based streaming music service that, it’s rumored, will launch in the U.S. soon. Earlier this month Spotify allowed non-paying users to load their downloaded music onto iPods — essentially offering an iTunes replacement — and access their playlists on mobile devices (RAIN coverage here). WIRED ASKS: ARE AMAZON AND GOOGLE IN RIAA’S LEGAL CROSSHAIRS?Now that LimeWire has settled with the RIAA for $105 million — “the end of a legal era” — will the music industry’s legal arm next take on Amazon and Google? That’s the question posed by a recent article in Wired.
“With the old-school litigation strategy behind it, the labels now face their next big task as the digital age has mutated to the cloud age: how to deal with Amazon and Google, which have begun offering storage-locker services allowing music fans to play their tunes from the cloud on devices of their choice,” writes Wired. Amazon launched their cloud music service in March (RAIN coverage here) and Google launched theirs last week (here). Neither service has permission from the labels. “The 10,000-pound gorilla in the room,” continues Wired (here), “is the unclear legality of these storage services playing host to pirated music. And that’s where the labels might have some legal muscle.” ROTEL NET RADIO STEREO OFFERS “HI-FI CONVERGENCE”According to TechRadar‘s recent review, the Rotel RDG-1520 “is living proof of hi-fi convergence.” The stereo can stream nearly 20,000 Internet radio stations and also includes AM/FM, DAB, a USB port (that’s iPod friendly) and support to stream music on stored on your home network.
“Units like this show that digital convergence need not be something for the audiophile to fear.” You can read TechRadar‘s full review here. The RDG-1520 retails for £795 (about $1300). 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 |
