 RAIN 6/23: Pandora's Westergren to keynote RAIN Summit Chicago ·Jun 23, 05:38 AM JOIN US IN OUR HOMETOWN FOR THE FIRST RAIN SUMMIT CHICAGOPandora founder and Chief Strategy Officer Tim Westergren will keynote the inaugural RAIN Summit Chicago on September 13.
This is the first RAIN conference in our hometown of Chicago. It will immediately precede the NAB/RAB Radio Show 2011 at the Hyatt Regency Chicago. RAIN Summit Chicago is shaping up to be one of the premiere learning, sharing, and networking events of the year for Internet radio professionals. Our conference last fall in Washington D.C. sold out. You can find out more about the Summit and register to attend right here. Tim Westergren founded Pandora in 2000. He has helped guide the company from being on the verge of bankruptcy three years ago during the CRB royalty crisis to being one of the top 5 radio companies in America today, as calculated by Kurt Hanson (here). Previous keynote speakers at RAIN Summit events have included Bonneville International CEO Bruce Reese (Washington DC, 2010), NPR SVP/Digital Media Kinsey Wilson (Las Vegas, 2010), Pandora CEO Joe Kennedy (Toronto, 2010), and CBS Radio President/CEO Dan Mason (Las Vegas, 2011). Stay tuned for more speaker announcements in the coming days and weeks. We hope to see you at RAIN Summit Chicago! EUROPEAN STREAMERS WE7, SPOTIFY PLANNING EXPANSIONEuropean-based music streaming companies Spotify and We7 both reportedly have plans to expand soon. The UK-based We7 (“the closest thing to Pandora outside of the U.S.,” according to Billboard), has secured new investment which it will use to expand to “multiple countries in Europe” throughout 2011 and 2012. It plans to expand beyond the continent after that.
The company’s CEO tells Billboard they’re trying to follow in Pandora’s footsteps. “We are already moving the product to a much simpler, mass market style of personal radio, plus requests and facilities that are actually designed for the music listeners rather than the music fanatics,” he said (here). Meanwhile, a new report states that Spotify could launch in the U.S. as soon as July 5. Wired has more coverage here. MOBILE AD SPENDING TO REACH $4b BY 2015, SAYS BIA/KELSEYTotal U.S. mobile ad spending will reach $4 billion by 2015, according to a new forecast from BIA/Kelsey. That’s up from $790 million in 2010. Additionally, 70% of overall mobile ad spending (or $2.8 billion) will be spent on local mobile ads in 2015.
BIA/Kelsey expects the growth to be driven by increased smartphone usage, the improvement of location-aware ad serving technology and the usage of self-serve ad tools by small- and medium-sized businesses. You can find BIA/Kelsey’s press release here. FORD SYNC COMING TO 10 NEW MODELS AS DEMAND, DEVELOPER INTEREST INCREASESFord’s Internet radio-friendly dashboard app platform will be available in 10 new 2012 models. That includes the F-150, Fusion, Super Duty and Expedition. The platform, Sync AppLink, streams and controls Pandora playback via the dashboard (but requires a connected smartphone).
Ford is also hiring more technology staff to meet demand for integrating mobile apps into car dashboards — especially Internet radio apps (as Bloomberg reports here). Plus, the automaker says “it’s got a slew of developers lining up to bring hands-free control of their apps to AppLink,” according to Engadget (here). Let’s see how many of those are Net radio developers. 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 |
