 RAIN 12/12: Layoffs come to Last.fm as CBS lets go 20% of London staff ·Dec 12, 11:24 AM CBS: LAST.FM CUTS PART OF CNET “INTEGRATION PROCESS”CBS Interactive has laid off in the neighborhood of 20 to 40 Last.fm employees, mostly from the website’s London headquarters. According to TechCrunch (here), one source pegged the number let go at over 40, but CBS says it’s less than 20. Last.fm has 95  staff members in the London HQ. CBS is reportedly positioning the layoffs as a continuation of the “integration process“ which “began six months ago when it bought CNET for $1.8 billion. But it is not just the CNET businesses that are being cut,” writes TechCrunch’s Erick Schonfeld. He also notes, “Last.fm never really became a big money maker from what I can gather, and all of those engineers and other staff members are not cheap. Even after a redesign last July, growth has been flat.” According to comScore (see chart at right), Last.fm saw a 6% visitor growth from July to October, but is still topped by Imeem and Pandora. Last.fm was bought by CBS in 2007 for $280 million (RAIN coverage here). FORMER STAX OWNER LAUNCHES “AMERICAN SOUL MUSIC” WEBCASTAl Bell, former owner of Stax Records and ex-president of Motown has launched his own website Al Bell Presents and webcast “Al Bell Presents American Soul Music.” The webcast is the first of several and is powered by American Media Services-Interactive. Bell programmed the Internet radio stream, which includes tracks from Stax and Motown. The website also features photo galleries, bios and music video “screening rooms” for up-and-coming artists. Read more at Radio Ink here.
VERIZON SPONSORS “NEW MUSIC” WEBCAST, HD SIDE-CHANNELSince April and into next year, the “Verizon New Music” channel is broadcasting online and on 21 Clear Channel radio stations as an HD side-channel. The channel features up-and-coming artists, aimed at 18 to 34 year-olds. The only ads are from Verizon Wireless, which run as two 20-second spots an hour. Jennifer Lane notes, in her Audio4Cast blog (here), “This is an excellent example of leveraging cross platform technologies to attract an advertiser like Verizon Wireless.”
RADIOBETA A HANDY LAUNCHPAD FOR TUNING IN TO STREAMING RADIORadioBeta, a radio stream aggregator, is a handy tool for when looking up a stream or opening a separate application like iTunes is too troublesome. Listeners can find their radio stream by searching by location, genre, or name. The interface is minimal but intuitive, keeping the stream playing even when searching for a different station. Multiple stations can be added to a temporary “playlist” for easy switching, but channels can also be added as permanent favorites after a free registration. A simple, handy site that gets you to your streams just a little faster. — MSshare: 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 |
