 RAIN 3/12: For new iPod Shuffle, Apple adds "a DJ" ·Mar 12, 12:01 PM VOICEOVER FEATURE BRINGS “A TOUCH OF RADIO” TO THE EXPERIENCEIn discussing the matter of radio’s declining audience and the ascension of Apple’s iPod, some say a portable music player can’t ever duplicate the experience of listening to live radio. Perhaps so. But the new iPod Shuffle is borrowing a little something from that very experience: a voice which identifies the song and artist you’re hearing.
The new iPod Shuffle feature is called “VoiceOver.” The New York Times’ David Pogue, in his review, describes it: “If you hold down the center clicker for one second, you hear, in your earbuds, a crystal-clear male voice identifying the song and the performer; it knows 14 languages, so it can handle Italian aria names, for example. If you hold down the clicker longer, until you hear a beep, the voice starts rattling off the names of your playlists (‘Jogging Tunes…Purchased…Makeout Music.’)“ The feature was ostensibly added to help navigate the user’s music on the player. The iPod Shuffle has no display (in fact, this new version is the size of a Double-A battery!), so the VoiceOver was an audbile solution to the interface problem. But who’s that hosting your music? DJ Jobs? Pogue writes, “You should know, however, that the voice you hear differs depending on whether you’ve loaded up the Shuffle from a Mac (clear, American, accent-free voice) or a Windows PC (much more synthesized-sounding, vaguely Scandinavian accent).” Read more from The New York Times here. DIGITAL LESS IMPORTANT AS BIG MEDIA’S CORE BUSINESS SOURSAs their stock gets battered, big media companies are spending less on their digital divisions, says an article today from TechCrunch. “Media executives are going into self-preservation mode. They know that all media businesses are going digital, eventually,” says TechCrunch. “But right now, they are more concerned with sheltering their core business than with pushing forward a digital business that will leech attention and profits from the core business.”
It’s amazing to compare CBS’s current market cap, now only $2.5 billion — to the more than the $2.1 billion in cash CBS Interactive spent to buy CNet ($1.8 billion), Last.fm ($280 million), and a few other small acquisitions and investments. Columnist Erick Schonfeld makes the point that separate digital divisions aren’t even really needed anymore, as digital revenue is spread across these companies’ various businesses. Unfortunately, less spending in their departments is convincing some digital talent to move on in their careers. “That leaves building the digital part of the media business to the old-school executives in charge of the other businesses. How many of them get it?” Read the TechCrunch article via The Washington Post here. MUSIC INDUSTRY NOT REALISTIC ABOUT AD REVENUE, COMPLAIN ONLINE MUSIC BUSINESSESUK news source New Media Age spoke to Steve Purdham, CEO of ad-funded music service We7, who said “unrealistic expectations from music companies” are holding back the market for ad-supported music providers online.
YouTube made news in Britain this week when it pulled down music videos after negotiations with royalty collection agent PRS for Music broke down. The Google-owned video site hit a similar impasse with Warner Music in January. Purdham blames the music industry’s misconception over how profitable these businesses are. He told New Media Age, “YouTube has highlighted the economic difference between what advertisers are prepared to pay and what the music industry would like to accept,” he said. “We’re paying PRS but we don’t agree with its rates. We’re unsure if we can get the advertisers to pay the rates that will allow the business to be sustainable.” In this sense, this situation mirrors the lack of understanding between commercial webcasters in the U.S. and the music industry. Read more from New Media Age 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 |
In regards to the third story… why don’t webcaster negotiators get 4 or 5 media buyers to testify to SoundExchange on the current CPMs they’re paying? That way, the labels can hear straight from the horses mouth how tough it is out there.
— Phillip Mulroney · Mar 12, 04:14 PM · #