 RAIN 3/15: Pandora CEO Kennedy's keynote, expert panels highlight successful RAIN Summit North ·Mar 15, 01:24 PM FIRST-EVER RAIN EVENT IN CONJUNCTION WITH CMW WELL-ATTENDED AND WELL-RECEIVEDJudging by feedback from attendees and participants, Friday’s first-ever RAIN Summit North educational and networking event in Toronto (part of Canadian Music Week) was a success on all counts.
The half-day session of panels, presentations, and keynote address from Pandora CEO Joe Kennedy took place in the stylish Fairmont Royal York Hotel Concert Hall (hopefully you can get a sense of the room in the long-view shot of Joe Kennedy giving his speech, below left). The afternoon featured four discussions by our expert panels, which covered copyright tariffs in Canada and the U.S., features of digital services for radio from several vendors, online ad revenues, and trends in mobile delivery (Several people mentioned the mobile panel as their favorite — in the photo above, left to right, is moderator Barnaby Marshall of RockPeaks, Livio founder Jake Sigal, Corus Radio’s Earl Veale, RIM/Blackberry’s Pete Watson, and Fred Jacobs of Jacobs Media/JacAPPS). Vision Critical’s Jeff Vidler previewed a new study, Radio Futures 2010, on Internet radio listening in Canada, the U.S., and the UK; Listener Driven Radio’s Daniel Anstandig presented his company’s crowd-sourced programming platform; and RAIN publisher Kurt Hanson offered the latest installment of his State of the Industry address on the present and future of Internet radio.
We’re very grateful to the sponsors whose help allowed us to stage RAIN Summit North, especially: StreamTheWorld, JacAPPS, Listener Driven Radio, and Pandora. We’re also very appreciative to the RAIN readers and our panel participants who are the most important factors in the success of our events. Thank you! Look for more coverage of RAIN Summit North coming later this week! Registration is now open for our next event, RAIN Summit West, Monday, April 12th, in Las Vegas (during the NAB Show). More info and registration are here. FCC TO UNVEIL PLAN TO EXPAND NATION’S ACCESS TO HIGH-SPEED BROADBAND INTERNETThe FCC is expected to unveil a sweeping plan for broadband development tomorrow with the intention to bring high-speed Internet into most American homes. Specifically, the plan will call for speeds of 100 megabits per second (10 times faster than most current connections) in 100 million homes by 2020. The FCC also wants to double the amount of spectrum devoted to wireless Internet, thanks to the popularity of smartphone devices. SiliconValley.com has more details on the plan here.
How might this affect Internet radio? More wireless spectrum may help make listening to Net radio on mobile devices easier and cheaper, Matthew Lasar of Radio Survivor writes (here). Additionally, if the plan helps get more low-income people online — folks who “make up a huge constituency for broadcast radio” — they may become new Internet radio listeners. “They’ll change the nature of Internet radio, which currently plays to a more middle class audience,” Lasar writes. JACOBS MEDIA’S JACCAPPS CAN NOW DEVELOP ANDROID APPSJacobs Media’s mobile app development division jacAPPS can now create radio applications for Android devices. The company has previously released station-specific apps for the iPhone, releasing 140 apps so far (one of which is pictured at right). Jacobs Media will now build apps for Android as well because the platform “is showing signs of rapid consumer acceptance and appears to be the second option for smartphone applications behind the Apple platform,” says the company’s press release.
WIRED: SLACKER “SECRETLY” PREPPING ON-DEMAND SERVICEWired’s Eliot Van Buskirk reported over the weekend that Slacker is reportedly readying an on-demand subscription service “combining elements of Pandora, Rhapsody and Spotify.” According to “a well-placed source,” the service should be arriving in the next few months though no price has been revealed.
Slacker’s pre-existing streaming radio services may give the service a leg up over other on-demand services, Van Buskirk writes. “Even after they subscribe, users might still spend a majority of their time streaming custom Slacker stations, which can cost about a tenth less per song than on-demand plays.” Find Wired’s article here. COMSCORE RATES TARGETSPOT #1 FOR SITE TRAFFICE IN “RADIO” CATEGORYTargetSpot took the top spot in comScore’s adjusted February report for entertainment radio, attracting 29 million unique monthly visitors. That includes CBS Radio, AOL Radio, Yahoo Music, Live365 and over 70 other partners. This was comScore’s first month ranking TargetSpot’s audience. In second was Westwood One‘s partner sites (27.4 million unique views). ReplaceAds (18.6 million) took third, with Pandora (12.5 million), and Clear Channel Online (9.2 million) following in fourth and fifth. For more on the story, check out Mediaweek’s article here or Jennifer Lane’s coverage at Audio4Cast here.
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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 |
By 6:15 the crowd moved to the reception area on the Royal York’s Conference floor to finish the afternoon at the 
