Radio-Info

Tom Taylor's vacation will soon be over, as the accomplished radio industry journalist is set to launch "Tom Taylor Now," his new newsletter.

In August, Tom's most recent stop, Radio-Info, was sold and he and the staff let go. Now, with his return, Taylor promises "Radio’s about to get a bit more interesting…"

We recommend you sign up to receive Taylor's free newsletter, which you can do here.

We're already signed up!

We at RAIN have long found inspiration (and plenty of news tips) from the work of our colleague Tom Taylor in his daily Tom Taylor on Radio-Info newsletter. (It's my personal opinion that it's truly the finest single source of journalism covering the entire radio industry. - PM) So today we'd like to extend a heartfelt "thanks & best wishes" to Tom and the staff of the TRI Newsletter, who sign off today.

Radio-Info.com owner In3media, Inc. has merged with Talk Media, Inc. (which publishes TALKERS magazine).

"After writing a million words a year, I’m choosing to take some time off. (As my wife reminds me, we haven’t taken a vacation since 1995.)," Tom wrote today.

We're looking forward to seeing where and how Tom will continue his valuable contributions to our industry.

The development of Internet radio monetization was a key focus among industry executives speaking at the New Music Seminar in New York.

"The monetization of online music is not quite there, but it’s coming," said Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman. TargetSpot CEO Eyal Goldwerger agreed, explaining that there's "a migration to Internet radio... it takes time for the marketplace to form."

Pandora Senior Vice President of Advertising Sales Steven Kritzman said, "Revenue is just starting to follow the model, and it will continue in an aggressive way, as the platform grows and evolves." RAIN publisher and AccuRadio founder/CEO Kurt Hanson recommended that "Internet radio must learn the lessons from the past," in particular keeping spotloads low.

You can find more coverage from Radio-Info here.

Listener Driven Radio CEO Daniel Anstandig writes in Radio-Info today about how social media connectivity is helping grow audiences for streaming music services.

"Since launching in the U.S., integration with Facebook has been a key part of Spotify’s strategy to expand the reach of its appeal to potential premium users." Spotify was one of the first music services to more deeply integrate with Facebook in September 2011 (RAIN coverage here).

Anstandig writes that during May 2012 so far, Spotify has gained 1.5 million users (a growth rate of 8%), which doubles last year's growth at this time. During just a two-week period in May, "Spotify reported adding 500,000 new users, leaving the music company with 20 million global monthly users utilizing its Facebook app."

Anstandig says he's seen the same social media benefit at Listener Driven Radio."For every LDR user who shares a vote from their favorite radio station, we have seen an average of four or more people come back to a station website."

It's not difficult to find other examples of social media helping music services growth. iHeartRadio -- which initially required a Facebook login for its Custom Radio service (RAIN coverage here) -- recently announced reaching a milestone of 10 million registered users (more here).

And Facebook claimed in November 2011 that Slacker, MOG and Rdio were also experiencing tremendous growth since integrating with the social networking service (RAIN coverage here).

You can find Anstandig's Radio-Info column here.

There's reportedly "growing anger" from commercial broadcasters over the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's (CBC) new online music service, according to Radio-Info. The service, CBC Music, was a "controversial topic" at the British Columbia Association of Broadcasters, reports Sean Ross.

One group head said during the Presidents Panel "that having the cash-hungry CBC invest in an online service that won’t bring in any revenues seems like 'misplaced resources.'" Another panelist, Jim Pattison Broadcast Group Chairman Rick Arnish, said “It astounds me that the CBC would go ahead and launch” CBC Music.

A third panelist, Vista chairman/CEO Margot Micallet, "says if that’s how the CBC wants to play it, then the CBC should be have a bigger responsibility for programming Canadian content than the commercial broadcasters," writes Radio-Info. "She says 'Why not let us have pure formats?'" 

CBC Music offers 40 Internet radio stations, along with on-demand content and the streams of Radio 2 and Radio 3 stations (RAIN coverage here). It's already facing funding, royalty and content pressures (RAIN coverage here).

RAIN Summit West 2012 is just over a month away and we still have quite a long list of speakers to announce! Today we're announcing four more, including a respected industry journalist and executives from Live365, Clear Channel / iHeartRadio, and AdsWizz.

The conference takes place Sunday, April 15 in Las Vegas (more info below).

Sean Ross (pictured right) is both Executive VP of Music and Programming for Edison Research and the author of the Ross on Radio Radio-Info newsletter. He's one of the radio and music industry’s most widely respected writers and programming analysts. Ross will moderate our panel on Personalizable Radio.

One of the panelists of that discussion will be Owen Grover (pictured left), SVP of the iHeartRadio Network at Clear Channel Radio. Grover has served at Clear CHannel for over six years and has a strong background in digital media and music with a focus on marketing and business development.

Alexis van de Wyer (pictured right), President of AdsWizz, will speak as part of our Charting Digital Audio Ad Dollars panel. AdsWizz is a global AdServing and Audience Measurement technology provider with leading presence in over 24 countries. Before AdsWizz, Alexis was Global Advertising Director and General Manager at eBay.

RAIN Summit West 2012 will also feature a discussion on The Connected Dashboard, including panelist Dan Steiny (pictured left), Head of Business Development for Live365. He has more than 15 years of industry experience and has served at companies like Sony, Motorola Mobility, Compaq, Liquid Audio, MediaNet Digital and PBS Home Video.

Other speakers set to appear at RAIN Summit West 2012 include DAR.fm's Michael Roberston, Spotify's Jon Mitchell, TAG Strategic's Ted Cohen and many others. ESPN SVP of Production/Business Divisions Traug Keller will keynote the conference. RAIN will announce more speakers and panel topics in the coming weeks.

RAIN Summit West will take place on Sunday, April 15 at the former Las Vegas Hilton, now called the LVH -- Las Vegas Hotel and Casino. It will conclude with the always-anticipated tradition of the poolside RAIN Reader Cocktail Party.

The Summit is an official “Co-Located Education Program” of the NAB/RAB Radio Show. Registration includes access to the NAB/RAB Radio Show Exhibit Hall and a catered box lunch. RAIN registrants can save $100 on NAB/RAB Radio Show registration.

For registration and sponsorship information, visit kurthanson.com/rainsummitwest.

Other RAIN Summits are planned for later this year in Dallas (at the RAB/NAB Radio Show) on September 18th, in Minneapolis (at the Conclave) on July 20, and in Berlin, Germany on October 5th.