Perusing various Federal Communications Commission’s proceedings, a coordinated campaign of state broadcasting association visits caught my eye. They’re all omnibus do-this do-that advisory statements that cross many dockets, but interestingly, a few urge the agency to “look into” the question of getting FM tuner chips in cell phones. Here’s the California Broadcasters Association’s input on […]
Archive | Mobile Radio
BlackBerry 10.2.1: Smartphones don’t need FM (but it’s nice when it’s there)
CrackBerry has a nice YouTube on the BlackBerry 10 FM tuner application. My current smartphone doesn’t include an FM chip, and suddenly I miss having that option. Full CrackBerry lowdown here.
SoundCloud’s progress: Explore, messaging, and Visual
Over the last four months SoundCloud has added significant visual, search, and messaging capability to its environment; here’s the rundown: In late January, SoundCloud released its Visual Player. The Player adds larger graphic backgrounds to your embedded tracks. Below an embed of a tune by Punjabi singer and actor Gippy Grewal. Some embedded visuals seem to […]
Net neutrality, mobile data caps, and the future of Internet radio
The Federal Communications Commission has opened up a new conversation on net neutrality in light of an Appeals Court’s mid-January strikedown of some of the agency’s Open Internet rules. “We establish a new docket within which to consider how the Commission should proceed in light of the court’s guidance in the Verizon v. FCC opinion,” […]
Talking Heads: debating the Spotify “rental” market
I am reading Paul Riismandel’s summary of Day One of the Future of Music Summit. It appears that all digital music policy discussion roads lead to Spotify. “It seemed like every [FOMS] conversation that dealt even a little bit with royalty payments and artist income always veered back to Spotify,” Paul notes. “On this there […]
Pandora while driving? Safety may depend on your listening gear
In my third installment of my Internet radio in my car diary, I admit that I have tuned in to Pandora in my Honda Civic while driving on the freeway. You probably think this isn’t much of a confession. But I found the experience distracting enough to wonder whether I should make it a habit. […]
Rdio launches free service with ads from broadcast partner Cumulus
Yesterday streaming music service Rdio announced that radio station streaming would be free on Android and iOS mobile devices, effective immediately. Up to now the service has been subscription only, with a free trial period available for new users. Like Spotify, Rdio’s emphasis has been on demand listening. The service’s stations were only just launched […]
Checkin’ My Vibe – First impressions review of Slacker for iOS 7
Typically I’m a little more cautious when upgrading my mobile device OS. I usually wait a couple of weeks for the early adopters to upgrade and find the bugs and hassles, and maybe even wait for the first patches to fix those bugs before taking the plunge. But today I had two reasons to upgrade […]
Pandora ponders competing with AM/FM for local advertising
I’m eyeballing Pandora’s latest Security and Exchange Commission risk filing, which notes that the Internet streamer has yet to significantly penetrate local markets like conventional radio stations do. Seems like the company is thinking about the challenge, though. “Radio advertising has traditionally attracted primarily local advertisers, and we are still at an early stage of building […]
Immigrant radio-to-phone service makes semi-finals in Net radio awards
Every time RAIN (the Radio and Internet Newsletter) announces semi-finalists in its upcoming Internet radio awards, I learn about some interesting new online radio service. The latest is Zeno Radio, one of four semi-finalists in RAIN’s “Best Overall Digital Strategy” category. ZenoRadio lets North Americans hook up to radio and audio from anywhere via their […]