The Decision Last December I made a New Years resolution: I would get Internet radio in my Honda Civic by the summer. So in the middle of July I went over to New Sound car stereos in San Francisco and talked to the proprietor Ed Sosa about what I needed: a console with AM/FM plus […]
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 […]
Why should iOS users have all the fun?
iTunes Radio is not innovative, nor is it a great app. However, I think it stands a chance of doing what Apple set out to do. As I explained yesterday, I think Apple intends to bring streaming radio to millions of iOS users who don’t already use a service like Pandora. Then, Apple wants to […]
Apple’s first foray into online radio shipped last Wednesday as part of the latest version 7 of its iOS mobile operating system. The big question is: What’s the big deal? Or, rather, Is it a big deal? After using the service for four days I have to conclude that iTunes Radio is a big deal, […]
By now everybody knows that Pandora has prevailed, at least for the moment, in its legal effort to win the right to stream all content from the ASCAP repertory. The Southern District of New York has ruled that efforts to limit what Pandora can play violated a consent decree between the online streamer and the […]
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 […]
Ever want some music go with what you’re doing, but can’t quite figure out where to start? Maybe you’re studying, doing housework or having a nice dinner, and you don’t want to pick just one artist or album, but you don’t have a whole playlist ready to go. Today Slacker Radio releases “My Vibe” which […]
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 […]
Many years ago I invented a phrase for a peculiar kind of radio format: “Hybrid Highbrow.” I cooked up the term to describe listener supported KPFA in Berkeley, California, which in the 1950s broadcast classical music, opera, jazz, and folk music in the spirit with which Matthew Arnold understood “culture” in his book Culture and […]
