Pandora To Launch “Interactive Voice Ads”

Advertising is a necessary evil. We all hate ads no matter what the format, but they help pay for the entertainment content that we consume. Simply put, no ads, no money, no content, and we all pay for subscriptions instead. The marketing industry is always trying something new to get our attention, and the latest […]

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These Are The World’s Most Popular Websites

It’s easy to think that some websites and services are huge in terms of visits, but when compared with the most popular, most pale in comparison. The following chart by Statista shows the websites that had the most visits in February, so the data is still pretty fresh. It shouldn’t be any surprise that Google […]

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Amazon Music About To Launch A Free Ad-Supported Tier

Almost all music services expect Spotify rely on fully paid subscriber tiers, but Amazon Music may break the ranks soon with a new free ad-supported offering, according to Billboard. This could mean that Amazon is finally making a proactive move into increasing music subscribers instead of worrying as much about its Prime service. The report […]

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Producer Jack Miele, Beamforming Audio, And Streaming Keeping The Dough On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast

My guest on the podcast is producer/engineer Jack Miele, who’s won a Grammy, Emmy, 4 Telly awards and 2 Global Music awards. Based in New Orleans, Jack has a wide range of studio credits that include Rod Stewart, The Roots, Beyonce, Aloe Blacc and the Zac Brown Band, among many others.  As a composer, Jack’s work has […]

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iHeartMedia’s IPO Could Show The Future Of Music Radio

iHeartMedia is about to file an IPO that’s meant to pay down its massive debt, but could show what the future of music radio in the United States is going to be. The company, which is the largest station group in the country with 848 stations, filed paperwork earlier in the month for the potential […]

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Spotify’s New Ad Metrics Shows What Happens After A Click

In 2017 Spotify launched its Ad Studio feature that allowed artists and their labels to share their music via 30-second or less audio ads played to the users on the platform’s free tier. While the short ads proved to be an effective tool, they provided limited data of what actually happened after a listener clicked […]

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What Not To Send To A Music Journalist Or Blogger

PR people seem to think I’m a music journalist because I write for Forbes and two of my own blogs (including this one). Just to be clear, I’m not a “journalist” by any stretch of the imagination. I’m a commentator and provide my personal take on music and audio production news or the big picture […]

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The Music Industry’s Growth Continues Thanks To Streaming

The latest IFPI report that provides an overview of recorded music revenue worldwide is out, and it shows that for the fourth consecutive year the industry has grown. The nearly 10% total growth to $19 billion in revenue comes clearly as a result of paid music streaming subscriptions, which increased by 33% from the previous […]

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Vinyl Mastering Engineer Kevin Gray, 3 Inch Single, And AI Music Ed On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is Kevin Gray, who specializes in vinyl disc cutting. Kevin has mastered music for every major label in every genre, including pop, rock, jazz, classical, adult contemporary, alternative, punk, heavy metal, new age, gothic, world ethnic, disco, dance, soul, blues, and hip-hop / rap. His credits include more than […]

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Apple Music Now Has More U.S. Subscribers Than Spotify

A few years ago Spotify seemed to have an insurmountable lead over Apple Music in paid subscribers. That lead still exists and is still substantial today globally, but in the United Stated Apple Music has now passed Spotify for the first time. According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple Music now has 28 million subscribers […]

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Spotify’s Personalized Playlists Could Affect Where Your Music Appears

Every artist wants to appear on one of Spotify’s playlists since it adds instant credibility and streams as new people find you. It’s never been easy to crack one of these playlists, and the service is about it make it a little harder with the new “personalized playlists” that it will be rolling out soon. […]

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People Are Really Getting Upset With Streaming Subscriptions

It’s a pretty fair statement to say that we all hate our cable company, so much so that many of us have already cut the cord and gone with one of the various online streaming options. The problem is that the video streaming services available to us may be leading us back to the thing we […]

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Producer Michael Beinhorn, CD Baby’s Sale, And The Audio Interface Survey On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is producer Michael Beinhorn, who has produced a wide range of artists including Herbie Hancock, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ozzy Osbourne, Aerosmith and Soundgarden, among many others. He is the author of the book Unlocking Creativity, and is an outspoken advocate of the importance of artist development and pre-production […]

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Content Creators May Have Won The Battle But Lost The War With EU Copyright Directive Passage

The European Parliament finally is about to finally pass its long-contested Copyright Directive that was so widely opposed by the large tech companies but heavily supported by the content creation industry. Especially important in the Directive was Article 13 (now renamed Article 17 after a number of modifications) which makes platforms such as YouTube liable for […]

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5th Anniversary Podcast Tribute To Geoff Emerick, Algorithm Gets A Record Deal, And Fake Gear Ring Busted

Welcome to the 5th anniversary of the podcast on this week’s episode. Thank you all for your support over these last 257 shows! Recently I had a conversation with engineer Bill Smith about the late great Geoff Emerick and realized that there was a lot that we didn’t know about this audio giant even though he […]

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