RAIN 10/3: BBC reportedly building a "Spotify" for its music archives
The BBC is reportedly in talks with commercial music services to build subscription, on-demand access to the hundreds of thousands of music recordings in its vast archive.
The new service, dubbed Playlister, would be a "music equivalent of (the BBC's) iPlayer catch-up service," The Telegraph writes. The iPlayer allows users to access any BBC programming that has aired in the previous seven days and stream it online. (BBC Radio content is streamed on the UK Radioplayer.)
A BBC spokesman told the paper, "The BBC is regularly in conversation with digital music providers about how we strengthen radio’s position as the number one place for discovering music in the UK."
The Telegraph explains, "The BBC has talked about the idea of making its vast archive of music recordings public in the past, but has always run into trouble clearing the rights." The BBC is now reportedly "in talks with Spotify and similar music services, such as the French-run Deezerand Apple’s iTunes music store in an effort to side-step the problem... Partnering with commercial operators could also help the BBC avert a potential row with private sector companies over whether the corporation is treading on their toes." (Note the parallel here to reaction in Canada to CBC's music streaming here and here.)
RAIN is in Berlin on Friday for RAIN Summit Europe. Our keynote speaker is Jonathan Forster, Spotify General Manager Europe & VP Ad Sales. Also appearing are Deezer Deputy GM, Head of Ad Sales David Deslandes and UK Radioplayer Managing Director Michael Hill.
Read more from The Telegraph here.
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Microsoft has set October 26th as the day it will roll out the new Xbox Musicservice (announced in RAIN here) to Windows Phone, Windows 8, and the Xbox 360 (Windows 8 OS is scheduled to launch that day as well).
Microsoft reportedly plans to offer Xbox Music across other platforms, like iOS (Apple) and Android.
As we've reported, the service will include both ad-supported streams and a subscription access. Integration with Microsoft's SkyDrive will enable customers to keep music and playlists in the cloud.
Read more from The Verge here.
Jelli announced yesterday the closing of a $9 million funding round.
Additionally, the company announced a 250% increase in listeners over the past year, to approximately 2 million listeners per month (via more than 70 U.S. affiliates). Total ad impressions served by the Jelli Platform also went up more than 500% in the past year, topping 60 million per month.
"Jelli is a social radio platform that combines group listening with game mechanics... Listeners take over the broadcast by voting for the songs they want to hear in real-time. Listeners engage with other users in live chat rooms and through Facebook. Jelli's cloud-based platform broadcasts this user-controlled programming in realtime on air on terrestrial FM radio stations across the United States. Jelli's platform also serves terrestrial radio spots on air."
The company says the new funding will go towards product development and sales growth. The round was led by new investors Intel Capital and Relay Ventures (which have received seats on the company's board of directors), with participation from existing investor First Round Capital and individual investors including Roger Ames, former chairman of EMI Music.
Livio Radio founder and CEO Jake Sigal was namedEntrepreneur of the Year at the 12th annual Automation Alley Awards Gala in Troy, MI. Automation Alley is a technology business association for tech professionals and engineers in southeast Michigan.
Livio creates mobile apps, a Bluetooth device, and manages Livio Connect, its "APIs" that work with car companies and app developers -- all designed to connect the mobile phone experience to the car dashboard.
General Motors announced in September its plan to work with Livio for in-dash radio functionality for the 2013 Chevrolet Spark equipped with MyLink Radio (here).
Read more in Crain's Detroit Business here.
