Posts filed under ‘mobile’
Mobile Music Ad Dollars Are Growing
Mobile ad dollars are growing, according to eMarketer. As smartphone usage expands, revenues from the ad-supported component of mobile music, games and videos alone will grow 52.7% this year to $433.8 million.
Two things are driving the increase – one being the growing audience for mobile music, gaming and video content. The second reason is that more and more content providers are shifting to an ad based revenue model, stimulating marketplace spending. Spending on ads for mobile music, gaming and video content accounted for 20% of the revenue in the space last year but will increase to 30% by 2015, to nearly $3.59 billion. The remainder of the revenues will be paid by subscription and download fees.
There’s a strong tolerance for mobile ads if the apps are free – new study info from Nielsen showed both that free apps are preferred by consumers and 51% of consumers say they are okay with advertising on their devices if they can access the content for free.
Monetizing mobile content with ads is becoming increasingly important for services such as Pandora. With the most downloaded free music app in Apple and Google app stores, Pandora sees the majority of its audience on mobile devices.
Slacker Adds Live Sports, Customizable Weather
It’s CES week in Vegas, and that means lots of Internet radio companies are announcing new deals and developments.
Slacker will now offer live streaming of major professional and collegiate sports events from ESPN. The new feature began last night with the live broadcast of the BCS Championship game — No. 1 LSU versus No. 2 Alabama — which was available to all Slacker listeners. Slacker also announced a partnership with The Weather Channel to offer customizable forecasts and updates to Slacker listeners.
Adding real-time updates from The Weather Channel to Slacker’s millions of songs and non-music content further highlights Slacker’s commitment to creating the best Personal Radio experience. “Every person is affected by weather; it’s an important part of our lives,” said Jonathan Sasse, senior vice president of marketing at Slacker. “Including weather on our stations is one more way that Slacker is offering the most relevant content to listeners, providing the best possible personal radio experience.”
Meanwhile, Targetspot and Livio Radio have announced that TargetSpot will be the exclusive third-party advertising provider for Livio Connect, which allows consumers to access digital radio content while in their vehicles. Through this partnership, TargetSpot’s advertisers will be able to reach an audience of listeners comprised of 65 percent of the automotive Bluetooth market as well as drivers of major auto brands.
“Digital radio in-car is a game changer: until now, morning drive time has been served by over- the-air radio, but as digital access becomes more readily available in auto, this will change,” said Eyal Goldwerger, CEO of TargetSpot. “We are thrilled to offer our advertisers the ability to reach digital audio consumers in their cars. With TargetSpot’s widening network of distribution partners, advertisers can reach their desired target audiences wherever they are listening and whatever their listening preferences may be.”
New App Touts Tunein’s Reach with IPhone Users
In the new world of metered mobile data plans, Onavo has developed an app that is very useful in helping folks keep track of their usage and even select apps that use data efficiently. You can download their app onto your smartphone which compresses the data that your apps use.
Onavo recently published data on music apps – focused on which apps were most popular among Onavo users, and which apps are most efficient. Turns out that TuneIn‘s app is the most widely used with 6.6% of IPhone users per month. TuneIn is also very efficient, ranking below other popular apps in terms of data usage. 
TuneIn is a music app that serves as a directory for more than 50,000 radio stations, both terrestrial and online. They have one of the most popular music apps on iTunes. (They used to be RadioTime.)
But where is Pandora, you might be asking, and that is a good question. In terms of app users they rank second, right behind TuneIn with 5.8% of Onavo iPhone users. But in terms of data usage they’re much thirstier, using almost 3 times the amount of data.
It’s not clear to me from the chart that they have factored in the possibility that Pandora listeners are listening longer as a reason why they are using up lots more data. This would be a good thing to know. But it’s a fun chart from an interesting company who’s got an interesting view on the industry..
Study: More Americans Are Listening On Connected Devices In Cars
Americans spend a lot of time listening to music in their cars. According to a new report by NPD Group, two out of three Americans say most of their music listening happens in cars. Most of that listening is still to radio and cds – but that appears to be changing.
flickr: andrewarchy
The report shows that 80% of Americans listened to radio in their cars and that is a two point drop from a year ago. 53% listened to cds, which is down 4 points from a year ago. Meanwhile 29% are listening on a connected device which could be a smart phone or iTouch. That number is up 9 points from a year ago. Time spent listening with those devices has increased 9% as well.
“A tipping point is approaching when vehicles and portable devices move from a tethered connection to a more integrated one,” said Russ Crupnick, senior vice president and entertainment analyst for The NPD Group. “Smart devices streaming music could end up being the largest threat to CDs and broadcast radio since the dawn of digital music.”
More evidence that consumers are shifting to connected mobile devices for music. Pandora now has 70% of their audience on those mobile devices. Last week I featured a post about Mary Meeker‘s latest presentation which is all about mobile, and the way that mobile will make online audio the next big thing.
Mary Meeker: The Next Big Thing Is Online Audio
Mary Meeker is widely considered to be an expert when it comes to spotting trends online. A partner at venture capitallist firm KPCB, she was named one of the ten smartest people in tech last year by Fortune magazine. She’s a popular speaker and analyst who has a knack for spotting the next big trend in technology. Lately Ms Meeker’s specialty has been mobile and the way it is revolutionizing the way we do everything, from shopping to consuming media.
This week, speaking at Web 2.0, Meeker gave a fast talking presentation about Internet trends. In it, she predicts that the next big thing is online audio. Lots of new technologies are contributing to this emerging trend. For example, she points out that while twitter and facebook have enjoyed enormous success with their mobile apps, it’s Pandora that has the largest percentage of their audience on mobile devices.
Meeker went on to mention new technologies that are driving the new trend, including Bluetooth enabled wireless devices which permit hands free access, higher quality, more compact wireless audio speakers, connected car audio, sound recognition and understanding apps such as Apple’s new Siri, and sound creation and sharing platforms like SoundCloud and Spotify. 
The presentation is chock full of great info and perspective on the promise of mobile. There’s plenty of room left for growth for smartphones, mobile ad dollars are ramping up just fine, cpms are ramping too.
What’s more, the US has taken a leadership position in new mobile technology – thanks largely to Apple and Google. Innovation in Silicon Valley has never been more rapid.
And in case you missed this point a few paragraphs ago, Mary Meeker, one of my personal favorites in the biz, said that Online Audio is the next big thing…
You can watch her presentation online here.
Bloomberg’s Mobile App Is Smart
Bloomberg Radio has released a new mobile app that goes a long way in extending their brand as a global source of financial news. The Bloomberg Radio+ app gives listeners the flexibility to hear live breaking financial and business news 24-hours per day as well as download a vast on-demand library of shows and interviews they can listen to at their convenience.
The Bloomberg app is free and is the first radio app where listeners can view real-time charts, get the latest market information and news, and access guest bios — all while listening to the most preeminent minds in business and finance. Designed by Airkast, it is a good example of the way a radio app can become so much more on a mobile device. 
“We’ve enjoyed collaborating with Bloomberg to create a superior mobile application that extends their award winning radio programs and business and financial content to their mobile audience”. said Airkast Founder and CEO Larry Leung. ”We look forward to bringing Manhattan’s number one radio station to a global audience,” said Oke Okaro, general manager and global head of Bloomberg mobile. “Now people around the world will have 24/7 access to Bloomberg Radio’s market-moving news and analysis on their terms.”
Mobile access to on-demand audio, news and information in a free branded app is a big value proposition for listeners – and a smart move for Bloomberg.
Study: Listeners Love AM/FM Streams More than AM/FM Broadcasts
Americans are spending more time in their cars, time spent in cars on weekdays has increased by over an hour since 2003. Last week, Arbitron, Edison Research and Scarborough presented an update to a study from 2003 called The Road Ahead that looks at in-car listening options and adoptions.
While radio continues to the the audio listening choice in cars, its dominance has dropped by 12% since 2003. Back then 1% of people chose satellite radio, and listening to ipods and Internet radio streams was not an option. Now, 8% of folks who have driven or ridden in a car in the last month have listened to satellite radio, and a whole slew of new choices have bubbled up to compete with AM/FM broadcast radio. 6% listened to a Pandora stream, 4% to an AM/FM stream, and 2% to another non-Pandora stream. (The numbers are not exclusive so we can’t add them up).
The study also looked at the way people “feel” about various listening platforms, and the results are very insightful. At the top of the list of things people “love” listening to in their car is satellite radio with 54%. 34% “love” listening to Pandora via a mobile phone. And 30% love listening to AM/FM streams via a mobile phone, while 28% “love” listening to the same content on their AM/FM radio. New technologies, notes the study, get better “love” ratings, even if the content is the same..
Despite a proliferation of new in-car technologies, radio remains the “king”. But that’s not a license to be complacent, cautions the study. Instead, radio should recognize that “digital platforms are crucial to protecting radio’s in-car franchise. In fact, the authors of the study believe that HD radio has the ability to “provide the ‘wow’ factor for AM/FM in-car radio. This must be based on the higher “love” ranking that HD Radio gets among people that have it.
Mobile Payment Marketplace Is Expanding
97.3 million Americans currently access the web using their mobile phones. That number represents nearly a third of the population and will increase to 156 million and almost half the population by 2015, according to eMarketer. Much of that usage is thanks to the expanding usage of smartphones. Nearly 30% of the population will use smartphones by the end of this year, by 2015 it is projected that 150 million Americans will use a smartphone.
Streaming is a popular smartphone activity, as evidenced by research reported by Arbitron/Edison’s Infinite Dial Study which found that 8% of smartphone users listen to Pandora daily, and 5% listen to the streams of AM/FM stations. Another study recently found that streaming music from mobile devices has grown significantly in the past year. comScore just released new data showing that listening to music on a mobile phone (smartphones and non-smartphone) grew more than 2% in 3 months to 20.3% of users.
But many reports also show that the US lags other countries in terms of the way we use mobile devices to make purchases. While the mobile payments market has surged 76% in the past year globally, only a small portion of that activity comes from the US. While estimates of the size of the marketplace vary, research firms all agree that it’s going to grow. 
I’m thinking about the ways that streaming audio on smartphones and making purchases either online or in person using a smartphone go together and wondering if there’s some ways that streaming audio campaigns can integrate mobile payment options to prompt immediate responses and boost the effectiveness of ad campaigns..
Pandora’s 2Q Call Impressive
Last thursday during an earnings call Pandora reported $67 million in revenues, a 117% increase over a year ago. They also reported impressive increases in listening – 1.8 billion listening hours, an increase of 125% over a year earlier. The report was the new public company’s first quarterly earnings report and it reported on earnings delivered during its fiscal Q2 – which ended in July.
This was a sturdy earnings report in the face of investment banker expectations that expected to see a report of $60 million in revenues.
The company also reported that mobile ad revenues accounted for approximately half of all ad revenues. This was good news as analysts have been focusing on Pandora’s ability to monetize an audience that is rapidly shifting to mobile device listening. During the call there were many followup questions regarding Pandora’s ability to monetize its mobile audience. Pandora CEO Joe Kennedy said that they have found that most mobile ads are part of “multi platform” ad campaigns, and that Pandora is optimistic that they will be able to leverage more and more of those dollars.
Kennedy also spoke about Pandora’s increasing ability to monetize audio at the local, regional and national levels. He said that while they were seeing audio ads from national ad campaigns, they are now expanding their base and developing audio based revenues from local and regional sources.
To a question about the revenues they are seeing from song download revenue sharing with iTunes and Amazon, Kennedy revealed that Pandora is one of the top 3 biggest link sources to iTunes. He said that is strong evidence that listeners are discovering music and purchasing it after hearing it on Pandora.
So, as the experts from RAIN: Radio and Internet Newsletter pointed out in their analysis on friday, Pandora had a strong 2Q earnings call where they managed to exceed revenue expectations and offer some excellent prospects for continued growth.
What Do Listeners Want?
Image via Wikipedia
I was recently asked to weigh in on radio’s future for a “crowdsourced” speech at RadioInk’s Convergence Conference. Here is what I wrote:
In 5-10 years the term “radio” will encompass all audio content that is distributed as continuous programming and delivered via various technologies including broadcast, satellite, and streaming. Radio devices will receive such programming from all of these sources seamlessly, so there will be less and less focus on which technology is delivering it. The listener will select programming from a list of presets that shows broadcast radio next to streaming radio next to satellite choices.
As they are empowered by more and more choices, the consumer will become more selective and less tolerant of mediocre programming. It will be the content offerings rather than the technologies that draw in the listener.
With so many listening options, listeners will be less tolerant of ad content that offers them no value. This will further cheapen mass appeal advertising, but it will drive the use of more targeted, relevant ad creative. Free, ad-supported stations will obtain permission from listeners who will opt to receive targeted, relevant ads. Those ads will be more valuable to them and will show a higher return on investment for the advertiser.
The ability for listeners to interact with and respond to programming and advertising will become critical, stations and advertisers will develop more and better ways to do this such as sms and online 1-click solutions that make it as easy for listeners to respond to an ad as it is to give a song “thumbs up” or “thumbs down.”
I’m thinking more and more these days about the large number of listening choices that consumers now have and the way that that will impact just about everything in the future. Listeners are empowered and can choose exactly what they want to listen to, on what technology and device, and how they want to hear it. I think the winning platforms will be the ones that recognize that. What do you think?
