Bret Kinsella, Author at XAPPmedia

June 30, 2015

Apple is Onboard with Ad-Supported Listening After All

Apple Music launched this morning with an ad-supported listening service. Yes, there is the subscription service as well. Apple execs never said there wouldn’t be ads. They just didn’t mention it, so the media assumed the company was walking away from the 21-month ad-supported iTunes Radio experiment. We now know this is not the case.

June 24, 2015

Google Play Music Introduces Ads – no surprise there

Yesterday, Google Play Music quietly announced an ad-supported, free listening tier. This complements the $9.99 monthly subscription service offered since 2013. Most of the media chatter […]

June 22, 2015

Apple Accepts the Worst Deal in Music Streaming – thanks to Taylor Swift

It was a busy weekend. Yesterday, a Taylor Swift Tumblr post explained why she will withhold her 1989 album from the new Apple Music service. A few hours later Apple changed course, decided to incur higher operating costs in perpetuity and is back in Swift’s good graces. Everybody wins? Not likely.

June 18, 2015

What Wasn’t Said at the Apple Music Debut

There has been a lot of coverage about the Apple Music presentation last week at the company’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC). However, it’s tough to report on what wasn’t said. There were a number of obvious questions that weren’t answered by the Apple Music executives in the debut presentation. I assume that was intentional.

June 10, 2015

Spotify Reaches 75 Million Active Users, Subscriptions Grow

This morning, Spotify released some new numbers in terms of 75 million active users and 20 million subscribers. Just over one year ago, Spotify announced 40 million active users of which 10 million were subscribers.

June 9, 2015

Apple Music’s Biggest Threat May Be to Broadcast Radio

There has been a lot of talk since Apple acquired Beats last year about the impact the re-introduced streaming service could have on the industry. When it first came to market, there was widespread speculation that Beats might take market share from Spotify. That didn’t happen. Spotify’s growth only accelerated and Beats all but shut down after the Apple acquisition. Though Yesterday, Apple Music was announced and it sounds very Spotify-like.

June 4, 2015

Internet Radio’s Viewability Problem

“Audio Doesn’t Have the Viewability Problem of Display.” The problem is that this is only true for awareness audio campaigns. For any campaign hoping to drive engagement or conversion metrics, audio today faces higher hurdles than display. That is, unless you use voice for engagement instead of relying on touch. Let’s unpack this.

June 2, 2015

Chart 3 - Percent of Advertising Spend, Radio vs Mobile

4 Charts Show Radio’s Future is on Mobile

Mary Meeker’s 2015 Internet Trends report provides 196 slides packed with data. Radio typically only shows up in one slide with a chart that represents time spent with media compared to advertising revenue. If you look back at five years of these presentations there is story to be told about radio’s past, present and future.

May 21, 2015

More Advertisers Identified on Internet Radio

The Internet Radio Ad Load Report for Q1 2015 presented some interesting numbers on a declining ad load. However, the more intriguing finding was the steady growth in advertisers identified across industries. We admitted surprise to the large number of advertisers we identified in the Holiday 2014 Internet Radio Ad Load Report. In the first quarter of 2015, we were surprised again.