Volkswagon had made the logical extension of their successful
use of popular music in its advertistements
with the launch of
RadioVW.
The Web radio stream features "old school" hip-hop,
soul, alternative, electronic, and pop music. A dj introduces
the songs, and reads promotional announcements urging listeners
to check out the latest VW automobiles. The site itself is quite
attractive, but tough to navigate. According to the program guide,
there are two "programs" of music. It's unclear whether
these are two shows that run at different times, or two different
streams (though we could only find the single stream).
The station is powered by
WebSound,
a "branded media solutions provider" that also works
with Pottery Barn, Eddie Bauer, and Polo Ralph Lauren. More about
WebSound in
RAIN soon.
In recent years popular Volkswagon television ads have
featured music from (and often revived the record-buying public's
interest in) artists like Nick Drake ("Pink Moon"),
Styx ("Mr. Roboto"), and the German band Trio ("Da
Da Da").
From BusinessWire: "
RadioCentral
announced that it has closed an additional $2.5 million in funding.
This
latest round of funding comes from two new investors -- a venture
fund controlled by the chairman of Good Guys Inc., one of the
nation's leading high-end specialty retailers of consumer entertainment,
and Ackerley Ventures, a division of media/entertainment company
The Ackerley Group Inc. Also participating in the financing is
an existing investor, Seattle-based FBR CoMotion Venture Capital.
"Founded in 1999 by radio industry veteran Eric Rhoads"
(pictured), "RadioCentral creates customized Internet radio
stations for leading commerce, consumer brand and content websites
to enable the websites to build brand awareness and loyalty, enhance
advertising campaigns, extend website visitor sessions and boost
e-commerce and other online revenue streams."
Eric Rhoads is publisher of
Radio
Ink magazine. The RadioCentral programming department
is headed by longtime national radio programming executive Steve
Rivers. Read this entire release
here.
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From Gavin: "
Listen.com,
which on April 5th acquired
TuneTo,
gave 35 employees pink slips and severance
packages on Wednesday, citing current market conditions and the
arrival of 15 employees from TuneTo...
"Sean Garrett, a spokesperson for Listen.com says
that the company has 'plenty of money,' but must take steps to
remain lean through the economic downturn in the tech sector.
Listen plans to focus on developing subscription services for
audio entertainment to wireless devices...
"Listen believes streaming is the market that will
first begin to see profit from subscription music services, largely
because the licensing issues will be more easy to manage with
streaming than with downloadable tracks."
Read the entire story
here.
