summit

This Thursday RAIN Summits comes to Brussels for the second-annual RAIN Summit Europe event.

There's still limited space available. The RAIN Summit Europe web page has all the information you need: the day's full agenda, the complete list of presenters and panelists, social media links, and links to Amiando and Eventbrite to register. The entire day, including lunch and post-show cocktail party, is still just €99.00.

This year's conference will be equally-split between panel discussions and feature presentations from Europe's Internet radio leaders. The day's final feature presentation will be made by Alain Reyes, COO of NRJ Audio (pictured right).

NRJ Group is the French multimedia ownership group that began with a single Paris radio station and grown to own and license stations in more than 20 countries in and outside Europe. NRJ Audio is the company's new media division and mobile app maker. Reyes will demostrate how the NRJ Group's philosophy on new media plays out on the company's digital platform. 

Two more of Europe's Internet radio experts have recently signed on for the panel on audience measurement, "Every Listener Counts:"

Jean-Luc Halleux (left) is managing director of TouchCast, the Liège, Belgium-based company behind CasterStats. CasterStats delivers real-time and historical audience reporting for Internet radio, television, mobile TV, podcasts, or any streaming media. Late last year U.S. webcaster RadioIO became a CasterStats client, and most recently Swiss TXT, the multimedia center of the Swiss public broadcasting organization, signed on. Halleux is an electronics engineer and owns his own website software company, InternetOfficer SPRL.

Pushkar Kulkarni is UK-based Kantar Media international business development director. Kantar Media specializes in gauging the media image and impact for publishers, advertisers, and PR firms. Halleux and Kulkarni, along with the other panelists (we have more on this panel in RAIN here), will discuss the best ways to measure the online audio audience, and consider standards for measurement, including advertiser concerns.

RAIN Summit Europe is this Thursday at the Hotel Bloom in Brussels.

NPD Group SVP/Industry Analysis Russ Crupnick sees the music industry headed towards another cliff -- and thinks streaming audio and capturing the favor of the 100 million "casual music fans" may be the keys to averting it. Crupnick presented recent research findings at RAIN Summit West last month in Las Vegas. 

"We desperately need streaming radio to succeed," Crupnick told attendees. "We need to get the lawyers, guns, and money out of the way, and start having a better understanding of how to get consumers on to the next model."

Back in the '90s, 90% of adult Americans regularly bought CDs. NPD research shows it's now 35%, and that's not being replaced by paid downloads. Just about 23% of people have purchased a music download in the last year, which means 3 of 4 haven't! And, as much as CD purchasing has dwindled, it's still more prevalent than downloading! And the amount of time people spend listening to these legacy formats (CDs, MP3 files, and even radio a bit) is down too.

Here's the bright spot: online radio usage is up 6% among young people (see the chart) -- and up 23% among baby boomers -- in the past year. Online radio is even the "way number-one" reason people are quitting P2P downloading: "It's just so much easier to use a streaming service," Crupnick paraphrased.

And, Crupnick adds, "these are really valuable customers" to the music industry. While the average American spends $24 on music in a year, Pandora listeners spend $40, and Spotify users $52. Streaming audio listeners also strongly out-index average Americans buying concert tickets.

But the real opportunity for streaming radio to succeed, and the music industry to avoid another cliff, Crupnick argues, is not going after the "core" music fans (the 30% of the population that accounts for 80% of the money spent on music). Radio and streaming services are already "serving them really well." The opportunity lies with attracting the other 70% of people -- the "casual" music fan.

Consider: Nearly all "core" music fans listen to AM/FM, and 77% listen to non-subscription online radio, according to NPD figures. And while a good majority of casual fans also listen to music on AM/FM (74%), just 25% listen to free online radio. That's the 100 million people market opportunity. That's the potential audience gain for Internet radio, if it can reach beyond the hard core music fans and get to everyone else who listens to AM/FM.

And to do that, Crupnick advises, it's necessary to understand the mentality of that casual listener. He stresses that the research shows these people aren't at all focused on those things broadcasters and webcasters obssess over. NPD found, as he put it, "98% of people don't know what 'an Rdio' or MOG is!" Most casual listeners don't really have any interest at all in mobile apps (though he suggested an Apple streaming radio entrance might change the game).

The lack of interest in mobile apps notwithstanding, Crupnick says "this battle is going to be won in the car," as that's where the vast majority of casual music fans' listening takes place.

And casual listeners aren't interested in subscribing for music either. "We've gotta figure out a way to help these services thrive outside of subscription," he concluded. "We can work together, labels, artists, services, to grow the pie."

RAIN Summit West was April 7 in Las Vegas. You can listen to audio from Crupnick's presentation, and all the RAIN Summit West content, on our website. Look for the SoundCloud links in the right-hand margin of kurthanson.com.

Our next event is RAIN Summit Europe, May 23 at the Hotel Bloom in Brussels. Limited space is still available. Information and registration links are available on the RAIN Summit Europe website here.

Those who follow Internet radio -- like RAIN readers -- are likely familiar with Media UK managing director James Cridland. The self-described "radio futurologist" will give the featured presentation at RAIN Summit Europe (now less than two weeks away).

He was digital media director of Virgin Radio in London, and joined the BBC in 2007 to work on the BBC iPlayer for radio. Since then he's worked with various audio and new media companies (including receiver manufacturer Pure and stream aggregator UK Radioplayer) He organizes the nextrad.io radio conference, and is a founder of hybrid radio tech association RadioDNS.

Cridland's "The Future of Radio: Mobile and Personalised" will examine the medium's future on portable devices, in the context of case studies of broadcasters from all over the world.

Later in the afternoon Cridland (right) will return to moderate a panel discussion on a very similar topic. "Mainstream Mobile" participants will share their views on "best practices" for building listenership on mobile devices and monetizing it.

Two CEOs, both from Germany, join this panel. Based in Hamburg, Christian Richter leads Spoiled Milk, an international digital agency and consultancy on brand management and user experience. Richter (left) is a serial-entrepreneur: he's co-founder of Net radio tuning guide radio.de, and also founder of digital and marketing solutions wathory.com.

Holger Weiss is Berlin-based AUPEO! CEO. AUPEO! is personalized Internet radio with over 120 channels, available in over 40 countries. Weiss (right) joined AUPEO! in 2010 after working for Nokia. He's a specialist in business development, contract negotiations, strategic alliances, leadership, and sales. He spoke at RAIN Summit West.

Interestingly, just after RAIN Summit West, came news that AUPEO! had been acquired by Panasonic Automotive Systems Company of America (a division of Panasonic Corporation of North America and an integrated supplier to the automotive industry in North America) (see RAIN here). Hakan Kostepen (left, who also spoke at RAIN Summit West) is that company's executive director of product, planning & innovation. He's part of the leadership behind the company's in-car integration and development of all Panasonic Company technologies and products to optimize the "in-car user experience." Kostepen was responsible for "industry first" Jaguar S-Type Voice Recognition Infotainment System. He's based in the U.S.

Also an engineer by training, Ulrich Köring (right) is head of new media for Austrian hit music broadcaster Kronehit. There he handles all digital products, including the website, side-channels, podcasts, and social networks. His experience also includes work at Radioszene industry trade magazine.

"Mainstream Mobile's" final panelist is online audio distribution platform Soundcloud VP/business development Dave Haynes (left), from the UK. Soundcloud, originally started in Stockholm, but established in Berlin, launched in 2008 and now boasts over 10 million registered users. Hayes himself is a former DJ who has run a record label, a record store, and worked in digital music distribution. He writes a blog and hosts the OpenMusicMedia meetups in London, and organizes Music Hack Day events.

Limited space is still available for RAIN Summit Europe, May 23 at Brussels' Hotel Bloom. All the details, including registration links, are on the RAIN Summit Europe page here.

There's (literally) a world of competition online, and RAIN Summit attendees are always looking for strategies to increase their service's share of the online audience. Several of Europe's leading online and broadcast radio experts will take up this very topice at RAIN Summit Europe, May 23 (that's in two weeks!) at Brussels' Hotel Bloom.

The "Growing Your Online Audience" panel will cover topics from simulcasting on-air content, customized online radio, and on-demand streaming.

Radionomy's Alexandre Saboundjian (left) and 7digital's Ben Drury (right) are both CEO of their respective companies, and will take part in the discussion. Calling itself "The Radio Experience," Radionomy provides a tech platform for amateurs and professionals to create their own online radio stations for free (the company even covers music licensing). When a station's audience reaches certain levels, Radionomy then shares advertising revenue with the station creater. Apparently a busy guy, Saboundjian also heads (and founded) MusicMatic (an in-store media company), and Jamendo (which is a platform for royalty-free music).

Ben Drury co-founded 7digital, a UK-based digital media company, which sells music downloads to consumers, but also provides branded products for traditional media companies, consumer brands, and social networking services. Some examples are powering Samsung's Music Hub, and the music store for Songbird. He also founded dotmusic.com, later acquired by Yahoo.

Kjartan Slette (at left, he's head of music at WiMP) and Steve Whilton (director of product at Last.fm, right) are both tasked with crafting a product that ensures audience growth. WiMP is an on-demand music streaming service with a library of 18 million tracks (and growing). Based in Oslo, the service employs local editors in the countries in which it's available (Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Poland and in the Netherlands) to help ensure it meets the demands of these different markets.

Last.fm, founded in the UK in 2002, is known for its music recommendation "scrobbling" system that integrates with other services, and for its online radio service and social networking features.

KISS FM and rs2 general manager Christian Schalt (left) is the panel's representative of the broadcast world. He's based in Berlin, from where KISS FM has been broadcasting nationwide as part of the Germany's DAB digital radio system. He's a career broadcaster with experience at Planet Radio in Frankfurt and Energy in Vienna. He was also Program Director for Kronehit, Austria's only national commercial radio station.

"Growing Your Online Audience" will be moderated by VP/Europe for RCS Sound Software, Sven Andræ. Sven's also experienced in broadcast radio, and later joined RCS to launch its Scandinavian division. RCS, of course, is the well-known (and largest) broadcast software company, with products at over 10-thousand stations worldwide. It's known for its music and promo scheduling, digital playout, automation control, and traffic and sales management software (Sven's pictured right).

The RAIN Summit Europe agenda also includes five "feature presentations" (that's not including Kurt Hanson's "State of the Industry"). One will be "The Do's and Don'ts of Social Media Branding," to present tactics for online radio to better encourage discussion among, and connection with, listeners.

Our social media expert making this presentation is Paula Cordeiro of Lisbon. She's the radio ombusdperson for Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP), Portugal's public service broadcaster. A visionary of radio's future, she also coordinates the Radio Hub, which is a project for training, research, and radio production at the Universidade Técnica de Lisboa (where she lectures on radio and digital media).

This year's RAIN Summit Europe promises to top even last year's inaugural Berlin event. Space is still available for this year's event. All the details, including registration links, are on the RAIN Summit Europe page here.

AllThingsDigital reported last week that Spotify has purchased Swedish music discovery startup Tunigo, makers of a popular Spotify app (the news source's Peter Kafka compares the app to webcaster Songza, in that "it is focused on mood- and theme-based playlists").

Kafka thinks it's a sign that "companies are starting to emphasize curation" (that is -- ways to tame the mass of millions of artists and tracks in order to find quality music that suits your tastes).

Last fall Twitter bought music discovery startup We Are Hunted (which also made a popular Spotify app) to help it build its music service. Spotify's move, writes Kafka, is "putting a renewed emphasis on helping people find stuff they like — which has the obvious benefit of keeping them on the service longer, and/or convincing them to pay."

Read more on Spotify and Tunigo in AllThingsDigital here. As we mentioned elsewhere today, Spotify's Benelux managing director Tom Segers will join us for RAIN Summit Europe, May 23 at Brussels' Hotel Bloom. Info and registration links are on the RAIN Summit Europe page.