AOL today relaunched AOL Radio, now powered by personalizable pureplay webcaster Slacker. AOL Radio announced in late June it would migrate away from CBS Radio and partner with Slacker (RAIN coverage here).
The new AOL Radio includes about half the audio advertising it previously had, now playing about 3 minutes of advertising per hour. The cut was announced by AOL Radio General Manager Lisa Namerow at RAIN Summit Chicago (find video coverage here).
The service also now offers Slacker's personalization features, non-music content from ESPN Radio and (soon) ABC Radio, plus subscription plans that remove ads and offer on-demand features (read more on Slacker's subscription services here).
Namerow told Bloomberg the new features and reduced ad-load is aimed at "reversing a 25% drop in AOL Radio users from a year ago." AOL Radio attracts around 3 million users a month, according to Namerow (more here).
The new AOL Radio can be found online here. AOL Radio also released a new iPhone app, with an Android version due before the end of the year.
We're happy to announce our second-annual RAIN Summit Europe industry event, May 23 in gorgeous Brussels, Belgium. We'll gather with Internet radio leaders from across Europe and around the world at the Hotel Bloom for a full day of informative panels, presentations and networking.
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