— Concert recommendation and search engine Livekick has emerged from beta mode, going live with a service that notifies members when their favorite artists are playing locally and helps them search for the lowest-cost tickets online. The search engine follows more than 20,000 artists and 40,000 venues. It also recommends unknown artists based on each users’ profile.
— More than 22 million listeners are now using various Clear Channel Radio digital properties, including both online and mobile, according to data from Omniture that the company released today. And according to an Ando Media study, online and mobile outlets are contributing up to 15% of the total listeners for certain stations.
Clear Channel pointed to its iheartradio mobile applications as having a particular impact, with more than 2 million downloads. More than 80% of those who downloaded the app have downloaded subsequent updates, and 20% engage with the service weekly for an average of 99 minutes, the company says.
As a result, the number of advertisers buying inventory on Clear Channel’s digital platforms grew 23% last year, to 100,000, and the company expects that figure to increase another 39% by the end of this year.
— Sirius XM subscribers will face a fee hike this summer of almost $2, which the company is blaming on the new royalty rates for satellite radio passed down by the Copyright Royalty Board in 2007. The $1.98 fee will take hold July 29, which Sirius XM will list separately on bills as a tax of sorts. (All Things D)
— The American Association of Independent Music has not joined the Vevo music video service, created by Universal Music Group, depsite a report in Digital Music News. “There is no deal and I never said there was a deal,” says A2IM president Richard Bengloff, noting that A2IM is not in a position to strike content deals with music services. According to Bengloff, the organization meets with digital music services like Vevo to encourage them to strike deals with independent labels and aggregators that are as equitable as their major label efforts. Bengloff’s misconstrued comments came during an 8-hour seminar for indie labels at the NARM conference in San Diego during which he was asked a question about whether various elements of the music industry were working together on common goals.
