Ad supported music players looking for the right model
This article in adweek describes how online musicplayers are trying to find a viable model for free music players based on advertising.
NEW YORK Back in June, things looked grim for ad-supported online music services. SpiralFrog, well-funded and heavily hyped, had already gone belly up. Pioneering Web radio outfit Pandora warned it would likely shut down. And in April, social music site imeem, which had over $20 million in venture backing and deals with the major labels to stream songs and split ad revenue, was forced to deny rumors it would soon shut down. The economics of ad-supported music simply weren’t working.
Just two months later, however, the sector’s prospects are considerably brighter.