LiveXLive

Last updated
LiveOne
LiveXLive logo.svg
Type of site
Internet radio
Available inEnglish
OwnerLiveOne Media
Key people
  • Robert Ellin (CEO)
  • Brad Kindig (CTO)
URL liveone.com
CommercialYes
RegistrationOptional (Limited Plays), Free
LaunchedMarch 15, 2007 (as Slacker Radio)
Current statusActive

LiveOne (formerly known as LiveXLive) is a music streaming platform that combines audio and (often live) video available in the US and Canada. Users can access the service on the web through mobile apps on smartphones and OTT devices to create and share customized music stations. LiveXLive allows users to customize one of their programmed stations (for instance, Today's Hits) or start with music similar to an artist or song, and then customize that. Currently, LiveXLive powered by Slacker has 420 expert-curated music stations.

Contents

LiveXLive's business model offers free ad-supported access and subscription levels that remove ads and offer additional features.

In September 2017, Slacker was acquired by LiveXLive. [1] In April 2019, the Slacker app rebranded as LiveXLive Powered By Slacker. [2]

History

The company was founded in 2004 by Celite Milbrandt [3] and Dennis Mudd, who then launched the company in March 2007. [4] [5] [6] Dennis was the former CEO of Music Match, which was purchased by Yahoo Music and became known as Yahoo! Music Radio.

In September 2007, the service as Slacker Radio [7] finalized its deals with four major labels: Sony BMG Music Entertainment, EMI, Universal, and Warner; it also announced deals with thousands of indie labels. [8]

In 2008, Slacker released the Slacker Portable Player, available in 2 GB, 4 GB, and 8 GB capacities. [9] On January 9, 2008, the Slacker Portable Player received Laptop Magazine's Best of CES Portable Audio/Video Player Award. [10] On September 16, 2008, Slacker released a new portable player called Slacker G2. [11] Slacker consumer electronics, including the G2 Personal Radio Player, have since been discontinued in favor of an emphasis on smartphones and other mobile applications. [12] In April 2008, the company announced agreements with top music publishers, including EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group and Warner/Chappell Music. These agreements, signed before the Slacker Portable Player (since retired) launched, allowed Portable Player users to listen to cached Internet radio stations and premium radio users to save songs for later playback. [13]

Final Slacker logo prior to LiveXLive acquisition. Slacker-logo-black-official-2015.png
Final Slacker logo prior to LiveXLive acquisition.

On February 13, 2013, Slacker retired its original look and logo in favor of a new, streamlined design and a simplified logo, now colored orange (as opposed to the black, white and gold colors of the old logo). On 14 December 2014, a redesign and relaunch incorporated a new logo, a red, white, and black color scheme, and a complete UI overhaul for all platforms. [14]

LiveXLive purchased Slacker at the end of 2017 and combined Slacker into its streaming service, rebranding the service in April 2019 as LiveXLive Powered by Slacker. [2]

In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, LiveXLive launched a partnership with American rapper Pitbull, which would grant the platform exclusive rights to concerts, behind-the-scenes, videos and more from Pitbull to be streamed to LiveXLive's premium subscribers. [15] Also in 2020, LiveXLive acquired podcast network PodcastOne. [16]

PodcastOne

PodcastOne logo Podcastone logo.png
PodcastOne logo

PodcastOne is an advertiser-supported podcast network, founded by Norm Pattiz, also founder of radio-giant Westwood One. [17] As of 2016, PodcastOne hosted over 200 podcasts. [18] The PodcastOne studios are based in Beverly Hills, California, with offices across the US, including New York, Chicago and Denver and an Australian office and studio in Melbourne. PodcastOne was founded in 2013 by Westwood One founder and owner of Courtside Entertainment, LLC Norm Pattiz. [19] In mid-2015, Hubbard Broadcasting purchased a 30% stake in PodcastOne. [17] Hubbard radio programs are adding podcasts on the network, including WTOP/Washington D.C.'s Target USA. In November, 2015, PodcastOne re-upped with Adam Carolla for 5 years, including the entire Carolla Digital lineup. The deal expanded the partnership to involve production and development of new programming. [20] In 2020, PodcastOne was acquired by LiveXLive. [21] More recently, he struck a first look deal with Picture Perfect Federation. [22] In March 2016, PodCastOne announced it would be offering premium content subscription services. [23] An Australian affiliate of PodcastOne was launched in September 2017 and is operated by media company Southern Cross Austereo, using its brand name and some of its programming under license. [24] In February 2021, Southern Cross Austereo changed the PodcastOne Australia branding to LiSTNR effectively ending the brand in Australia. Southern Cross Austereo's association with PodcastOne continues, and selected PodcastOne titles may still be available on the LiSTNR platform. [25]

Basic functions

LiveXLive/Slacker offers traditional genre, specialty, and artist stations pre-programmed by professional DJs while also letting users build entire stations of specific artists. Users can continue to develop any of these stations by rating favorite songs and banning artists or songs. LiveXLive/Slacker also allows subscribers to customize any station to their liking by adjusting settings like: more hits or more depth, more or less of their favorites, and more current or more classic material. The music could also be interspersed with music, sports and ABC News updates, alongside some DJ banter. LiveXLive also offers access to over 40 live-streamed music events a year such as Rock In Rio, Rolling Loud and iHeart Country.

When a user inputs the name of a specific band or artist, LiveXLive/Slacker will instantly create a station based on that musician along with similar artists. This feature allows users to discover new artists similar to the ones they already like. Users can also create their own stations by inputting artists they like. The rest of the station is automatically populated with similar songs and artists. Pre-programmed themed stations (holidays, music festivals, and artists) are also available.

In July 2010, Slacker added the ABC News station, with an option to include headline news for top-of-the-hour updates on any Slacker Radio station. [26] In late summer 2011, ESPN channels were also added.

Account types

LiveXLive Basic RadioLiveXLive Radio Plus ($3.99/month)LiveXLive Radio Premium ($9.99/month)
  • Listening to ready-made stations
  • Creating custom stations
  • Skipping 6 songs per hour per station
  • Ads every 5 to 7 songs
  • Audio quality: 128kbit/s
  • Listening to ready-made stations
  • Creating custom stations
  • Unlimited skips
  • No ads
  • Audio quality: 320kbit/s
  • Listening to ready-made stations
  • Creating custom stations
  • Unlimited skips
  • No ads
  • Audio quality: 320kbit/s
  • Offline listening
  • Play on demand
  • Only available through iTunes

Mobile applications

The LiveXLive powered by Slacker mobile app works on iPhone, iPod touch, WebOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile 6.x & Windows Phone 7.x/8.x smartphone platforms, and Windows 8.x/RT. The applications provide playback from 3G or WiFi connections. Features such as station creation, recently played stations, fine-tune options, artist biographies, photos, album art, reviews, station caching and lyrics (for LiveXLive Radio Plus or Premium subscribers) are available on the mobile applications as well. Slacker access is built into the music app of the Tesla Model S, X,3 and Y vehicles in the US including an ad free Slacker account at no charge.

Community

LiveXLive/Slacker allows users to connect via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to further promote music discovery.

Twitter

Twitter users can log into LiveXLive/Slacker [27] and select the option to automatically or manually alert their friends and followers about the following:

Facebook

Facebook users can find LiveXLive on Facebook and become a fan to get music news and learn about new features, promotions, and contests.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yahoo! Music Radio</span> LAUNCH Media software

Yahoo! Music Radio was an Internet radio service offered by Clear Channel Communications' iHeartRadio through Yahoo! Music. The service, formerly offered by LAUNCH Media, and originally developed by Todd Beaupré, Jason Snyder and Jeff Boulter, debuted on November 11, 1999, and was purchased by Yahoo! on June 28, 2001. Previously, LAUNCHcast combined with CBS Radio beginning in 2009, then iHeartRadio in 2012. The service closed in early 2014.

LIVE365 is an Internet radio network where users are able to create their own online radio stations, or choose to listen to thousands of human curated stations. LIVE365 is unique in that online radio stations on the LIVE365 network were created and managed by music and talk enthusiasts, including both hobbyists and professional broadcasters. LIVE365 also has many well established AM and FM stations that utilized the LIVE365 broadcasting platform to simulcast their terrestrial radio streams via the Live365 distribution network. The Live365 network also features radio stations from well-known artists such as Johnny Cash, David Byrne, Pat Metheny, Jethro Tull, Frank Zappa, and more. LIVE365 was created in 1999, and remains one of the longest running internet radio websites for listeners and broadcasters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern Cross Austereo</span> Australian media company

Southern Cross Media Group Limited, doing business as Southern Cross Austereo, is an Australian media company which operates broadcast radio and television stations. It is the largest radio broadcaster in Australia, operating 86 radio stations, and has a reach into every state and territory.

Pandora is a subscription-based music streaming service owned by Sirius XM Holdings based in Oakland, California, United States. The service carries a focus on recommendations based on the "Music Genome Project" — a means of classifying individual songs by musical traits. The service originally launched in the consumer market as an internet radio service, which would generate personalized channels based on these traits and songs liked by the user; this service is available in an advertising-supported tier, and a subscription-based version. In 2017, the service launched Pandora Premium, an on-demand version of the service more in line with contemporary competitors.

AOL Radio powered by Slacker was an online radio service available in the United States only. It had over 200 free internet radio stations.

The online service imeem was a social media website where users interacted with each other by streaming, uploading and sharing music and music videos. It operated from 2003 until 2009 when it was shut down after being acquired by MySpace.

Shazam (application) Music identifying application

Shazam is an application that can identify music, movies, advertising, and television shows, based on a short sample played and using the microphone on the device. It was created by London-based Shazam Entertainment, and has been owned by Apple Inc. since 2018. The software is available for Android, macOS, iOS, Wear OS, watchOS and as a Google Chrome extension.

TuneIn American audio streaming service

TuneIn is a global audio streaming service delivering live news, radio, sports, music, and podcasts to over 75 million monthly active users.

Deezer is a French online music streaming service. It allows users to listen to music content from record labels, as well as podcasts on various devices online or offline.

Spotify (/ˈspɒtɪfaɪ/) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 433 million monthly active users, including 188 million paying subscribers, as of June 2022. Spotify is listed on the New York Stock Exchange in the form of American depositary receipts.

Blinkbox Music was a free, advertising supported, music streaming service, with over 12 million tracks available for streaming in the UK and Ireland, with content from the music industry, and most independent labels and distributors.

A music streaming service is a type of streaming media service that focuses primarily on music, and sometimes other forms of digital audio content such as podcasts. These services are usually subscription-based services allowing users to stream digital copyright restricted songs on-demand from a centralized library provided by the service. Some services may offer free tiers with limitations, such as advertising and limits on use. They typically incorporate a recommendation engine to help users discover other songs they may enjoy based on their listening history and other factors, as well as the ability to create and share public playlists with other users.

iHeartRadio is an American freemium broadcast, podcast and radio streaming platform owned by iHeartMedia. It was founded in April 2008. As of 2019, iHeartRadio was functioning as the national umbrella brand for iHeartMedia's radio network, the largest radio broadcaster in the United States. Its main competitors are Audacy, TuneIn and Sirius XM.

Aupeo

Aupeo, stylised as AUPEO!, was a personalized internet radio service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google Play Music</span> Online music locker, music store, and music streaming service

Google Play Music is a discontinued music and podcast streaming service and an online music locker operated by Google as part of its Google Play line of services. The service was announced on May 10, 2011; after a six-month, invitation-only beta period, it was publicly launched on November 16, 2011 and shut down in December 2020.

The following is a list of on-demand music streaming services. These services offer streaming of full-length content via the Internet as a part of their service, without the listener necessarily having to purchase a file for download. This type of service is somewhat similar to Internet radio. Many of these sites have advertising and offer non-free options in the style of a digital music store.

Audacy, previously known as Radio.com, is a free broadcast and Internet radio platform owned by the namesake company Audacy, Inc.. The Audacy platform functions as a music recommender system and is the national umbrella brand for the company’s radio network aggregating its over 235 local radio stations across the United States. In addition, the service includes thousands of podcasts, created for the platform, hosted elsewhere, or station programming on demand. It was originally created by CBS Radio and was acquired by the former Entercom as part of the company's takeover of CBS Radio. The service's main competitors are rival station group iHeartMedia's iHeartRadio, and TuneIn. Audacy is available online, via mobile devices, and devices such as Chromecast and Amazon Fire TV.

SoundayMusic is a geosocial networking mobile music streaming app that enables users to listen to and track the music their friends and neighbors are playing in real time. The service provides over 32 million tracks and allows users to create "music stations" choosing between a mix of up to three artists, or choosing a music genre. In the free version users can create up to 10 personalized stations, look at the stations that are being played nearby in real time, and interact with other users through instant chat. The paid, premium subscription removes advertisements and allows users to create an unlimited number of stations. It was launched in 2009> by Soundtracker, and as of December 2014 the service had 1.3 million registered users. Soundtracker is available for iOS App Store, Android Google Play, Windows Phone Store, Windows Store, Google Glass, BlackBerry World, Samsung Apps, Amazon Appstore, Nook, and Samsung Smart TV, in 10 languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese Simplified, Japanese, Korean and Russian. Soundtracker is a registered trademark.

BBC Sounds is a walled garden streaming media and audio download service from the BBC that includes live radio broadcasts, audio on demand, and podcasts. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers, cars, and smart televisions. Media delivered to UK-based listeners does not feature commercial advertising.

References

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  2. 1 2 "Slacker Radio rebranded as LiveXLive, focusing on streaming live performances [APK Download]". April 25, 2019.
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  4. "'Slacker' Music Service Combines Player, Recommendations".
  5. "News | Austin Ventures". www.austinventures.com.
  6. "Slacker's CEO isn't one".
  7. "Slacker (beta)".
  8. Van Buskirk, Eliot (September 20, 2007). "Slacker Music Service Signs Deals with All Major Labels, Thousands of Indies" via www.wired.com.
  9. "InformationWeek, serving the information needs of the Business Technology Community". InformationWeek.
  10. "Best of CES 2008". Archived from the original on July 8, 2012.
  11. "Chicago Tribune - Historical Newspapers". Chicago Tribune.
  12. McMahan, Ty (October 21, 2009). "Slacker Ditches G2 Device In Favor Of New Mobile Strategy" via www.wsj.com.
  13. "Slacker Announces Major Publishing Agreements". Archived from the original on April 12, 2008.
  14. Roettgers, Janko (December 10, 2014). "Slacker relaunches its radio service to finally land a hit". gigaom.com.
  15. "Pitbull Partners With LiveXLive For Multi-Year Deal To Develop, Produce & Distribute Unique Original Content". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). LiveXLive Media.
  16. Spangler, Todd (2020-05-08). "LiveXLive to Acquire PodcastOne in $18 Million Stock Deal". Variety. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
  17. 1 2 "Hubbard Broadcasting Buys 30 Percent Stake In PodcastOne". International Business Times. Retrieved 2016-04-02.
  18. PodcastOne. "PodcastOne: All Podcasts".
  19. Carney, Steve (28 February 2013). "Radio guru turns podcast curator" via LA Times.
  20. "Adam Carolla Re-ups With Podcast One for 5 More Years". TheWrap. Retrieved 2016-04-02.
  21. Spangler, Todd (2020-05-08). "LiveXLive to Acquire PodcastOne in $18 Million Stock Deal". Variety. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
  22. White, Peter (2021-05-05). "Picture Perfect Federation Moves Into Scripted Podcasts With PodcastOne First-Look Deal". Deadline. Retrieved 2021-05-06.
  23. "Radio World: PodcastOne Now Offering Premium Subscription". www.radioworld.com. Retrieved 2016-04-02.
  24. "Southern Cross Austereo officially launches PodcastOne". www.mumbrella.com.au.
  25. "Southern Cross Austereo launches LiSTNR app". www.radiotoday.com.au. Retrieved 2021-03-17.
  26. "ABC News' Press Room announces: Slacker Radio Links With ABC News".
  27. "Slacker Radio Adds Twitter Functionality To Give Music Fans A New Method To Share Lady Gaga Songs". Archived from the original on October 14, 2009.