Libraries vs. Listeners ...Of all the music services out there, who’s got the biggest playlist? (And who’s caught the ears of the most fans?) We round it up for you.

groovesharkpandora

users track count

200 million

40 m

18 m

1 m 1 M

key

rhapsodyslacker

iheartradio spotify

track count = user count (almost)

20 m

20 M13 M15 m

30 m

4 m

24 M

WIRED’s March Guide to Music highlights the emerging role CURATORS will play in helping audiences build their relationship with the songs they love; and, in many ways, ‘programmatic’ listening has begun to enter the mainstream.

Top Takeaway from the Article:Dozens of online music-streaming services are competing for access to your ears, each with different recommendation systems, song databases, and rules and regulations. The Echo Nest might be the most important recommendations engine you’ve never heard of. Its API powers more than 400 apps including Spotify, Rhapsody, iHeartRadio, and Rdio. Here’s how it works:• Input: A seed song, such as Johnny Cash’s cover of “Hurt.”• The Echo Nest’s system analyzes acoustic attributes of the song (tempo, energy, loudness,

etc.) as well as cultural attributes like genre, style and mood.• The software refines the recommendation pool based on the user’s taste profile: listen

history, favorites, skips and bans, plus data from third-party apps. If you have posted your love for the band on Social Media, it takes that into account too.

• Individual service (Spotify, Rhapsody, etc.) will tweak for their audience’s needs and USP.• Output: A matching song. Spotify, for example, recommends Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold.” What to Look for Next:Streaming services will evolve to become more experiential. For example, Beats Music just launched the Sentence. For each of four fields – where you are, how you feel, who you’re with, and a genre – the feature presents you with seven options at a time.

m O r e O N W I r e d . c O m .

Programmatic media Buying an aPProach For

all SeaSonSPerSPective mec’S

Exploring MEC’s TrEnds for 2014 and BEyond March

HOW TO LIsTeN NOWWIred march Issue

When programmatic buying (the use of technology to create automated rules for buying and optimizing media) first came to the forefront, its application was heavily focused on digital display inventory and for the purposes of direct response advertising. As the technology has improved, and the industry’s use of it becomes more sophisticated, many believe the approach can and will be applied to more and more sources of media for a wider range of objectives – all helping get the right message to the right person, at the right time and at the right cost. The result? The ability to extend into richer, more fulfilling areas of people’s lives, such as music, as brands move beyond simply display.

As programmatic continues to become increasingly easy to engage in, thanks in large part to advances in supply side infrastructure,the widespread adoption of programmatic automation tools, and a dramatic increase in higher quality inventory, 2014 will be the year we will see programmatic become adopted by marketers across industries. Its real-time nature, coupled with an increase in hyper-local abilities, will help drive its proliferation and growth. Marketers ready to test this opportunity have at their fingertips new audience segmentation tools to make the most of consumer experiences.