RELEASING YOUR INNER DATA SCIENTIST:  Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, you know the utilization of data is an essential ingredient in practically every media campaign these days.  Getting good at data (ie: becoming a data scientist) is a required skill set for today’s marketers.  So how do you become a card carrying member of the nerd herd?  Start by understanding the ins and outs of data collection and develop critical thinking skills around data processing, which is the interpretation of the raw data into a usable insights.  There are entire college majors devoted to this topic, so there’s no quick and easy way to ramp up on this skill.  But at least be a sponge by reading and absorbing as much material as you can on this topic.  A good place to start is this very in depth AdAge article on how would be data scientists think about data.  http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/learn-a-data-scientist/306203/?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTVdZeFpESTVOMk5oWTJaaiIsInQiOiJBZWxkZ2JZSTZUT2FWaTdrenlwVnBVWHpydHJyem90QXVnWnJ6ZzdUazhueWdRYUhzcnFnVjdCU1JGWUlrMGV5bkRvK1wvK05va1hwR2ZFN2JyYXpnem1nUlBoOTBJb2hCWjlHSmphQTZOYkE9In0%3D

LESSONS FROM THE POLS:  I’m a firm believer that many marketing innovations made during a political election cycle become commonly used by non-political marketers.  The reason is simple – candidates have a drop dead urgency to completely win (or lose) on election day, so they pour resources into new technologies and data mining to come out on top at all costs.  And often the results are so powerful that they become replicated as best practices for the broader industry.  As an example look no further than Obama12’s pioneering of layered targeted, which became a common industry practice in the ensuing years.  For insights into the current state of political advertising, and lessons which can be gleaned by other marketers, check out the following AdExchanger link.  They say the best ideas are stolen . . . so feel free to stamp and repeat!  http://adexchanger.com/politics/key-learnings-election-2016-treat-consumers-like-voters/?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTVdZeFpESTVOMk5oWTJaaiIsInQiOiJBZWxkZ2JZSTZUT2FWaTdrenlwVnBVWHpydHJyem90QXVnWnJ6ZzdUazhueWdRYUhzcnFnVjdCU1JGWUlrMGV5bkRvK1wvK05va1hwR2ZFN2JyYXpnem1nUlBoOTBJb2hCWjlHSmphQTZOYkE9In0%3D

IN-DASH SATISFACTION SCORES: I thought this one is kind of curious.  JD Power is starting to rate the various in-dash streaming platforms on customer satisfaction.  It’s sort of interesting to see the clumping at the top and then Amazon and Google a bit further down.  I agree with the article’s author that JDP doesn’t quite have the methodology down on this yet – probably should also include the streaming from broadcasters (like iHeart) to get a complete picture of the ecosystem.  It would also be useful to see the satisfaction scores by EOM – for example are Toyota owners more satisfied with their car’s streaming interface than GM, Nissan, etc..  I imagine this study will get tightened up over time.  http://rainnews.com/j-d-power-tackles-customer-satisfaction-in-streaming/

Have a great Thursday guys!

A BRIEF HISTORY OF VIEWABILITY:  Over the past few weeks we’ve seen even the largest tech titans like FB and Google struggle to calculate and comply with basic viewability metrics. So you may be wondering how the industry got into its current situation, where viewability is the end-all-be-all, and which direction things are headed. For some context check out the attached eMarketer article. It traces digital publishers’ and ad networks’ push for more and more deliverable scale to keep revenues high as display CPMs plummeted. This created a situation where ads were served (and charged for) despite having very little chance of ever being seen, and at worst case flat out click baiting and bot fraud. Then entered the MRC, riding a white horse called viewability, to create industry standards as a way to clean up the digital media business. Really helpful to know this history, since it’s a primary motivation for today’s marketers who are willing to pay a premium to have ads actually be viewed by potential customers. A novel idea, right? https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Digital-Advertising-Beyond-Impression/1014602?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWm1NeU9UVTBPREpoT0RFMyIsInQiOiJpQ1dmQmJDTkJjb201WllKQnR6Q1R3K24yR0RLaWJZNFVvdW5rXC9GUFAwc3FCRW9WZmd4V0dyMm1NQ2xmUkdiV1RLNmhTSFwvWTVjUlJKY05ieStrcHZseEg5OWZcL2FKakZxUEFUc0tLUjg5Yz0ifQ%3D%3D

AMP UP THE ARTIST SERVICES:  With yesterday’s announcement of Pandora’s new Artist Management Platform (AMP) there’s been a renewed focus in the trades on exactly what each of the primary streaming services offer artists besides just performance and song-writing royalties. The attached Yahoo Finance link does a nice job top-lining each streamers’ artist functionality. Nothing too earth shattering here, but helpful to keep the offerings straight. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/pandora-vs-spotify-vs-apple-210327226.html

GEN Y ON RADIO . . . MEH:  I wanted to share some data from Jacobs Media’s 8^th annual Public Radio Tech Survey. I normally don’t source anything from Jacob’s because they’re way-biased towards terrestrial radio. The survey itself only sources respondents who listen to broadcast radio, so that tells you all you need to know. But even with that bias in play, check out one of the findings in the Media Usage Pyramid below. There’s a very distinct line of demarcation between Gen Ys and Boomers in regards to time spent on AM/FM Radio vs. Streaming. Not surprisingly, the Boomers are all radio (89%) and less streaming (53%). But look at what happens to the gap for Gen Y, with radio (80%) compared to streaming (78%). Bottom line – even current radio listeners under a certain age are spending as much time with streaming audio as they are with broadcast radio. Another sign of the sea change happening in our industry right now! http://rainnews.com/jacobs-media-survey-results-snapshots-of-public-radio-and-media/

VOTE PANDORA:  And finally, if you’re looking for something positive to vote for this election season think Pandora. We’re still in the running (and as of yesterday in the lead) for AdWeek’s Top Digital Brands Hot List. Please click on the link and vote – we’re in two different categories. And even if you already voted a few weeks back it’s perfectly legal to stuff the ballot box. So vote Pandora early and often! http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/hot-list-what-are-2016s-top-digital-brands-apps-and-must-have-products-173834

Have a great Wednesday guys!

OMNICHANNEL COMING TO A STORE NEAR YOU:  Today’s first article delves into omnichannel marketing via the consumer’s own digital inputs.  Retailers like Crate & Barrel and Timberland have begun testing in-store devices called Mobile Totes and TouchWalls (think fixed position in-store tablets), which allow shoppers to send themselves notifications about specific items they might be interested in.  The key here is that a consumer self-declares an email address or device ID, which can be used by the retailer later to behaviorally retarget.  It’s sort of the reverse of “show rooming”, where a consumer sees an item in a store and then quickly checks their phone to see who else has the same item for sale at a better price.  In this case the customer asks to be notified when a certain item is in stock, on sale, etc., which creates the perfect hand-raiser targeting opportunity for the retailer.  http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/omnichannel-marketing-finally-going-retail-dream-reality-174049

ALONE IN THE NEST:  A few weeks ago I shared some news on the eminent sale of Twitter to another tech company.  At the time it appeared that Salesforce was the lead contender to buy Twitter as a way to merge the two companies’ CRM and Social data.  But that was before Salesforce’s CEO, Marc Benioff, started receiving negative pressure from investors not to consummate the Twitter deal.  Apparently the downside risks of not being able to synergistically leverage the companies’ assets became too much, because as of Friday Salesforce officially bowed out of the running.  So this leaves Twitter flying solo, as there are no other significant suitors in the mix right now.  http://www.cnbc.com/2016/10/14/twitter-shares-tumble-5-after-report-salesforce-rules-out-bid.html

WHERE THE COOL KIDS WORK:  And finally, I need to brag a little about yesterday’s announcement that Pandora’s Chicago Office won the 2016 Crain’s Coolest Office Award!  In the attached link you can see pictures of the staff in action and a really cool virtual video tour of the space.  It’s easy to take for granted your surroundings when you come to work in the same place day after day.  But this award allows us to appreciate Pandora’s work environment, not to mention our overall culture, as one the best places in Chicago to work!  https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.chicagobusiness.com_section_coolest-2Doffices-2D2016-23utm-5Fmedium-3Demail-26utm-5Fsource-3Dccb-2Dmorning10-26utm-5Fcampaign-3Dccb-2Dmorning10-2D20161017&d=CwIFAg&c=gFTBenQ7Vj71sUi1A4CkFnmPzqwDo07QsHw-JRepxyw&r=4FkS7cQPtBrZholKyJbM8WzYIlfWS2Xrvvh6F4CSATw&m=nKczlWMTzp_fHmoAlnWOc1IlcnSWctO811TY8Uv-RBM&s=z8ZjV6lS_BbzZeq3J1yd9QLth-Qwud1RrySX4dDDfGc&e=

Have a great Tuesday guys!

TOP DIGITAL TRENDS: First up is a roundup of last week’s tech trends, compliments of AdWeek.  It was sort of a slowish week in the industry, so nothing too crazy here.  I think #1 is interesting – lots of bot fluff on Instagram, but at least they’re doing some housecleaning.  And no surprise at all on #3, as most teens are physically addicted to video-base social apps like Snapchat and Instragram right now.  Enjoy the list!  http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/these-6-new-digitally-minded-stats-got-our-attention-week-174072

MESSAGE A SONG: With all the buzz last week around Pandora’s rebranding, you may have missed a cool little sharing feature that’s now available in Apple’s iMessage app.  Pandora listeners can now share a :30 sample of a song via an iMessage chat thread.  Then when the recipient clicks to listen they’ll launch directly into Pandora.  Very cool indeed!  I’m guessing examples like this are just the beginning of a new “music messaging” trend.  Both TechCrunch and RAIN have this covered in the following links.  1) https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/13/pandoras-new-imessage-app-lets-you-text-your-favorite-music/  2) http://rainnews.com/apples-texting-service-adds-pandora-song-sharing/

THE FUTURE OF AUDIO DOWN UNDER: And finally, Jette Speights from our PR team shared this article over the weekend, and I thought it was appropriate to pass along,  In it the CEO of IAB Australia talks about the evolution of audio – from radio station DJ booths to website, and from physical albums to purchased downloads to streaming.  Although he’s talking about the transformation of the music industry in Australia, it should seem remarkably similar to what’s going on in the US.  His main assertions are that audio has been irreversibly changed by digital technology, and that we’re only at the beginning of the digital audio revolution.  Great read!  http://www.adnews.com.au/opinion/the-inevitable-disruption-of-audio

Have a great Monday guys!

GOOGLE VS. THE MRC:    In September there was a surprising outcome during a standard MRC audit of Google’s ad serving platform.  In the audit the MRC concluded Google’s method of counting mobile impressions served didn’t meet its criteria, which was just updated in April.  As a result Google lost MRC accreditation for that part of its business.  So what happened?  Up to now Google has counted impressions served on the fetch – meaning when the server calls up the ad an impression is counted.  But the MRC’s updated standard for mobile, which now matches web, requires at least 50% of the ad must be in view for at least one second.  In other words, the ad must actually be rendered, and not just fetched.    I’ve included two articles below on this –  the first one from Business Insider outlines the issue, and the second from AdWeek discusses Google’s remedy to change its methodology and regain accreditation.  Interesting stuff in an ever-changing mobile ad tech landscape.  (1) http://www.businessinsider.com/google-doubleclick-suspended-from-media-rating-council-accreditation-2016-10?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWVdZNFlUYzBZamRqT0RJMyIsInQiOiJ2YnR5Y0hrV2MrYmMyUVZmUmpqY0RsYUE4OVlYbFlTemRMV0plb0tjUG15djhPYkhHTjF4MXhmYzVsSFJjNUR0Tk4xak95R2I5d0pNXC9TdG9kbTV4WEdUcEc1TGxvSEFMV2NVRXRmWlNzMm89In0%3D  (2) http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/google-rolling-out-new-technology-publishers-count-mobile-viewability-174023

DIGITAL TAKING OVER THE DASH:  Over the past few years we’ve seen the proliferation of digital apps in the connected car dashboard.  Pandora was one of the early pioneers, and is currently in over 140+ car models spanning 20+ manufacturers.  For a peek into the next chapter of this evolution check out the following article from RAIN.  The author predicts Apple Carplay and Android Auto are about to hit ciritical mass (as early as 2017), and usher in an open-architecture model of tomorrow’s digital dashboard.  Picture either of these two ecosystems as the overall highway to deliver content to the dash, and the individual broadcasters/publishers as the cars on highway (car analogy overkill, I know).  So what does this mean for the radio industry?  Up to now broadcasters have enjoyed a near-monopily on the buttons in the dashboard, and as a result in-car listening makes up over half of radio’s total listening time.  Moving forward expect total time spent with AM/FM to massively erode once consumer choice begins to proliferate in tomorrow’s connected car.  http://rainnews.com/apple-carplay-and-android-auto-are-about-to-explode/

LESSONS IN CRISIS MANAGEMENT:  And finally this week, I wanted to share an interesting media case study from a few years ago.  For a point of reference consider the current fiasco Samsung has on it’s hands with it’s Note phones’ batteries catching fire, and then even the replacement phones having the same problem.  Things are so bad that Samsung had to ship retailers fire proof boxes to send it’s defective phones back in.  Worst PR situation you’ve seen, right?  Well maybe not.  Consider what P&G went through with it’s Pampers Dry Max diapers in 2010.  They had a crisis on their hands when word spread through early social media that Dry Max caused chemical burns on babies’ skin.  This is absolute last thing you want to be known for as a diaper brand.  So what did P&G do to crisis manage this situation?  The following throwback article takes you deep inside their PR war room in May of 2010.  The decisions made, and the lessons learned about getting in front of sitautions and owning the narrative, are relevant today for Samsung or any other business in the crosshairs of a crisis.  Great weekend read if you have the time!  http://adage.com/article/news/pampers-battled-diaper-debacle/143777/

Have a great Friday (and weekend) guys . . . and GO CUBBIES!!!

US AD SPENDING SURGES:  Magna Global has released a revised US Ad Spending forecast for 2016 and beyond.  Overall media spending looks strong, with +6.3% growth vs. 2015.  Of course if you take Olympics and Political out the YoY growth drops way down to +1.6% – amazing to see the impact of those two occasions.  The other story inside the numbers is Digital’s continued ascension in the media spend pecking order.  For 2016 Digital is expected to finish just ahead of TV in overall revenue, but by 2020 its forecasted to be 40% higher.  To really understand the impact of digital on each sector’s increases check out the graph below.  It’s literally the only thing driving growth for Radio, Print, and Television, while the traditional players continue to erode.  Expect this narrative to continue for years to come.  http://www.insideradio.com/u-s-ad-sales-grow-at-strongest-rate-since/article_d472cdd0-9119-11e6-ba32-63d088ab342b.html

NEXT ON-DEMAND BATTER UP:  I teased this out about a month ago, but now it’s official.  Amazon is launching an updated on-demand streaming platform utilizing three tiers of service; 1) $3.99/mo for Amazon Echo owners – this level only provides music through the Echo/Dot speakers, 2) $7.99/mo for current Amazon Prime subscribers – their original music plan used to be free for Prime subs, and 3.) $10/mo for a full on-demand subscription – similar to current Spotify and Apple offerings.  But there’s been very little information on the music-side of the product.  In other words, what makes the music experience on Amazon better than the competition?  So it feels more like an ecosystem sell – if you’re already on the Amazon platform just add some music, right?  Other large tech companies have already tried the ecosystem strategy and have failed spectacularly . . . remember Samsung’s Milk Music or any of Apple’s previous iterations of their streaming service?  Based on this recent history Amazon may need to do more than just “build it and they will come”.  http://www.investors.com/news/technology/amazon-takes-on-apple-spotify-pandora-with-music-streaming-plan/?yptr=yahoo

NOT YOUR FATHER’S PANDORA:  And finally today, AdAge does a really nice job of highlighting Pandora’s new logo and imaging as a part of a broader narrative around the company’s reinvention.  From new imaging, to the upcoming external marketing campaign, to the launch of expanded service tiers like Pandora Plus and on-demand, there has literally never been a more exciting time for Pandora.  Kudos to our PR team for helping spread the word and create buzz amongst the most influential trades in our industry!  http://adage.com/article/digital/pandora-debuts-logo-digital-campaign-push/306241/

Have a great Thursday guys!

SHADY RATINGS GAME:  As a follow up to yesterday’s article about Nielsen artificially inflating radio’s YoY Time Spent Listening stats by adding streaming to its numbers, I wanted to share a real life example of how the broadcasters can employ this data.  My spies at Cumulus uncovered the following screen shots from a recent earnings call deck.  Check out the difference in recent performance between the two charts.  The one on the left is for Cumulus’s PPM-rated markets, showing dramatic ratings increases.  Compare that to the chart on the right showing their Diary-rated markets, with no increases.  Did Cumulus’s Program Directors in the PPM markets all become geniuses in the last 12 months, while their Diary market counterparts continued to struggle? Of course not.  The only difference between these two groups is the methodology Nielsen uses to measure TSL.  The PPM markets are now getting the benefit of streaming listening added to goose their ratings up, while the Diary markets don’t have streaming added.  This tells you all you need to know about the validity of Nielsen’s ratings data.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS:  And in case you’re wondering how exactly Nielsen ratings work with regards to time spent listening, Nielsen has just released a first-of-its-kind panelist profile, along with this handy diagram.  Are you can see, the two basic components of Average Quarter Hour Ratings (AQH) are the number of unique listeners (Cume) and the average amount of time they spend listening to a station (TSL).  By including streaming listening minutes into the TSL component the overall AQH moves higher.  But since most broadcaster run different commercials on their streams then they do over their terrestrial signal, through a process called ad insertion, advertisers aren’t necessarily reaching these extra stream listeners.  But rest assured, they’re now paying for them!  http://www.insideradio.com/nielsen-reports-peel-back-curtain-on-panelists/article_b5ded8d0-9053-11e6-b03b-1f88333dc484.html

WHAT’S IN YOUR WALLET?:  And finally today, let’s take a stroll into the world of FinTech.  Mobile-based payment via Near Field Communication (NFC) is a relatively nascent technology in the US today, but it appears that’s about to change.  Right now NFC accounts for 9% of in-store credit card transactions and only 5% of total cc volume.  Apple is the leading Vendor with its ApplePay service.  Moving forward expect to see more retailers, like the Kohl’s example mentioned in this AdAge article, to in-house their own payment solution.  The challenge for consumers is that they’ll need an app for each store’s specific platform.  But the upside for shoppers is the ability to link things like rewards points and couponing directly to NFC-based purchases.  And if that wasn’t complicated enough, consider the credit cards themselves who are scrambling to convert existing cardholders to their mobile payment solutions.  All of this is creating a high-stakes convergence of Retail, Tech, and Financial Services – should be very interesting to watch this one shake out.  http://adage.com/article/digital/apple-pay-facing-stiff-competition-retailers-services/306242/

Have a great Wednesday guys!

TSL SNEAKINESS:  Over the coming weeks you may encounter radio reps gleefully touting the latest Nielsen study showing that their time spent went up YoY, for the first time in forever.  What they won’t point out is that Nielsen changed its methodology to include minutes listening on digital devices (so basically their streaming side), while last year’s survey only counted terrestrial listening.  The broadcasters are claiming this change creates a more “apples to apples” way of looking at radio vs. other media.  But in reality they’ve skewed their own numbers by changing the criteria, and have created an “oranges to orangutans” scenario with this data.  Nothing to do proactively with this info – just be ready to rebut if you hear a client or agency referencing a radio claim that TSL is up.  http://www.insideradio.com/free/nielsen-time-spent-with-radio-is-up-across-demos/article_d74a9872-8f83-11e6-af34-bf881ec4fac0.html

NATIVE 101:  Next up is a very deep dive into Native Advertising in the following eMarketer white paper.  They dissect every aspect of native, including revenue growth of this sector, the conflict between native and op-ed, and native’s ability to solve for ad-blocking.  If you have a quiet 15 minutes it’s worth the read.  But if you don’t have the time, at least take a look at page 7 featuring Pandora’s Jonathan Eccles.  He does a nice job of highlighting the inherent strengths of Pandora’s new display and video ad units as native solutions.  Good ammunition to have as you battle it out on this important frontier of the media landscape.  https://www.emarketer.com/public_media/docs/eMarketer_Native_Advertising_Roundup_2016.pdf

CAMPAIGNING LIKE IT’S 2012:  Have you noticed we’re in election season yet?  Amongst the sea of political advertising Pandora continues to receive press as THE go to digital media option for candidate and issue advertising.  AdWeek picked up the story, featuring our VVP of Political Sean Duggan.  Sean’s main point, that political advertising always seems to be a step behind the industry, actually makes total sense.  Campaign consultants who plan media are always using the last election cycle (two or even four years ago) as their model, with the belief to keep doing what worked back then.  Unfortunately years are an eternity for media consumption change, which means campaigns are advertising to where voters used to spend their time, and not where they are today.  That’s why TV, and other incumbent media types, have held political dollars longer than other categories.  But as we know, it’s just a matter of when (not if) even the most hardened politicians see digital as the key to opening the ballet box.  http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/political-campaigns-need-embrace-digital-media-if-they-haven-t-already-173979

SUMMER DOLDRUMS FOR STREAMERS:  Triton is out with its monthly Webcast Metrics Rating for July.  As in previous years, the summer months are seeing a slight reduction in Average Active Sessions (AAS).  Month-over-month listening for total streaming and also Pandora specifically were -4%, which is in line with the seasonal trend.  Overall YoY streaming is still +13% vs. 2016, which is pretty amazing growth by any standard.  The normal graphs are below.  http://rainnews.com/summertime-dip-in-webcast-listening-in-july-while-strong-year-over-year-growth-triton-digital/

Have a great Tuesday guys!

VIEWABILITY’S DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD:  To get the brain blood flowing on a Monday I thought I’d share a solid piece on striking the right balance between viewability and efficiency.  The article’s author poses a provocative question about whether the quest for 100% viewability is worth the cost.  To answer this he backtracks to the IAB’s original definition of viewability from 2012, and then traces how we arrived at today’s 100% viewable agency mandates.  The recommendation – the premium you’ll pay for only buying 100% viewable impression isn’t worth the benefit derived, and the scale will be reduced due to the relative scarcity of completely viewable inventory.  The proposed solution is benchmarking – where a percentage (like 70%-80%) of impressions must be viewed, and as long as that condition is met the buy will be made under normal buying parameters at normal CPMs.  Seems like a fairly reasonable solution to the viewability conundrum.  http://adexchanger.com/data-driven-thinking/efficiency-vs-100-viewability-important-metric/?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWTJRd1pUUXpaVE0xTjJRNSIsInQiOiJiSE9GcDVWV3lydzRkUnFrRDRRdHZ6aWdpM09cLytIbDR3emhHWE4wSnVQUHlleG5ENlNlSmVJOVZXQ1h2eW56aU54bFdoR1g0ZTZMSGdIZU1yTWJzb0FiM0t4cTRwR0s4alwvR1wvcFBucHd3Yz0ifQ%3D%3D

FOOTBALL RATINGS ON THE SIDELINES?:  Over the past few months we’ve seen a steady stream of data showing the decline of network TV’s set top ratings.  It looks like even the mighty NFL isn’t immune to this trend.  Over the first quarter of the season the NFL’s TV ratings are down an average of 11%.  Most of this hit is coming during the Thurs/Sun primetime games at -17% YoY, vs. the Sunday afternoon games only -5% YoY.  Industry reaction is mixed – ranging from nobody panic it’s only a month’s worth of data, to this is another indication of the long-term decline of King Television.  As an avid football fan and a Chicagoan, I can tell you the Bears are doing nothing to contribute to the NFL’s ratings this year. 🙂  I’m sure we’ll hear more about this as the season progresses.  http://adage.com/article/media/heaven-hell-preacher-a-respectable-start/306209/

SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT 2.0:  And finally today, a fun albeit weird walk down memory lane in the world of music.  Leave it to the NY Post to pick up the recent recreation of Nirvana’s famous Nevermind album cover.  You know, the one with the naked baby submerged in the pool.  Well this time around it’s still the same baby person, only now he’s 25 years old and THANKFULLY wearing a bathing suit.  I’ll date myself by admitting I was in college when Nirvana launched the grunge phenomenon with this album.  I can remember seeing the album cover and hearing their songs for the first time like was yesterday.  Really makes you believe in the power of music.  Happy anniversary naked pool baby!  http://nypost.com/2016/09/23/nirvana-baby-recreates-iconic-album-cover-25-years-later/

Have a great Monday guys!

TOO BIG TO FAIL:  First up today is a fairly bold assertion by an industry analyst at Needham on the importance of Pandora and Spotify to the music industry.  The main takeaway is that both streamers are “too big to fail”, given their growing importance in the labels’ revenue model.  The growth of streaming as a % of revenue to the music industry is well documented, making up 47% of topline rev in the first six months of 2016.  Pandora and Spotify combine for an astounding 76% of that total.  So if these two cash cows don’t stay healthy it’s hard to imagine sustained profitability for the entire music  industry. http://www.investors.com/news/technology/pandora-spotify-said-too-big-to-fail-discordant-music-industry/?yptr=yahoo

THE CANDIDATES HAVE VOTED WITH THEIR WALLETS:  We all know how hard our Political team has worked over past two years to be ready for the 2016 election cycle.  That work is paying off and getting noticed by the industry, and has made Pandora the one clear “winner” in this year’s elections.  In the article Sean Duggan describes the secret of Pandora’s success – the ability to efficiently target from the state level down to school districts, and still provide data driven targeting with meaningful scale.  No matter what your political affiliation this is an election result we can all be happy about! http://modernluxury.com/san-francisco/story/deadheads-trump/

DON’T CALL ME SOCIAL:  AdWeek has a really interesting piece on the perception shift happening amongst the major Social digital players.  For the most part these guys are trying to get out of the “social” bucket and be perceived as more of a multi-faceted media company.  This is partly because they want to unlock non-social digital budgets (smart), and also not be compared to FB (really smart).  The money quote comes from Nick Cicero, CEO of Delmondo, who says “social networks have evolved beyond a destination into normal behavior on the internet. With that evolution, the way that these companies define themselves also has to evolve.”  We’re seeing this trend as we come up against the Snapchats and Twitters in more and more RFPs.  Interesting trend to watch.  http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/why-snapchat-facebook-and-other-platforms-are-trying-shed-social-label-173781

DEFY YOUR LIMITATIONS:  Finally, I’d like to leave you with a little inspiration heading into the weekend.  You’ve probably heard the saying that your only limitations are the ones you set upon yourself.  Well the next time you want to give up on a certain goal remember the story of Glen Dick.  He’s a paraplegic dad who has not let paralysis from the neck down prevent him from actively parenting his daughter.  In fact, their bond is actually stronger now because of the extra effort it takes to do activities together.  And if that wasn’t inspiring enough, Glen Dick has just completed a children’s book with a Go Anywhere theme, to serve as an inspiration for others to push past their limitations.  Hopefully this story will inspire you, as it has me, to never say never to your dreams and aspirations!  http://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/family-relationships/paraplegic-dad-pens-book-about-adventures-with-6-year-old-daughter/ar-BBwZLuA