“Apple’s iTunes Radio has poached a top radio ad exec as it prepares to offer the service widely to advertisers in 2014,” Tim Peterson reports for Advertising Age. “Former Cumulus Media executive VP-sales Michael Pallad is now overseeing ad sales for iTunes Radio internationally, according to people familiar with the matter.”
“Mr. Pallad started with Apple on December 2 and spent last week at the company’s Cupertino, CA, headquarters getting oriented, the people said,” Peterson reports. “Mr. Pallad will report into the iAd organization led by VP and former Yahoo exec Todd Teresi.”
“Mr. Pallad’s appointment suggests that Apple plans to make a stronger play at the $1.56 billion U.S. digital radio advertising market, as estimated by eMarketer. One media buyer said the executive should gain traction quickly among agencies,” Peterson reports. “‘To have someone at the helm with that much experience and connections [Mr. Pallad] must have and the knowledge he would bring to the party, it will only help to continue to make the case for [iTunes Radio] as a viable alternative or a considered part of the mix given the volume of streaming audio consumed,’ said DigitasLBi senior VP-media Adam Shlachter.”
Read more in the full article here.
It’s wise for Apple to try to monetize iTunes Radio further but it doesn’t look like an industry where Apple will get much in returns. A $1.56 billion market isn’t going to move Apple’s needle very much. I may be missing long-term returns but no company is making very much from streaming audio. All the money seems to be in streaming video. Apple may be aiming low now to build a viable business model and then go after streaming video. Since Apple already has iTunes Radio the next logical step could be iTunes TV/Movies.
You’re thinking too narrowly again. iTunes Radio is an extension of the Apple ecosystem, value added to what Apple is really selling: user experience. The same can be said for every piece of that ecosystem. Think about free iWorks software, free iCloud accounts, etc. All of it is moving the needle by induction. Remember, Apple’s separate divisions don’t maintain their own P&Ls. There’s a reason for that, and this is it.
As for ads, that’s more a swipe at Google than a profit engine.
Seriously consider the differentness of Apple’s business model (which Wall Street, so far, either misunderstands or dismisses), and stop chewing your fingernails.
http://rampantinnovation.com/2013/01/15/one-strategy-one-pl/
There’s nothing quite like ads to cheapen the user experience.
Moreover, there is no such thing as “free”, not even from Apple.
If a product or service is truly valuable, customers will pay for it. iTunes proved that. Cook’s chase after the Google & Facebook business model goes against everything that Apple stood for. It is a disgusting trend to treat users as advertising targets — and that’s even before we get into the security ramifications of user data-mining done by Google, Facebook, and now done also by Apple.
How ironic that Apple is trying so hard to be the “Big Brother” it parodied in its own 1984 commercial.
Good points good ‘Mike’ (as opposed to that bad ‘Mike’ person). So far, Apple has minimized the ad footprint and user distraction, avoiding the customer abuse which I consider to be the spirit of the age of biznizz. I have enough faith in Apple to expect them to continue to deliberately avoid become like everyone else, including Google, Facebook, Hulu, ad (pun!) nauseam.
I also know that the Apple fanatic community would scream bloody murder if they ever perceived Apple of BEING “Big Brother”. –Wouldn’t we!
It’s almost funny, on my iPad, trying to read all these little paragraphs squeezed on all sides by MDN’s blinking boxes, animations, come ons and I can’t help but conjure a big ad overlay through an inadvertent touch just about every day. I almost prefer the MDN iPhone app with its one lonely banner ad. How can anyone have a thoughtful conversation about advertisements whilst stepping through a minefield of them?
An excellent observation.
*cough* adblock *cough*
Is there an adblock for iPad?
Look, I’m not constitutionally against advertisers. My entire life has been lived bathed in their energetic babble. My sainted mother left on the telly all day, filling the absence of my father with its warming chatter. To this day I can hum the silly jingles. “Brought to you by…” was the signature of a benefactor in those days.
That being said, I sympathise with those who find ads intrusive. I’d have thought so myself, had the farmhouse not radiated such abject loneliness without them, in my early life.
We were chatting about the [unmentionable] app (which is free) for iOS at another thread yesterday. Let me verify that it’s for iPad…. Yes, ‘Designed for both iPhone and iPad’. It uses Webkit/Safari for its core and does the same [unmentionable thing] as the Mac versions. The MacDailyNews app is a fine alternative, well mostly fine. It’s great that it keeps out most of the [unmentionables] on iOS.
Is there extra terrestrial employees in Apple?
I wonder if Steve Jobs returned to his home two years ago
*twinge* Why am I thinking of John Browett? Probably it’s because I don’t want Apple hiring another crass biznizz bozo into the company. Hopefully Palad lives and thinks outside of the usual unsophisticated terrestrial radio box, so to speak.
Terrestrial radio guys?! Really, terrestrial radio is crap. Advertisement saturated crap.
BABA BOOEY!
Thanks for sharing, please keep an update about this info. love to read it more. i like this site too much.