The CBS Interactive Music Group and CBS Radio’s 130 news, talk and sports stations launched a new streaming platform creating the “simplest, most listener-friendly online radio experience in the industry.” Under the foundation URL Radio.com, the rich-data website has the flexibility to allow consumers to listen, learn, discover, as well as build their music profile through scrobbling with Last.fm, the world’s leading music discovery website backed by a worldwide community of more than 40 million unique monthly users.
Advertisers benefit from the redesign and resulting increase in page views by enjoying more ad placement opportunities, including a visual history of audio spots heard while listening to the stream, and improved audience measurement.
Following in the footsteps of CBS Radio’s more than 90 updated music station websites and the Radio.com iPad app launched in April, the new streaming media player is built to provide the audience with an environment where they can immerse themselves with information about their favorite station, band, or artist, and read more on the latest developments in the world of music, sports, politics and local news.
Core features that have always been a part of the player such as display of currently-playing song and artist, song history, station/genre/location search, favorite presets and ecommerce options will remain with enhanced functionality, and the following distinctive updates have been included:
? Robust artist information, biographies, photo galleries, touring status and a list of similar artists listeners might like all powered by Last.fm;
? Blogs, news feeds, and video and audio clips from every CBS Radio station with links back to the originating Website. Nearly 25,000 content posts are populated across the network of sites on a monthly basis;
? Track your music listening habits through scrobbling, the proprietary technology pioneered by Last.fm. Once a listener downloads the Scrobbler Software they can see what artists they listen to the most, get recommendations, and create personalized radio stations with the information contained in their profile;
? On screen access to Last.fm Trends, a daily blog post reflective of the more than 40 million scrobbles the music service receives every day. As the go-to source for what’s hot right now in the world of music, Last.fm Trends will also provide insight into which artists are being played the most, and who to watch out for in the coming months;
? Share artists, and stations with friends via email, and social networks Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and Linkedin, among dozens of other choices.
