Clear Channel Radio signed an agreement with The Echo Nest to incorporate the music intelligence platform’s technology into its iHeartRadio product. This deal is an important part of enabling users to build and listen to their own custom radio stations when iHeartRadio relaunches at the end of September.
The Echo Nest platform maintains an extensive database on over 30 million songs, including understanding of artist connections, song similarity, mood, style and detailed acoustic attributes like tempo, energy, “danceability,” time signature and key.
“Adding The Echo Nest’s data to iHeartRadio’s programming logic enables us to offer our consumers a rich, rewarding experience that scales with our massive library of over eleven million songs,” said Evan Schwartz, who is leading the development of iHeartRadio.
Clear Channel Radio is using live music event, hosted by Ryan Seacrest in Las Vegas on Sept. 23 and 24, to introduce its revamped iHeartRadio as a competitor to Pandora and a formidable platform for advertisers.
Over 200 music applications have been built on The Echo Nest platform to date and its customers reach over 100 million music fans every month. Winner of three National Science Foundation SBIR grants, The Echo Nest’s investors include Matrix Partners and Commonwealth Capital Ventures, Argos Management and three co-founders of MIT Media Lab.
In unrelated news, earlier this month Clear Channel Radio announced the promotion of two of its executives: Michele Laven, previously senior vice president, Distribution and Development, was named executive vice president of Strategic Partnerships, and Tom Poleman, previously senior vice president of Programming, will become president, Clear Channel National Programming Platforms. These new roles are part of Clear Channel’s commitment to delivering unparalleled opportunities for advertisers, marketers, artists and labels on both the national and local levels and across Clear Channel’s multiple platforms, according to a company statement.
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