Big Brands Back iTunes Radio

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When Apple launched iTunes Radio last month, it threw its hat in the ring to enter the competitive streaming music category, going up against popular services such as Pandora and Spotify. Even before the first user had logged on, a handful of the world’s biggest advertisers were already on board and banking on Apple to make quick headway in the category.

iTunes Radio is Apple’s attempt to both expand upon and better monetize the tens of millions of unique monthly users who’ve adopted iTunes to manage and build their music library. According to Ad Age, iTunes’ online user base already bests the second most popular online music service Spotify even without offering music on demand.  iTunes had nearly 27 million visitors in July of this year compared Spotify’s 20 million. As a better indication of room for growth for iTunes Radio, the number one streaming service Pandora reported nearly 70 million registered users in March of this year.  Pandora gets a good chunk of its user base from mobile, where it’s the number one music streaming app. That’s where Apple intends to leverage being a device manufacturer.  It included the iTunes Radio app in the iOS 7 update for its devices.

Like Pandora, iTunes Radio is free but includes a subscription-based premium service that eliminates ads. Apple would undoubtedly like everyone to be a premium member, but brands are banking on the hordes of free users the service is likely to get. McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, Nissan and Macy’s reportedly paid $10 million each to become iTunes Radio launch partners, with exclusivity as advertisers on the service for their product categories until the end of 2013.

PepsiCo CMO Frank Cooper summed up his company’s enthusiasm for the service for Ad Age: “We looked at the devices Apple has and the number of subscribers that they have overall on iTunes. Just in terms of infrastructure, we think they have the chance to be the biggest.”

Source: Ad Age

Intel’s Band Of Tablets

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Intel wants to show that it can be competitive in the fast-growing mobile world, so the company commissioned producer Flume to create a sound-and-light show with 60 Intel-powered tablets, robots, and instruments. We want the home version!

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‘Excited Train Guy’ Is In A Game After All

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Yesterday we mused why the makers of Train Simulator 2014 didn’t think to enlist internet sensation “Excited Train Guy.”  He’s the New York-based man who spoofed overzealous train enthusiasts, otherwise known as “foamers,” in a video that went viral last year.  In the video, the man captures his own spastically joyful reactions to vintage trains, pulling off a performance that fooled many before it was exposed as a spoof.

There is at least one good reason he’s not involved in Train Simulator.  Mobile game maker NimbleBit snagged him for Pocket Trains, the spiritual successor to their super successful iOS and Android game Pocket Planes. For Pocket Trains’ launch trailer, NimbleBit recreated the “Excited Train Guy” video in-game, complete with a pixelated avatar of the gushing train spotter.

Here’s both the trailer and the original viral video.