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Media Beat: December 16, 2019

Earlier in this column, we reported on the self-acknowledged success of Radioplayer in Cana

Media Beat: December 16, 2019

By David Farrell

Earlier in this column, we reported on the self-acknowledged success of Radioplayer in Canada. It stood to reason that we were going to hear from Bell Media, which has its own iHeartRadio app in the market.


We were right. Last week, Rob Farina, Head of Radio Content, Strategy and iHeartRadio, Bell Media Radio, fired back with the following…

I felt your story gave the reader the impression that Radioplayer Canada is being adopted by Canadians as their choice for streaming audio. It’s not.  We are currently clocking at over 20 million hours tuned monthly – compared to their 3.7. Even the Stingray app has more engagement then RadioPlayer Canada. The other factor – they got to 1M downloads in 3 years – we hit that within six months of launch and now have almost 3 million downloads in Canada. But downloads are a useless figure – you can get lots of downloads, but what matters is the engagement. How many apps have you downloaded and never used?  

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The attached chart should give you an accurate picture of where Canadian radio plays – and it’s on iHeart. Also – we have been onboarding Canadian broadcasters onto iHeart platform – Evanov, MyFM, Canadian Association of Community and Campus broadcasters, etc.

He tips us that two more “major broadcasters” are to be announced as part of the bandwidth of stations on offer through the iHeartRadio Canada app toot sweet.

So, it would seem, the iHeartRadio app is winning the race to date, but let's also take into account that the more the merrier adds to more radio audience engagement and that's a good thing.

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Music

New & Upcoming Canadian Albums: Punjabi-Canadian Producer GMINXR Drops 'Hit List' EP on 91 North Records

Also this week, Neil Young puts out the new documentary soundtrack, Coastal, and Tami Neilson has announced the new album, Neon Cowgirl. Check out the full release calendar here.

It's a holiday weekend, but Good Friday hasn't stopped the slew of releases on New Music Friday,.

Heading up notable new releases this week is GMINXR. Fresh from a Juno Awards performance, the internationally renowned Punjabi-Canadian producer now has his own release, Hit List, featuring Tegi Pannu and Zehr Vibe. It's out on 91 North Records, the label collaboration between Warner Music India and Warner Music Canada. The five-song EP is inspired by both golden era hip-hop and Punjabi folk music, and infused with GMINXR's trademark trap beats.

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