News Broadcasting
AOL improves upon music service
MUMBAI: Internet giant AOL has revamped its Web-based music download service, adding music videos, streaming radio and user community features.
The service is called AOL Music Now. AOL says that this is the first digital music subscription service offering unlimited on-demand streams and downloads of more than 2.5 million audio tracks and thousands of music videos. With the launch of the AOL Music Now service (www.aolmusicnow.com), music fans have a new place to discover, listen, download and own songs, albums and videos from one of the largest music libraries on the web.
Unlike other pay per download services, the AOL service lets users play as many songs and music videos as they want, in their entirety and on-demand. Users can access music and videos they have transferred to their PCs and compatible portable devices as long as they maintain a portable tier subscription.
The new service also features AOL Radio with XM offering with more than 200 AOL Radio stations plus select premier XM Satellite Radio channels.
AOL Music Now president Amit Shafrir says, “With the addition of music videos and AOL Radio with XM stations, AOL Music Now has raised the bar in the digital music service space. And, with best-in-class personalisation and automated discovery features, it’s easy for music lovers to navigate the thousands of mixes, playlists and radio stations the service offers.”
The music service claims to have a library of more than 2.5 million songs from all four major music labels and hundreds of independents. In addition, AOL has agreements with several labels, including Sony BMG to provide thousands of music videos for use in the AOL Music Now service.
News Broadcasting
Uma Sudhir signs off from NDTV after 27 years
The executive editor shaped NDTV’s southern reportage for nearly three decades
NEW DELHI: Senior journalist Uma Sudhir has retired from NDTV, bringing to a close a 27-year association with the network.
Sudhir served as executive editor, heading NDTV’s south India editorial operations. Over nearly three decades, she emerged as one of the most recognisable faces of on-ground reporting from the region, with sustained coverage of politics, governance and social issues across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
At NDTV, Sudhir played a central role in strengthening regional journalism within national television news. Her reporting consistently connected local developments to the national conversation, ensuring stories from the field shaped policy debates beyond studio discussions. Known for her boots-on-the-ground approach, she came to represent a generation of reporters whose authority rested on fieldwork rather than prime-time punditry.
An award-winning journalist, Sudhir is a recipient of the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award and the Chameli Devi Jain Award. Her body of work has been widely recognised for its public-interest focus, spanning elections, governance, gender issues, rural distress, environmental reporting and social justice.
