For the release of his newest work, Jay-Z opted to gate the album to his Tidal streaming service for one week. But even after distributing the music to most other digital platforms, Spotify still does not have 4:44. That may not be a cheap decision for the artist, and it also shows that Spotify has still not shaken some long-held assumptions among A-list performers. Continue Reading
Last week marked the release of 4:44, the much-anticipated new album from Jay-Z. The work was released as an exclusive to Tidal, which is owned by Jay-Z and Sprint, which bought a 33% stake at the start of 2017. The release has not been the smoothest of sailing, an indicator that exclusive album releases are still a contentious approach to distribution that require careful planning to be successful. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Music’s wild west frontier in distribution. Spotify, the new…MySpace? Continue Reading
Jay-Z is releasing a new album at the end of the month, but it will be exclusive to his Tidal streaming platform. This new exclusive title, 4:44, marks the first such development for Tidal after its partnership with Sprint. In January, Sprint purchased a 33% stake in the streaming company. With this first shared exclusive, new customers of the telecom’s can have a six-month free trial of Tidal HiFi and listen to the new album for free. Continue Reading
Last week, Spotify introduced an initiative called Secret Genius designed to shine a spotlight on the importance of songwriters and producers in an artist’s success. This venture will include awards, songwriting camps, curated playlists, and podcasts. Continue Reading
It seems that acclaimed rapper Jay Z had an odd weekend. He took down his catalog from both Apple Music and Spotify over the weekend. By Monday afternoon, though, he had reversed course on Apple Music and returned his albums to that platform. Spotify, on the other hand, still only has a limited selection from his catalog. Continue Reading
Kanye West’s album The Life of Pablo has achieved platinum certification just based on streaming performance. The album, which was released in February 2016, has reached 1.5 billion streams in the U.S., enough to attain platinum certification from the RIAA. Continue Reading
Warner Music Group has sold off digital distributor Zebralution back to its original founders. The major has owned the company for a decade, but has sold it off as part of a divestiture agreed to by WMG with indie music specialists IMPALA and Merlin. Continue Reading
Financial Times is the source of the latest Spotify speculation, reporting that the streaming service is close to final licensing deals with the major labels. The core of those arrangements, is that Spotify would pay a lower royalty fee to the labels, but in exchange would temporarily gate major album releases for paying customers. Continue Reading
Apple’s flashy senior vice president of Internet software and services, Eddy Cue, gave an update on the subscription music service during the Code Media conference last night. Cue said Apple Music is now “well past” 20 million paying listeners. Continue Reading
Billing itself as a service for “the YouTube generation,” Soundrop has shifted to become a digital music distribution platform. The business is only distributing to five businesses to start: Apple Music, iTunes, Spotify, GooglePlay, Amazon, and Deezer. Later in 2017, it expects to add Pandora and YouTube. Continue Reading
Amazon may be the newest player elbowing into the subscription streaming music business, but it’s closing the year with a blockbuster announcement: Garth Brooks is bringing his entire catalog exclusively to the platform. The country music star, a long-time digital hold-out, will put 16 albums onto Amazon Music beginning Dec. 24 at midnight Eastern time. Continue Reading