SoundExchange announced its third-quarter financials, reporting a payment of $267 million for the three-month period. That figure was 75% higher than the $153.7 million payout from Q3 2013. The number of payees also increased between quarters, rising from 25,836 in Q3 2013 to 31,376 in Q3 2014. Continue Reading
A legal tug-of-war between Pandora and performing rights organization BMI has been in progress since a ruling last December, and it took a new twist last week when BMI reportedly advised Pandora that it does not expect any major music publishers to withdraw their catalogs at the end of 2014. This communication was strong on reassurance but weak in specifics. Continue Reading
Streaming just got a little more legitimacy from industry leaders in Australia and New Zealand. Singles charts in both countries announced that they will factor streaming numbers into their calculations. Both the Australian Recording Industry Association and the New Zealand Top 40 said streaming data will help determine the No. 1 songs. Continue Reading
Vodafone and Spotify announced an Australian partnership in early October, and today more details emerged about how the two services will support each other. Customers on Vodafone’s Red plans will have access to Spotify Premium for free. The amount of time customers will have the free Premium service — from six months to 24 months — depends on the plan they choose. Continue Reading
Publisher Kobalt announced that for the first time, its writers received greater royalties from Spotify than from iTunes. During the first quarter of 2014, Spotify royalties in Europe were 13% higher than those earned from iTunes downloads in the region. We’re still a long way from declaring victory for the streaming financial model, since this change has only been observed in Europe for Kobalt’s stable of about 6,000 songwriters and artists. However, Spotify’s first success over the long-dominant Apple-owned store is still a notable milestone. Continue Reading
After a bobble in negotiations last month, SoundCloud and Warner Music Group have signed a licensing deal. “The deal includes innovative licensing terms that will provide WMG and its artists greater ability to manage the availability of content, while providing a path towards delivering additional revenue from user-generated mixes and mash-ups of WMG music,” SoundCloud said. Continue Reading
Thanks to sponsoring partner AudioBoom, the audio recordings of RAIN Summit Europe (Nov. 4 in London) were posted in nearly real-time. Below is the AudioBoom playlist of the whole day’s sessions. Stay tuned for videos, coming soon. Also, in days to come we will post reports of key panels, quotes, news, Twitter updates, and other details from RAIN’s third annual European trade conference for the online audio industry. Continue Reading
iHeartMedia announced that Adam Denenberg has been appointed as chief technology officer for the iHeartRadio Network. In this role, Denenberg will oversee the technology strategy and vision for the online radio platform, including technical direction, new product R&D, and technology infrastructure across the network of websites. Continue Reading
Midroll Media announced the launch of a new podcast network called Wolfpop. The company is an end-to-end podcast production outfit which formed earlier this year through the merger of the Earwolf humor podcast network and The Mid Roll advertising service. The new network is curated by actor and comedian Paul Scheer. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the Web: Digital vs vinyl music infographic; explaining the podcasting Renaissance; studying the evolution of pop music; Amazon Fire TV stick arrives. Continue Reading
Google announced that its Play Music service has rolled out in several more European countries. The music store and the related All Access subscription streaming platform are now available in 14 more EU nations. Google has been making a march across the globe with its Play Music services over the course of 2014. Continue Reading
Pop princess Taylor Swift remains one of the most visible holdouts on Spotify and she has taken a bold action in the ongoing fight between artists and streaming platforms. She withheld her much-anticipated album 1989 from Spotify upon its initial release on Oct. 27. Today, she has chosen to remove her entire back catalog from the platform as well. Continue Reading