Month: July 2017

Mechanical royalties debate sparked once again for Spotify

Posted on by Anna Washenko

Songwriter and publisher royalties have appeared once again as a sticking point for the Spotify streaming service. The New York Post’s Claire Atkinson is reporting that music publishers and songwriters are looking to receive a portion of Spotify’s equity when the company either goes public or finds an interested buyer. According to her sources, the National Music Publishers Association has been deeply interested in the question of equity since Spotify has been more seriously preparing for a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Continue Reading →

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SoundCloud updates: The noise, the exclusive, and the digital preservation efforts

Posted on by Anna Washenko

Before the weekend, we recapped the activity surrounding SoundCloud and the outlook for its future. The company had issued an odd response to reporting by TechCrunch, and popular hip-hop performer Chance the Rapper said he “was working on” an effort to help the audio platform. Today, we have some further developments on both of those stories. Continue Reading →

James Cridland’s Future of Radio: Zero-rated data, will analytics stifle the creative process, and a UK radio station being hijacked

Posted on by James Cridland

by James Cridland

James Cridland’s Future of Radio is a column by the Australia-based radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: Net neutrality’s importance to radio. How analytics could sway podcast creation. A reminder about the importance of good security. Much more. Continue Reading →

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Bridge Ratings finds streaming chips away at radio’s devoted listener base

Posted on by Anna Washenko

Bridge Ratings has posted an update to its New Media Gauntlet study, which reflects listener trends across different media. The latest results showed that although radio’s weekly cume has been relatively stable over time, it has been declining in how many people dub it their favorite listening choice. Streaming, on the other hand, has been rising in “favoriteness,” which Bridge said is chipping away at the numbers for both radio and downloads. Continue Reading →

Google makes New Release Radio available to all

Posted on by Anna Washenko

Google Play Music has rolled out its New Release Radio personalized playlist to all listeners across its free and subscription tiers. The curated playlists contain newly released music that Google’s machine learning platform determines each user would like. The feature debuted in June as an exclusive for the owners of Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus smartphones. Continue Reading →

MIDiA Research pegs Amazon as the third-biggest music subscription service

Posted on by Anna Washenko

MIDiA Research has published an assessment of Amazon’s music efforts. “Based on conversations with rights holders and other industry executives we can confirm that Amazon is now the 3rd largest subscription service,” the MIDiA blog post read. “Amazon can now discard its dark horse guise and be revealed for what it is: one of the top streaming music players.” Continue Reading →