Anna Washenko (RAIN News editor) and Brad Hill (RAIN president) offer a few points of outlook for 2019. On Friday, January 4, watch for the annual RAIN News 2019 Predictions from participating industry leaders. Continue Reading
The UK posted a rise of nearly 6% in music consumption during 2018 on the back of more growth in streaming, according to data from BPI and the Official Charts Company. Total music consumption for the year — including purchases, downloads, and streams — was 142.9 million albums and album equivalents. Continue Reading
Hetal Patel is returning to iHeartMedia for a role as executive vice president of SmartAudio Intelligence Insights. In this position, Patel will head the team creating research and insights to shape iHeartMedia’s value proposition. Continue Reading
The RIAA announced two big changes to its executive leadership. Mitch Glazier is now the chairman and CEO of the trade group, and Michele Ballantyne assumes the post of COO. Continue Reading
In a new-year press release, Townsquare Media announced that co-CEO Dhruv Prasad will step down and his counterpart, Bill Wilson, will step into the sole CEO role at one of the largest radio groups in the U.S. Wall Street investors appear to like the news. Continue Reading
Samsung introduced its first smart speaker hardware in August, but before the Galaxy Home even hits the shelves, the company may be hard at work on its second project in that segment. SamMobile cited an anonymous source that claimed Samsung is developing a second smart speaker for its Bixby voice assistant. The second speaker is reportedly targeting a lower price point. Continue Reading
NetEase Cloud Music, one of the major music streaming platforms from China, has announced a content deal with South Korea’s CUBE Entertainment. Under this terms of this partnership, NetEase will receive access to the complete CUBE music catalog, which includes the library of popular Korean performers such as BTOB and CLC. Continue Reading
Apple Music is launching the new year by making one of its earliest relationships more official. Ebro Darden is now the service’s global editorial head of hip-hop and R&B. Darden is a radio host with a weekday morning show on New York’s Hot 97 station, and he’s been a host on Apple Music’s Beats 1 station since the streaming service’s debut. Continue Reading