SFX Entertainment has entered into a partnership with Spotify. This new arrangement will bring music and video content from Beatport to Spotify’s streaming service. Brand new Beatport CEO Greg Consiglio said that the company is in the midst of building out new content partnerships with other distribution channels, but Spotify is the only one that will get access to Beatport’s new music exclusives. Continue Reading
Rhapsody and Napster have reached the 3 million subscriber milestone. It has been a year of fast growth for the streaming services, which announced 2.5 million listeners in February and 2 million listeners last July. Continue Reading
SFX Entertainment is reorganizing its leadership, a move that will see a new CEO overseeing EDM project Beatport. Greg Consiglio will serve as president and CEO for the online store and streaming service. According to the press release, the structural changes were made so SFX can focus on brand-level operations. Continue Reading
Three European rights agencies have inked an agreement to form a joint venture and launch a hub for digital rights. The participants are PRS for Music in the UK, GEMA in Germany, and STIM in Sweden. The goal of this hub is to make digital rights management faster and more efficient for single- and multi-territory licenses. Continue Reading
9to5Mac has been surveying its readership to assess the crowd reactions to Apple Music. More than 17,400 people have weighed in to the poll so far. Although the responses are naturally skewed with a strong predilection for Apple, the breakdown of where new customers are coming from is insightful. Continue Reading
Universal Music Publishing Group has made updates to its Royalty Window portal, a B2B tool offering transparency into royalty collection. The new features include balance updates as royalties are processed during a period and requests for advances against incoming royalties without any additional fee. Continue Reading
Spotify has launched a new feature called Discover Weekly. This is a two-hour playlist personalized to each individual listener. The song choices for the Discover Weekly list stem from your particular music taste and what other similar fans are listening to. Spotify is billing it as a custom-made mixtape delivered each Monday morning. So how good are the recommendations? Pretty solid. Continue Reading
Italy’s music sector grew 22% to €65.5 million in the first half of 2015, according to the Italian Music Industry Federation. Audio and video streaming secured 26% of the total market. Both types of streaming generated €17.3 million in the half, up 37% from the year-ago period. Continue Reading
Tidal is in the midst of a lawsuit regarding rapper Lil Wayne, who launched the “Free Weezy Album” on the streaming platform as an exclusive earlier this month. Cash Money Records, Lil Wayne’s longtime label, is suing Tidal for $50 million on allegations that it still has exclusive rights to Lil Wayne’s music. Continue Reading
Pandora has taken a step forward with its Artist Messaging plans. The online radio service has updated its terms of use with language about communication with artists. The company started testing audio messages from artists in February. Continue Reading
MusicWatch and Eventbrite teamed up for a survey of how music discovery impacts listeners’ purchases related to live music. The results showed that 42% of the respondents cited streaming as a music discovery platform, and 51% of those streaming listeners bought tickets to a show by an artist they found on those services. Plus 29% of streaming discoverers attend two or more shows a month. Continue Reading
IFPI Sweden released half-year data for the nation’s music industry. Streaming revenue increased 7.4% to 425.8 million kroner. That sector generates 83.9% of total sales, with all digital revenue accounting for 88% of Sweden’s music sales. Continue Reading