Canada is extending the copyright term for sound recordings from 50 years to 70 years. The change is happening as part of the country’s 2015 budget. Many other countries, including the UK and Australia, have copyright terms of 70 years, while the U.S. term is 95 years. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Loudr officially teams with CD Baby; Bop.fm tracks embeddable in Facebook posts; Tidal iOS downloads plummet. Continue Reading
IHS Automotive has released a market report covering more than 4,000 vehicle owners planning to buy a new car about the apps they would want in their new purchase. Music was the third most popular app category for use in vehicles, securing 38% of respondents’ interest. The report also included forecasts for three of the primary digital dashboard systems: Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, and MirrorLink. Continue Reading
Sara Morris has joined iHeartMedia as senior director of government affairs. She comes to iHeart from the Federal Communications Commission, where she was director of the legislative affairs department. Morris also spent time as a deputy director and telecommunications policy analyst in the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Congressional Affairs. Continue Reading
Malaysian pay-TV operator Astro Malaysia Holdings has launched a new music streaming service called Raku. The platform is powered by 7digital. Continue Reading
We’ve seen a trend of streaming audio platforms finding new ways to expand into the living room. The latest push comes from iHeartRadio, which announced that it has launched apps on the Xbox One. Continue Reading
The 74th annual Peabody Awards included recognition for some of the new media platforms that have been attracting a growing amount of interest and popularity. One of the winners was Serial, the breakout podcasting hit of 2014. Continue Reading
Friday is a big day for tech aficionados, as the much-discussed Apple Watch will finally arrive in stores. A new Apple device, even one as divisive as the smartwatch, is always cause for big buzz. In this instance, one of the notable topics is which services that we’ve come to expect on iPhones will be making the transition to the wrist. Continue Reading
Chicago Public Media’s WBEZ radio station received a grant of $2 million to finance its digital expansion. The money from the Pritzker Foundation is the largest donation the station has received, although WBEZ will need to raise a matching amount to receive the grant over three years. The influx of funding will help the station to double its existing digital staff, update its infrastructure, and produce new shows. Continue Reading
Guvera announced that it hit the milestone of 10 million users worldwide. According to the company’s press release, the streaming platform has seen growth of more than 35,000 users joining daily over the past 22 weeks. India has been a particularly strong market for Guvera, and it recently passed the 3 million member mark. Continue Reading
Spotify’s ad revenue increased 53% in the first quarter of 2015 compared with the year-ago period, RAIN News has confirmed. The revenue growth corresponds with a 50% audience growth. In the last four months, Spotify has introduced new audience targeting platforms for advertisers. Continue Reading
Tidal has confirmed that CEO Andy Chen will leave the high-res streaming company. Peter Tonstad, who was formerly CEO at Tidal’s parent company Aspiro, will serve as interim CEO. The company is conducting a search for replacements. Continue Reading