Apple Music now has 60 million users, including both paying subscribers and listeners on free trials. Apple exec Eddy Cue gave the update in an interview with French website Numerama. Continue Reading
A new podcast network called Lemonada Media made its debut today. The founders’ focus is on building community and sharing stories about real life and shared experiences from a diverse group of people. Continue Reading
Sirius XM has entered a deal with Headliner Video, which creates sharable social media videos out of audio content. This enterprise-level deal will cover both Sirius XM and Pandora. Continue Reading
Nielsen Music released its mid-year report, another assessment of streaming driving consumption. Both audio and video streams on-demand continued to grow, while physical sales and digital downloads posted another period of decline. Continue Reading
Wondery has raised $10 million. The latest round brings the podcast network’s valuation to more than $100 million, sources told the Wall Street Journal. Wondery will use the money to expand its programming, with a focus on taking its shows international and releasing podcasts in multiple languages. Continue Reading
Apple has been facing criticism over its App Store for many months, including a direct challenge from Spotify about the share it takes of subscription fees. Apple has issued a response to the anti-trust complaint Spotify filed against it in the EU in March, but both companies have some holes in their arguments. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Fire at UMG vault destroys thousands of master recordings. How to find better podcasts. Honoring advances for digital radio in cars. Continue Reading
Soundtrap, a platform for real-time audio collaborations, has revised the features on its free tier. The service now offers unlimited capacity for stored projects; the previous free version only allowed five stored projects. Continue Reading
Andrew Kalb is exiting ABC Radio. He has spend 22 years with the broadcaster and was most recently the executive director of programming/news. During his tenure, Kalb was critical in helping to launch the Start Here daily news podcast. Continue Reading
SoundCloud continues to build out its leadership team with the addition of Ian Greaves. He is the audio company’s new director of international major label services, and will oversee SoundCloud’s new and existing relationships. Continue Reading
Spotify’s interactions with publishers and songwriters have gotten even more complicated, with the streaming service claiming that it overpaid on mechanical royalties in 2018. The Copyright Royalty Board issued its mechanical royalty payment rates in December 2018 after the music platform had already paid out almost a full year under a different rate scheme. Continue Reading
Soundcharts released an examination of China’s music industry, highlighting some of the rapid growth happening in this market. Wholesale revenue in China has tripled in three years with a compound annual growth rate of 44.2%. Continue Reading