Quick Hits: The coronavirus edition
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: “Alexa, what is coronavirus?” Get your classical concert fix in isolation. And don’t despair, indie artists. Continue Reading
News
Tencent Music posts growth from music subscriptions in Q4, FY 2019
Tencent Music Entertainment released its financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year of 2019. Tencent Music reversed its quarterly loss of 875 million yuan from Q4 2018 to a profit of 1.04 billion yuan ($149 million). The company said that for the quarter ending December 31, it had total revenue of 7.29 billion yuan ($1.05 billion), up 35.1% on-year. Continue Reading
Spotify’s head for Australia and New Zealand exits
Spotify’s managing director for Australia and New Zealand is stepping down. Karen Lawson took on the role last June, and has not shared reasons for her departure. Continue Reading
Amazon Music launches artist data dashboard in beta
Amazon is launching analytics for performers using its streaming service. Amazon Music for Artists is available as an app for Android and iOS devices, with a companion website. The app is launching as a beta. Continue Reading
Quick Hits: Digital AM radio. Rolling Stone industry profiles. Tencent in the Cayman Islands.
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Radio World tracks the digital AM push stateside. Take your Rolling Stone reporter to work. Tencent’s not-so-Chinese roots. Continue Reading
RAIN Predictions winners (challenge #1): Steve Pratt and Alexis van de Wyer
RAIN published our annual Predictions feature in the first week of January. We challenged participants to predict a key metric in the RIAA 2019 report of streaming music revenue. Alexis van de Wyer and Steve Pratt were both right to a half percentage point. Continue Reading
HiStudios splits from Himalaya, rebrands as Notorious
HiStudios is going through a rebranding. The business was initially spun out from podcast company Himalaya last August. Now it is separating itself as an independent entity and will be renamed as Notorious. The split from Himalaya is effective immediately and, according to the press release, will allow both businesses to pursue their own strategic priorities for growth. Continue Reading
7digital borrows £500K to aid its move back to stability
7digital, a digital music B2B company, has borrowed £500,000 from an unnamed lender. The loan is intended for working capital purposes, according to the company, which is recovering from a challenging 2018 and 2019. Continue Reading
Veritone aligns its AI tech with IAB podcast categories for improved ad targeting
Audio tech company Veritone is announcing a change to its aiWARE product, expanding its podcast classification system to align with IAB’s category map. According to Veritone’s promotion, this change further automates podcast content tagging and metadata assignment. that, in turn, makes podcasts easier to sell to advertisers. Continue Reading
Quick Hits: Age of the artist. Digital radio in Italy. March Madness, podcast edition.
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: This is the dawning of the age of the artist. A history of digital radio in Italy. The 2020 Ultimate Podcast Bracket. Continue Reading
Eight key audio stocks: How they fared in the Monday market melt
On Monday the U.S. stock market underwent its biggest percentage drop since 2008, involving the biggest point decline ever. We looked at eight important audio stocks to see how they fared. They all dropped, but the range of damage might be surprising. Continue Reading
CRB mechanical royalty ruling appeal begins today
The Copyright Royalty Board’s 2018 ruling for mechanical royalties to be paid by streaming services has been on the books for awhile, but it will be returning to court this week. Four streaming services filed appeals against the ruling in March, and the U.S. Court of Appeals will begin hearing arguments from the legal counsel for Amazon and Spotify today. Continue Reading