Japan has been an outlier when it comes to the global music trends. The country still remains anchored by CD sales, although streaming continues to grow its share of revenue. The Recording Industry Association of Japan released its second-quarter digital music sales, and all forms of streaming posted triple-digital increases over the first half of 2019. Continue Reading
DistroKid has added support for one of the most popular social networks. The company can now distribute to TikTok. The app’s popularity and power have also attracted attention from labels. Continue Reading
Audible has drawn a lawsuit for its upcoming Captions feature. The Captions tool uses machine learning to transcribe the spoken words in Audible recordings. This update sparked a lawsuit from several publishers based on claims that Audible has not acquired the needed licenses to reproduce the content of physical books and ebooks. Continue Reading
Major U.S. commercial radio group Entercom announced that it has hired Ken Lagana as executive vice president of digital sales. Lagana assumes this newly created role from Megaphone, where he was head of sales and marketing and played a key role in developing the Megaphone Targeted Marketplace. Continue Reading
Warner Music Group has entered a licensing deal with Audiomack. It is the first major label deal for Audiomack, a free streaming service focused on discovery for artists and labels. The two parties will work together on breaking emerging artists and connecting them with fans early in their careers. Continue Reading
Spotify is giving its potential subscribers a longer time to try out its paid service. The platform announced in a blog post that it is extending the free trial period for Spotify Premium to 90 days. Continue Reading
Sirius XM has launched a Student Premier subscription option. The company is offering college students all of the access from its Premier Streaming package for just $4 per month. The Premier plan normally costs $12.99 per month. Continue Reading
Zeno MediZeno Media is announcing today the launch of Zeno.FM, an online directory of streaming radio stations around the world. Zeno specializes in providing local-radio listening to diaspora communities that cannot access broadcast signals from their native homes. Visitors to Zeno.FM can quickly scan stations from Jamaica, Brazil, Mali, Ghana, Haiti, South Africa, India, Senegal, Mexico, Nigeria, and other far-flung territories. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web. The latest edition of Variety gave its cover story over to podcasting, and there’s more going on than just idolizing Conan O’Brien. Continue Reading
Tidal is updating its streaming service with more social features. The latest upgrades make it simpler for listeners to share both music and video to their Instagram Stories and Facebook Stories. Continue Reading
Spotify shared two new updates. First, it has joined the bandwagon of daily news podcasts, but with a unique perspective. Second, the company is developing a playlist feature for fan interaction with artists. Continue Reading
Apple Music is taking fresh advantage of its connection to audio identification platform Shazam. The streaming service has launched the Shazam Discovery Top 50 to its curated programming. Continue Reading