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
Zeno Media, which specializes in connecting diaspora communities to their homelands with streaming radio, has announced a new partnership with the Dominican Association of Broadcasters (ADORA) to develop and launch a mobile app for streaming the 165 broadcast members of ADORA. Continue Reading
Audioboom has received a cash injection for the development of original podcast deals, totaling $4-million (3.2-million GBP). The benefactor is familiar to observers: Nick Candy, a real estate investor who has infused Audioboom with venture capital about a year ago in two installments. Continue Reading
iHeartRadio commissioned a study from Ipsos Research exploring the reach and popularity of different audio formats. The results backed other studies on the continued dominance of radio, and noted that younger listeners are driving much of the growth in audio. Continue Reading
A collection of global music industry organizations and businesses have banded together to curb stream manipulation. Their “code of best practice” includes 21 points directed toward stopping efforts to artificially inflate stream counts and influence copyright payouts on audio and audio/visual platforms. Manipulation might include the use of bots, other automated processes, false accounts, and “pay for play” approaches to skewing stream counts. Continue Reading
The recorded music industry has scored another win in shutting down stream-ripping sites. German based operation Convert2MP3, which reportedly generated 684 million visits over the past year, has been closed thanks to a joint effort by the IFPI and local trade group BVMI. Continue Reading
Interactive voice marketing platform Instreamatic has entered a new integration with jācapps. The deal will allow jācapps clients, including commercial, public, and Christian radio, to take advantage of Instreamatic’s audio ad technology. Continue Reading
In a new on-demand audio venture that parallels its podcast activity, NPR has launched a new series of music playlists that will be available on its website as well as on Spotify and Apple Music. Continue Reading
Wixen, an independent music publisher, has sued Pandora over the audio company’s display of lyrics. Pandora shows song lyrics for some tracks playing on both its mobile and desktop versions thanks to partnerships with third-party services. Continue Reading
Merlin, the digital rights agency and independent label network, shared two big announcements. First, it has released its annual report with details about member revenue. Second, its longtime leader is stepping down. Continue Reading
Google and Genius are having a complicated squabble over sourcing lyrics. Genius, a lyrics annotation service, claimed that Google has been scraping its content and publishing it without appropriate credit, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. Continue Reading