Deezer has introduced a new spotlight on classical music. A new playlist series called “The Composers” explores the creative works of five famous names from the genre: Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Frédéric Chopin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Continue Reading
The new and revised YouTube Music and YouTube Premium have officially made their international launch. The services, which update YouTube’s approaches to streaming and subscription music, were first announced earlier this year, and began rolling out in the United States in May. Continue Reading
ESPN Audio’s suite of programming is now available on iHeartRadio. Under a new, multi-year agreement, iHeartRadio will offer its listeners both live shows and on-demand access to the sports specialist’s podcasts. Continue Reading
Spotify has teamed up with Foursquare to collect data about the connections between audio ads and brick-and-mortar storefronts. Attribution by Foursquare will measure whether ads playing on a Spotify stream drive visits to physical stores. Continue Reading
Sony has made yet another move toward transparency in how it is distributing the proceeds from its sale of Spotify stock. Sony Music Entertainment has informed indie labels by email that it intends to make payments to eligible artists and participants as soon as possible. There is one interesting and revealing point. Continue Reading
audioBoom has followed up its latest financing round with a series of international agreements. The on-demand podcast company inked sales deals with DAX in the UK, The Podcast Exchange in Canada, and Placard Media in Australia and New Zealand. The new partners will be responsible for selling ad inventory for audioBoom’s show roster. Continue Reading
Musical.ly is merging its related app, Live.ly, into the core mobile entertainment service. Musical.ly lets people record videos of themselves lip syncing to popular songs, while Live.ly offers hosting of live video broadcasts, a niche that was briefly a hot topic for the startup space. Continue Reading
iHeartMedia has promoted Kavi Halemane to the role of executive vice president and general manager of digital programming for iHeartRadio. In this position, Halemane will be responsible for overseeing iHeartRadio’s strategy/operations for original digital music station programming, on-demand subscription playlist and free playlist radio curation, and podcast programming. Continue Reading
Podcasts have been attracting attention from Hollywood as well as from listeners, with rights to several popular and unique audio series getting optioned in recent months. The latest podcast to possibly make the leap is Serial Productions’ S-Town. Continue Reading
Pandora has been named the music streaming launch partner for Snap Kit, the developer platform from the company behind popular social network Snapchat. Through the deal, Pandora is powering a special music-sharing feature for all of the Snap Inc. app’s U.S. users. Continue Reading
Mark Williamson has departed his role as global head of artist and industry partnerships at Spotify. Williamson had been at the streaming service since 2011, rising through the ranks of leadership working with artists, managers, and music executives. Continue Reading
Acast has signed an exclusive deal with Irish digital sales agency i-Believe. Under this arrangement, i-Believe will offer ad placement on premium, on-demand, brand-safe podcast content at scale in Ireland. Continue Reading