Digital music services company Kobalt announced that it has hired Rian Liebenberg as its new chief technology officer. He joins the business after holding several officer posts at Schibsted ASA and Schibsted Media Group. Continue Reading
Nielsen has released its 2018 mid-year music report, and the analysis shows overall growth in music consumption as streaming continues to post bigger and bigger numbers. Total album equivalent consumption — which includes all of Nielsen’s metrics for albums, tracks, on-demand audio, and on-demand video — rose 18.4% on-year to 360.1 million. Continue Reading
The UK audio production industry has launched a new trade association. The Radio Independent Group has rebranded and relaunched itself as AudioUK. The RIGtrain branch for training and skills development is now called Audiotrain. Continue Reading
The European Parliament has voted against a sweeping and contentious copyright reform that would have meant major changes to the operation of online platforms such as YouTube. The Copyright Directive was voted down by 318 to 278, with 31 members abstaining. Continue Reading
Pandora has partnered with Bango, a company providing commerce infrastructure for mobile phones. Under the latest deal, Bango will power subscriptions through Pandora resellers in the U.S. Continue Reading
TuneIn has hired DJ Carisma to lead its curation and artist relations in hip-hop and R&B. She joins the audio company after two years as music director for KRRL FM in Los Angeles. Continue Reading
AdsWizz announced that radio sports station talkSPORT will leverage its ShakeMe technology for a new campaign in the UK. ShakeMe is an interactive audio ad format that helps listeners take an automatic action on their smartphone in response to the spot. Continue Reading
Mood Media, an in-store media solutions specialist, announced the acquisition of focus4media. The company is the largest Mood Independent Affiliate in North America, and Mood Media has acquired all of its assets for providing sight, sound, scent, and systems solutions to brick-and-mortar storefronts. Continue Reading
Former Vevo executive Tom Connaughton left the video platform for a position at Spotify in March and he’s already rising through the ranks. Connaughton initially joined the streaming company as head of artist and label marketing for the UK. Continue Reading
This weekend officially marked the end of an era for retailer Best Buy. The company ended its sales of compact discs on July 1, a move that was first hinted at back in February. The move is a strong reaction from the retail sector in response to the steady drop in physical music sales. Continue Reading
Digital distributor TuneCore has entered a partnership with Sentric Music, a British publishing rights organization, to improve its services for independent artists. Under the deal, TuneCore will use Sentric’s technology and direct global collection network for an all-in-one publishing administration service that offers members more chances to collect revenue on their work. Continue Reading
Spotify is testing a scaled-back version of its Android mobile app that cuts down on features in favor of less data use. Spotify Lite has appeared on the Google Play Store as a beta version in select markets. Continue Reading