Troy Carter to exit Spotify in September
Troy Carter will be departing his position as global head of creator services at Spotify in September. He will remain with the streaming service in an advisor. Continue Reading
News
Universal Music Group parent company announces plan to sell half of the label
The parent company of Universal Music Group has been considering options for its next steps with the major label, and has landed on the decision for a sale. French media conglomerate Vivendi has announced that it plans to sell half of UMG and is seeking potential strategic partners. Continue Reading
Spotify UK promotes head of shows and editorial
Spotify’s UK team has promoted Austin Daboh to head of shows and editorial, as well as promoting a new team lead for the unit. Daboh’s new position fills the vacancy left by George Ergatoudis’ departure last month. Continue Reading
iHeartRadio adds weekly playlist of personalized music recommendations
iHeartRadio has launched a new music discovery feature called Your Weekly Mixtape. The playlists can contain 30-75 songs, refreshed every Monday. The blog post announcing the feature notes that the playlists will also include “new releases and personalized trending music.” Continue Reading
SoundExchange has distributed nearly $400 million to date in 2018
SoundExchange distributed $208.7 million in sound recording performance royalties during the second quarter, bringing its 2018 distributions to date to more than $398.6 million. The performance royalty distributor had several other noteworthy activities in the period that it shared in its most recent report. Continue Reading
Streaming and subscriptions show steady growth in France for H1
Streaming has continued to grow in popularity in France. The country’s domestic music industry body, SNEP, released a report on the first half of 2018, which found on-demand streams up 39% to 27 billion for the period. Continue Reading
Quick Hits: Lofi YouTube radio; Michael Barbaro profile; Humble Angle Records; and music videos
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Examining a decidedly modern YouTube radio trend. Is Michael Barbaro the next Ira Glass? Shifting strategies at a streaming-only label. What is the future of music videos? Continue Reading
BuzzAngle Music charts service gets investment from Penske Media Corporation
BuzzAngle Music emerged into the charts space in 2013, entering a space that had long been dominated by statistics from Billboard and Nielsen. RAIN News first covered the platform in 2015 ahead of the 2016 launch of its revamped analytics system. Now the outfit is getting a little extra support to continue challenging those stalwarts. Continue Reading
Amazon amasses billions in Q2 revenue as Alexa support grows
Amazon released its second-quarter financial results, and the company continues to amass enormous windfalls from across its diverse range of products and services. Alexa was a key factor in the conglomerate’s business updates from the period, and will likely continue to be a focus in their financial success too. Continue Reading
Nielsen CEO to retire at the end of the year
Mitch Barns will retire as CEO of Nielsen at the end of 2018. He has been with the consumer behavior and analysis company for more than two decades, and has held roles in multiple parts of the business. Continue Reading
Spotify Q2 results include 83 million subscribers and growing revenue
Spotify has shared its results for the second quarter of 2018, and the period yielded several positive figures for the streaming company. Quarterly revenue reached €1.273 billion, up 26% on-year. Premium listeners delivered most of that total. Continue Reading
WideOrbit announces latest client for its WO Streaming tech
WideOrbit announced that regional radio operator Cherry Creek Media is now using its WO Streaming platform to offer online audio streams of its broadcast content. Cherry Creek Media owns and operates 52 radio stations in the western United States. Continue Reading