Mixcloud announced that it has closed its first-ever fundraising round. The audio platform received an investment of $11.5 million from holding company WndrCo, which specializes in businesses in media and technology. The money will go toward global scaling of the company, expanding the team, and diversifying the platform. Continue Reading
Australia posted a 10.5% increase in its recorded music industry, reaching value of A$391 million in 2017. Last year marked the first time that streaming music revenue, at A$213 million, exceeded more than half of the music market, according to the stats from the Australian Recording Industry Association. Continue Reading
Fruit Punch Music is a new subscription streaming service billing itself as “Spotify for kids.” The iOS app is focused entirely on children and family-friendly programming, promising a multipoint approval process to vet content. The ad-free, unlimited music service costs $3.99 per month of $24.99 for a year-long subscription. Continue Reading
Spotify has acquired mechanical licensing company Loudr, a move that could bring more expertise and technology into the streaming company to tackle that thorny topic. Loudr offers services to help content creators, aggregators, and music services to identify and pay mechanical royalties to publishers. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: NPR One and lessons in audience attention. Podcasts represent in the Peabody nominations. Farewell to PureVolume. Continue Reading
Spotify and Hulu are expanding their bundle deal. A joint subscription for the streaming audio and streaming video services was first announced in September. At that time, it was only available to college undergraduates. Now, the two companies have expanded the option to all customers. Continue Reading
Apple Music has a duo of updates today. First, the streaming music service has surpassed 40 million paid subscribers. The second announcement is a promotion within the ranks. Oliver Schusser has received a new title of vice president of Apple Music & International Content. Continue Reading
Cadence13 announced a new documentary podcast series about the life of baseball player David Ortiz. The four-part show about the three-time world champion with the Boston Red Sox MLB team will premiere on April 16. David Ortiz: The Big Papi Story will cover his career and pivotal moments from his life. Continue Reading
Spotify is back in the rumor mill, this time with questions about its free listening tier. Bloomberg reported that the streaming service is considering changes to improve the mobile experience. Possible changes include quicker access to playlists and more listener control over what songs they hear on select playlists. Continue Reading
BPI released its 2018 yearbook, with data and statistics about the previous year’s performance for the UK music industry. Total revenue across all music sources grew 10.6% to £839 million. This year marked the first time the streaming revenue in the UK has exceeded physical format revenue. Continue Reading
The Music Modernization Act and its proposed changes to mechanical royalties have arrived in the House of Representatives. The bill was introduced on Tuesday and is scheduled for mark-up today. Continue Reading
Spotify recently made waves in the financial sector with its unique direct listing, but the company’s next move is expected to be firmly back in the tech space. Spotify is hosting an event on April 24 to share its latest development. According to the early reports and speculation, that development may be a piece of dedicated hardware for streaming Spotify via voice control in a car. Continue Reading