SoundCloud has hired Mark Eisenberg as its new senior vice president of content partnerships. Eisenberg joins the audio company from SoundExchange, where he was the senior vice president of strategic initiatives. Continue Reading
Spotify is working on testing a couple new features that would amp up the social angle of the streaming music service. First is called Friends Weekly, a collection of tracks that your social connections are favoring. The second feature is a new section on the home screen called Friends’ Discover Weekly. Continue Reading
The rumor mill turns once more. After a back-and-forth earlier this year that eventually came to naught, Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei said in the company’s Q1 earnings call that the company is still potentially interested in acquiring iHeartMedia. “iHeart is an attractive free-cash flow generator,” he said. “At the right price, I think it would be additive to our music holdings.” Continue Reading
Vox Media is exploring new options for creative advertising in podcasts. Three of the media company’s shows will have ad breaks where Kara Swisher, co-founder of Recode and host of the Recode/Decode podcast, interviews a character from the HBO comedy Silicon Valley. The interview with actor Chris Diamantopoulos (in character as tech investor Russ Hanneman) covers the current cryptocurrency plotline of the show. Continue Reading
SoundHound secured $100 million in a strategic funding round. This influx of money will support driving adoption and distribution of the company’s Houndify voice AI platform. SoundHound also aims to expand globally, with new offices planned in China, France, and Germany. Continue Reading
Today, several Google executives shared the latest updates for the tech company in the keynote for Google I/O. The developer-focused event shared some of the upcoming changes for the Google Assistant voice AI platform that will help the company bring the service to more countries and offer more functions. Continue Reading
Digital audio advertising company Targetspot announced that it is expanding its monetization tools into Latin America. Broadcasters in Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, and Peru are now eligible to use the company’s platform. Continue Reading
Spotify has inked a partnership with book publisher Bloomsbury. Under the terms of the deal, Spotify will exclusively offer titles from the publisher’s 33 1/3 series, which includes short books centered on a single album. The first one to become available on Spotify will be the book about Miles Davis’ album Bitches Brew. Continue Reading
Spotify’s direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange marked a new chapter for the streaming music service, and the action has continued to make waves in the industry. The latest developments are that two of the major labels that were early investors in Spotify during its startup days have sold portions of their shares. Continue Reading
Singapore posted a recent record in music revenue, according to the IFPI. The country saw 2017 music sales of $27.9 million, the highest total of the past five years. Digital revenue has steadily risen since 2013, while physical revenue has taken the opposite trajectory. Continue Reading
Warner announced that it generated $791 million in recorded music revenue during its second quarter ending March 31, up 15% on-year. Streaming was responsible for $415 million of that total, a 38.3% from the results in the same period last year. Continue Reading
In Pandora’s Q1 earnings call yesterday, some of the most interesting remarks came during the investor Q&A, as usual. Two key subjects investors brought to the discussion were Pandora’s acquisition of ad-tech company AdsWizz, and the future of podcasting in Pandora’s content catalog. Extensive quotes and context. Continue Reading