We learn from Billboard that Ty Roberts, Chief Technology Officer of Universal Music Group (UMG) has left the company after a little more than a year. Ty Roberts’ sideways career move from Gracenote to Universal was seen by many as a significant signal that the music industry could, to some extent, reinvent itself as a technology industry — or at least a tech-flriendly, tech-fluent one. Continue Reading
Last week, Spotify announced its latest bundle subscription deal. The music company has teamed with video streaming platform Hulu to offer a access to both services for $4.99 a month. This bundle includes Spotify Premium and the Limited Commercials plan from Hulu, which usually costs $7.99 a month. Continue Reading
Nielsen has released the Total Audience Report for Q1 2017 with a focus on breaking down the generational differences in media consumption. In the latest results, AM/FM radio represented an ever smaller share of daily time spent for each younger age bracket. Continue Reading
Tencent Music has entered a deal with Alibaba, an e-commerce giant and another top business venture in China. Under the new arrangement, Alibaba will have the rights to stream music from some of Tencent’s exclusive deals with the major labels. Continue Reading
Triton Digital announced that Nobex Technologies will be the preferred mobile app provider for its Spacial Audio branch. Through this partnership, broadcasters using Spacial Audio’s online radio technology platforms will also have mobile apps created for their stations. Continue Reading
Spotify has hired Courtney Holt as the new head of its Studios and Video departments. He replaces Tom Calderone, the former VH1 exec who departed the company earlier this month. Calderone spearheaded the development of Spotify’s programming in video and podcasts. Continue Reading
Performing rights organization BMI shared the financial results from the 2017 fiscal year. Annual revenue reached a record high of $1.13 billion. Distributions and administrations to artists totaled $1.023 billion, another record figure. According to the press release, BMI’s 2017 results are the largest public performance revenue and royalty distributions of any music rights organization worldwide. Continue Reading
Swedish podcast hosting and tech company Acast, and Australian radio and entertainment group NOVA, have joined a strategic alliance to represent their combined podcast portfolios in the Australian ad market. Continue Reading
Facebook has reportedly offered the major record labels and publishers “hundreds of millions of dollars” for its members to have the legal use of music in videos uploaded to its platforms. Bloomberg reported that this offer to the industry coincides with the debut of Facebook’s new Watch hub for video content. Continue Reading
In the eighth ceremony of the RAIN Internet Radio Awards, six audio brands received first-place recognition and commemorative plaques in five categories, after an exceptionally close round of judging by a panel of 13 unaffiliated judges. Continue Reading
Jelli, programmatic radio ad buying platform, announced a new update to its service. SpotPlan 2.0 reflects feedback from major media buying agencies and is designed to improve the progress of demand-side programmatic ad buys. Jelli promises an average ROI improvement of 20% via its latest tools compared with traditional buying methods. Continue Reading
SoundHound has revamped its mobile app to place a heavier focus on music playback and voice controls. The company’s software was a long-time rival to Shazam, but more recently SoundHound doubled down on the development of its Hound voice assistant program. The new features still complement its core function of identifying audio. Continue Reading