We’re keeping close tabs on the current wave of big album releases that are windowing their distribution. Here’s the latest data from the two top performers: Lemonade by Beyoncé and Views by Drake. Continue Reading
The BBC Global Audience Measure released its latest figures about the broadcaster’s global reach for the 2015/2016 year. Weekly worldwide audience for the BBC hit a record high of 348 million people, up 13% from the previous year. Continue Reading
Berlin-based SoundCloud has launched two initiatives in U.K. and Ireland which bring those markets up to speed with the SoundCloud experience in the U.S. First, the SoundCloud Go subscription plan is now available to those audiences. Second, the free-listening service is now supported with advertising, some of which will be supplied by the Global-owned DAX automated platform. Continue Reading
iHeartRadio announced that it has surpassed 85 million registered users. At a rate of 5 million users in three months, the company boasted that, “This growth means that iHeartRadio is still gaining users at a faster rate than Facebook and any other streaming music service!” Continue Reading
RAIN News has learned that Radionomy has pulled its stations from TuneIn’s U.S. listening audience, over the cost of music licensing under the new Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) royalty rates. Radionomy told RAIN News that the company asked TuneIn to geo-block the U.S. from Radionomy streams. It is the latest disruption in the webcast industry coming from CRB rates implemented on January 1. Continue Reading
Drake dropped his latest album, Views, as a windowed Apple exclusive on Friday. So far, the move seems to be a lucrative one. Views will be exclusive to the Apple music ecosystem for one week before it goes to any other services. In that time, it won’t even be available for physical retail. Continue Reading
Another telecom has added options for its customers to have data-free streaming music access. Australia-based Optus introduced Optus Music for the unmetered streaming for its prepaid customers beginning May 2. Continue Reading
LyricFind announced that it has entered a partnership with Japan-based SyncPower, one of the largest lyrics providers for Asia. The deal will see SyncPower’s PetitLyrics Player launch outside Japan. Continue Reading
Apple Music announced an update to its mobile service on Android. The app will now support video content and family memberships. These changes bring the Android version closer in line with what the app has on iOS. Continue Reading
“Before I turn to the corporate update and the latest quarterly results, I want to offer some perspective on this company that I founded with two friends over 16 years ago.”
That is how Tim Westergren, Founder and second-time CEO of Pandora, began yesterday’s earnings call for Q1 2016. In a remarkable stretch of speech-making from him and COO Sara Clemens, Pandora set the stage for its Q1 financial reporting by aligning with musicians and detailing how its products and business strategies differentiate from competitors.
Click through for details and perspective. Continue Reading
Sony Music Entertainment posted 57% growth in streaming revenue in the past 12 months. That increase more than offset the company’s declining download revenue, but was not quite enough for it to break the $1 billion mark. Continue Reading
For the past several weeks, artists and labels have been making pointed statements about YouTube and the video platform’s financial obligations to the music industry. On Thursday, YouTube took a public stance against the charges, with a blog post penned by Christophe Muller, head of YouTube international music partnerships. Continue Reading