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
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web. Today, two radio pros weighed in recently on why the format is still alive and kicking: Radio as adaptation and as technical necessity.
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Sirius XM reported its first-quarter results for 2016 and has increased its guidance for the year’s net subscriber growth based on the performance. Quarterly revenue rose 11% to a high of $1.2 billion. Sirius XM said it now anticipates adding 1.6 million net new total subscribers in 2016. Continue Reading
ASCAP posted more than $1 billion in revenue for the second consecutive year, but its total payouts to the music industry declined from 2014. The performing rights organization posted revenue of $1.014 billion in 2015, up slightly from its 2014 results, when revenue scraped past $1 billion for the first time. Continue Reading
Pandora has released a new TV commercial in its line of “The Next Song Matters” series, called The Song. The new spot takes the theme of Pandora’s first ad in this series (The Next Song) — the joyous impact of the perfect song at the perfect time — and compresses it into the deep feeling of music generally. In both, there is an underlying message of perfect music provided by non-interactive listening. Continue Reading