AudioBoom will be one of the content providers for the Google Play store. The company is one of 11 podcast and audio partners that will appear on the redesigned store. Earlier this week, some Android users saw glimpses of the active podcast hub. Continue Reading
Warner Music Group posted its results for the first quarter ending Dec. 31, with the music performance buoyed by streaming. A large portion of the revenue figures came from digital sources, which posted an 18% increase to $322 million. Digital revenue was responsible for 41% of the company’s total revenue, up from a 35.6% portion in the year-ago period. Continue Reading
The Official German Album Charts will begin reflecting streaming counts starting Feb. 5. However, the update from BVMI/GfK comes with several caveats in what streams will be included and how they will be valued in rankings. Continue Reading
7digital announced that one of its production companies, Unique, will be producing a Monday night jazz show for BBC Radio 3. The new shows will start in April. The production deal is a continuation of 7digital’s relationship with the BBC’s jazz features. Continue Reading
Classical specialist Naxos has unveiled a new comprehensive world music collection for subscribers to stream. The Naxos Music Library World represents more than 150 countries and more than 6,000 albums. The music has been pulled from a range of labels and will be continually updated with new additions. Continue Reading
This week’s Q4 earnings call for Sirius XM provided a snapshot of company financials and projections, as these calls always do, and some color around company strategy and aspirations. Click through for excerpts. Continue Reading
The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the force behind the annual Grammy Awards, announced plans to create a lobbying group dubbed the Grammy Fund for Music Creators. “We won’t be the largest PAC in Washington, but we will be the loudest,” the academy’s Daryl P. Friedman said. Continue Reading
Garth Brooks has been recognized by SoundExchange as the first country artist to secure more than 1 billion streams on digital radio. The achievement means that Brooks received the SoundExchange Digital Radio Award for his popularity across digital radio. Continue Reading
Sirius XM reported its fourth-quarter financial results. Net income for the period totaled $134.63 million, or 3 cents per share, down 5.9% from income of $143.12 million, or 3 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. Quarterly revenue increased about 10% on-year to $1.20 billion, surpassing analysts’ expectations of $1.19 billion after a third-quarter revenue total of $1.17 billion. Continue Reading
The RIAA has decided that streaming counts will be included toward albums’ gold and platinum certification. On-demand audio and video streams will be a factor in measuring performance effective immediately. Gold certification is awarded to an album with 500,000 sales, while platinum is 1 million sales and multi-platinum is 2 million. Continue Reading
Podcast hosting and production platform Spreaker announced that it is launching a radio spot campaign for its service. The commercials will run on hundreds of iHeartRadio stations. The 30-second spots evangelize podcasting as a self-expression opportunity and cite success stories of podcast hosts on Spreaker. Click through to hear one. Continue Reading
We covered the rumors out of the New York Post that claimed Amazon might be gearing up Prime Music to be a bigger threat to the rest of the streaming industry. Even though those speculations have not been confirmed, we are seeing signs that Amazon does have new programming efforts underway through Audible, the audiobook company it purchased in 2008. Continue Reading