The IFPI has another half-year report, this one from its Finnish branch. Total recorded music revenue increased 0.5% for the first half in Finland for a total of €15.12 million. Subscription streaming posted the most growth, up 39.9% to €8.95 million. Continue Reading
The Download on Podcasts is a weekly feature sponsored by PodcastOne.
It seems simple in podcasting. The host reads and riffs on a sponsorship message, both elucidating major product points and offering personalization that could extend to a personal endorsement. Sounds a lot like what terrestrial radio has been doing for decades. It gets more complicated with public radio, though.
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Apple hosted a conference call to discuss its quarterly earnings this week, and the talk briefly touched on Apple Music. The tech company’s top brass didn’t reveal many hard numbers about the streaming platform’s first weeks. CEO Tim Cook said that “millions and millions” of consumers are enrolled in free trials and added that Apple is “thrilled about the response” to the service. Continue Reading
IFPI Norway has released its data on the domestic music industry for the first half of 2015. Music sales for the country increased 6.5% during the period. Streaming showed healthy growth, and revenue from those platforms accounted for as much… Continue Reading
Rhapsody and Napster have reached the 3 million subscriber milestone. It has been a year of fast growth for the streaming services, which announced 2.5 million listeners in February and 2 million listeners last July. Continue Reading
SFX Entertainment is reorganizing its leadership, a move that will see a new CEO overseeing EDM project Beatport. Greg Consiglio will serve as president and CEO for the online store and streaming service. According to the press release, the structural changes were made so SFX can focus on brand-level operations. Continue Reading
Three European rights agencies have inked an agreement to form a joint venture and launch a hub for digital rights. The participants are PRS for Music in the UK, GEMA in Germany, and STIM in Sweden. The goal of this hub is to make digital rights management faster and more efficient for single- and multi-territory licenses. Continue Reading
9to5Mac has been surveying its readership to assess the crowd reactions to Apple Music. More than 17,400 people have weighed in to the poll so far. Although the responses are naturally skewed with a strong predilection for Apple, the breakdown of where new customers are coming from is insightful. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web. TODAY: IAB study of programmatic advertising; Alibaba expands music ventures in China. Continue Reading
As we reported last month, famed radio host Art Bell is returning to the air tonight, with a new talk program called Midnight in the Desert. We spoke with the famed radio personality on the phone about his imminent return to radio, and the newness of creating an Internet-first program. Continue Reading
Spotify has launched a new feature called Discover Weekly. This is a two-hour playlist personalized to each individual listener. The song choices for the Discover Weekly list stem from your particular music taste and what other similar fans are listening to. Spotify is billing it as a custom-made mixtape delivered each Monday morning. So how good are the recommendations? Pretty solid. Continue Reading
Worthy news items and interesting reads from around the web. Today: Analyzing Pandora programmatic; YouTube is bigger than cable; inside Spotify’s new playlist. Continue Reading