Although the deal closed last year, the news is breaking only now: SoundCloud scored $60M of new funding from Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) and the Chernin Group. Investors call SoundCloud the YouTube of audio. Isn’t YouTube already that? Continue Reading
In a frank and concise interview with Hollywood Reporter, Spotify founder Daniel Ek volleys a series of questions about his competitors. He denigrates Beats Music, and makes a mistake about Pandora, but, more interestingly, defines Spotify in a meaningful way. Continue Reading
The 56th annual Grammy Awards have reportedly chosen Rdio to power its official app. No musical streaming is happening in the app now, two days before the ceremony. Get the streams flowing! (You can hear nominee streams within the Rdio app, furnished by TheGrammys profile.) Continue Reading
Amazon might start an online TV service, competing with cable companies. Amazon Prime has over 20-million subscribers, a huge number by the standards of music plans. Will Amazon ever get into music streaming? Continue Reading
Are BMI and ASCAP, which represent most music publishing, becoming less important as publishers seek to deal directly with Pandora? What is the future of the complicated royalty-setting process in the U.S. market? We talked with Casey Rae at the Future of Music Coalition. Continue Reading
Earlier today we posted some Twitter outpouring about today’s problems with the Beats Music service which launched yesterday. During the hours of musical drought, we observed that Beats did not make a public acknowledgement of connection issues. It came at day’s end today. Continue Reading
Pandora’s right to include certain music recordings in its catalog has been complicated recently by an unfavorable court case, requiring fast action and a type of negotiating Pandora has not favored in the past. Happy result for all parties. Continue Reading
We spoke with Jack Isquith, SVP of Strategic Development and Content Strategy at Slacker, just before Beats Music launched. Isquith buoyantly welcomed Beats to the market, and described how Slacker has been in the human-curation model for years. Continue Reading
Frequent flyers are well acquainted with waiting on the tarmac. The aircraft is boarded, the door is closed, the plane taxis out to its takeoff position … and sits, unmoving, while passengers grow irritable. Lots of irritability among Beats users today. Our test apps have failed entirely. Continue Reading
Nothing whatsoever at stake, in reputation or credibility. It is sheer fun. Comparing predictions from Spotify and Shazam is interesting because those two apps are used differently. Spotify streams music from a server catalog; Shazam identifies music playing anywhere. Continue Reading
RAIN Enterprises announced today that Jason Calacanis, one of the world’s most celebrated and successful digital entrepreneurs, will be the keynote speaker at this year’s RAIN Summit West on April 6th in Las Vegas. He will deliver his annual and much-awaited State of Media address at RAIN Summit West. Continue Reading
When Spotify and Topspin announced today that bands would be able to sell t-shirts and other branded merchandise through the music service, it hit four birds with one stone. Continue Reading