Amazon is reportedly negotiating with music labels about an Amazon-branded music service. According to Recode’s sources, the talks are not flying along because Amazon is asking for more favorable licensing terms than those negotiated by music-only services. Continue Reading
In an interesting and opportunistic maneuver, U.S.-based music service Rdio has acquired teetering Indian streaming platform Dhingana. Dhingana will power Rdio’s India launch sometime this year. The Indian music business is estimated at $170-million, mostly comprised of Bollywood (or “filmi”) songs. Around the edges, Indipop, regional music, devotional songs, and infiltrations of Western pop are additional categories. Continue Reading
The General Manager of Rhapsody-owned Napster Europe caused some raised eyebrows, confused head-scratching, and probably an internal memo or two, when he was quoted in an Inquirer interview saying that streaming platforms will always be mainly discovery tools for buying CDs. The remark clearly didn’t play well, so Schliesche went back to The Inquirer to revise the record. Continue Reading
Currently, iTunes Radio is packed into the default Music app, the icon for which which cannot be removed from the iPhone/iPod/iPad desktop. The iTunes Radio brand is not spelled out anywhere in the system. As a review point of the service and its accessibility, we think iTunes Radio should exist as a separate identity in iOS. Continue Reading
In what could be described as the first crack in The Echo Nest’s music-powering empire, Rdio CEO Anthony Bay told CNBC that his music service would end its relationship with the music-data company. The Echo Nest was acquired by Spotify last week, and Bay doesn’t want his user metrics visible to a competitor. Continue Reading
Money is pouring into online audio.Recently-launched Beats Music has completed a new funding round totaling at least $60-million. (The exact amount is undisclosed.) News of this investment comes in the wake of Beats competitor Spotify acquiring a $200-million line of credit, and acquiring music-data leader The Echo Nest for a reported $100-million. Continue Reading
The company is silent, but Spotify reportedly has arranged a $200-million line of credit. In addition, Spotify has $538-million total venture funding. When so much external money is in a company which carries an unprofitable balance sheet, it sometimes foretells a “liquidity event” such as an IPO. Continue Reading
M. Luke McDonell is a writer, artist, and photographer living in San Francisco. A veteran of South by Southwest, she is contributing daily bulletins from the 2014 show. This SXSW photo gallery is from the first day of SXSW Interactive. Continue Reading
Weekend Perspective is a quick and consie catch-up of the last week’s most important developments in Internet radio and online audio. iTunes Radio advertises on FM … Triton Digital receives local-ratings accreditation … The INfinite Dial 2014 research survey … Apple’s CarPlay … Spotify acquires The Echo Nest. Continue Reading
The five most-read articles of last week: iTunes Radio advertising on … FM radio; Triton Digital local ratings system for streaming media gains accreditation; The INfinite Dial 2014 reviews; Apple announces CarPlay; Spotify acquires The Echo Nest. Continue Reading
In a very interesting, potentially impactful maneuver, Samsung has launched a new streaming music service. Called Milk Music, the mobile-only app does not require any sort of registration or payment, and is ad-free. The music is powered by Slacker. Milk Music is available as an Android app only to selected Samsung phones, of which there exist about 200-million on the street. Continue Reading
The acquisition of The Echo Nest by Spotify represents an important potential alteration in the anatomy of streaming music services. The Echo Nest has a broad footprint in the industry, we wondered what the acquisition means for the many music services which rely on The Echo Nest, and their millions of users users, who, even if they don’t know it, are really listening to The Echo Nest. Continue Reading