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
Two collecting societies are considering a joint venture that would manage all public performance licensing in the UK. PRS For Music and PPL have announced a proposal to create a 50/50 company that would unite the licensing activities under a single roof. 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
Last week we reported that Spotify’s long-awaited video content, first announced last May, would finally appear in its mobile apps. Yesterday we were pleased to find a portfolio of video programming, plus audio podcasts, in a freshly updated Android app. Podcast listening in Spotify is a good experience, possibly a game-changer. 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
Internet radio’s landscape looks much different today than it did a week ago, due to numerous webcasters pulling the plug rather than paying the high rates of the Copyright Royalty Board’s (CRB) recent decision for 2016-20 royalties for sound recordings. Kurt Hanson surveys the damage. Continue Reading
James Cridland’s Future of Radio is a column by the Australia-based radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: Sir Terry Wogan; Why radio need to reinvent itself, four questions for radio; DAB+ in the U.K., much more 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
Pandora has updated its iOS app with a new discovery tool called Browse. This feature, which appears at the top of the screen next to My Stations, brings pre-curated discovery into the company’s product suite. Continue Reading
After several months of speculation, SFX Entertainment has declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The electronic music company is seeking a debt-for-equity swap with its bondhonders in order to remove $300 million of debt from its balance sheet. Continue Reading
Sony Music’s Q4 financial results broke out the numbers by format and revealed a big role for streaming. Digital secured a 43% portion of the company’s music income, with streaming at 24% outperforming download revenues at 19%. Continue Reading