In August, we wrote a eulogy for Columbia House. The parent company of the service that made its name on mail-order CDs and cassettes filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year. But Columbia House may be returning from the dead with a new business model that seems equally quaint: vinyl. Continue Reading
Spotify has announced plans to add a new component to its behind-the-scenes features. The streaming service is making a songwriters and publishers administration system to help ensure that the right people get the right payments for the music they have on the platform. Continue Reading
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The second season of Serial has launched, before the first season’s hype has expired. If a second phase of the podcast resurgence is at hand, what might the future bring? Continue Reading
AccuRadio has expressed the giving spirit of the season with a daily charity drive, soliciting listeners to choose the non-profit recipients. For 30 days, ending tomorrow, Christmas Eve, AccuRadio will have donated $1,000 each day to various causes in its Season of Sharing campaign. There’s still time to participate! Continue Reading
We’ve seen a lot of lead-up to this moment over the past month, but today it’s official: Pandora has completed its acquisition of Rdio. The online radio company now owns the technology and intellectual property of the now-defunct streaming service. Continue Reading
The rumors are true and Beatlemania begins anew! A special splash page on the official Beatles website confirmed that the band’s music will land on nine interactive streaming services at midnight local time. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: BitTorrent 2015 artist survey; Cumulus CEO Berner’s plans for stability, programming; Apple rumored to explore high-res; the Drake Effect and the Nicki Effect. Continue Reading
Pandora announced breakthrough content licensing deals this morning with ASCAP and BMI, the two largest Performing Rights Organizations (PROs) representing songwriters, publishers, and composers. With two separate multi-year agreements, Pandora puts to bed acrimonious lawsuits that have troubled its key relationships for two years. Continue Reading
At the start of the year, annual tech show CES signaled heavy interest in at-home wireless speaker systems. And that trend has indeed been an undercurrent of the music and tech worlds through this year. Despite the arrival of more competition, Sonos is still one of the top choices in the field. Continue Reading
Rdio’s closure meant some scrambling for an unusual partner. The now-shuttered streaming service was the music partner for Tesla’s Model S series of electric cars. Rdio has now been replaced by Spotify for the vehicles in Europe, Australia, and Hong Kong. Current Tesla owners in those markets will see Spotify replacing Rdio through an over-the-air software update. Continue Reading
The year kicked off with a flurry of new companies trying to carve their niche in the music business. And the year is ending with many of those companies closing their doors. The latest one to shut down is Domino.fm. Continue Reading
Pandora has signed another direct deal, this time with Downtown Music Publishing. The rights management firm has music by writers ranging from The Beatles to Hans Zimmer and Jewel to One Direction in its catalog. The press release contains the same type of language that was in the announcements of Pandora’s recent licensing agreements with publishers such as Warner/Chappell, Sony/ATV, and SONGS Music Publishing. Continue Reading