The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) unsurprisingly took a middle road, treading a line between the $.0011 that Pandora requested, and the $.0025 that SoundExchange argued for on behalf of music rights-holders. P stock shot upward in after-hours. The company scheduled a conference call for later this evening. Continue Reading
At 5:15 Eastern U.S. time, the Copyright Royalty Board released the outline of its Webcaster IV ruling, setting royalty rates paid by Internet radio to music labels for the 2016-2020. Pandora’s rate: $.0017 per stream for non-subscribing listeners. SoundExchange wanted that number to be $.0025. Continue Reading
SoundExchange released its third-quarter figures for payments made and received from digital radio. The rights manager paid out $204 million in the quarter to 87,219 payees. The timing of this release is pointed, as today the Copyright Royalty Board is slated to release its decision on the statutory royalty rates to be paid by non-interactive streaming platforms during 2016-2020. Pandora is one of the bigger players to be impacted by this ruling, but SoundExchange has just as much on the line. Continue Reading
Two developments came from the Spotify camp today. First, the company added a new mobile feature called Party. Second, the streaming service has caught Star Wars fever, and created a standalone site aimed at identifying a listener’s musical match from the film saga’s cast. Continue Reading
Disney is expanding its new multimedia streaming service to China. The launch of DisneyLife – a subscription to the company’s music, videos, books, and more – is happening through a partnership with Alibaba. Continue Reading
As the webcasting universe turns its expectant and apprehensive gaze toward the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), which will issue new webcasting royalty rates for 2016-2020, Pandora Media has more skin in the game than any other webcasting distributor of music — in a sense. The company has another path to potentially go down. Continue Reading
The name of Howard Stern feels synonymous with Sirius XM, and thanks to a new agreement, that will remain the case. Siriux XM signed a 12-year agreement with Stern that will see the broadcaster continuing to produce and host The Howard Sterm Show for the next five years. There are also plans afoot for new video content from the host. Continue Reading
The launch of Deezer’s Lyrics function last year was a happy development for listeners, but it also gave the streaming platform a new subset of data to examine. The company’s analysis of lyrics revealed that 2015 was, ahem, “a ‘sweary’ good year.” It offered a hilarious breakdown of the artists, songs, and albums containing the highest percentage of curse words. Continue Reading
Big Mobile, an Australia-based mobile solutions company for advertisers, announced a partnership with Triton Digital that will integrate Triton’s a2x programmatic exchange and bring it into the Southeast Asia countries in which Big Mobile operates. Continue Reading
Not exactly a Christmas Eve shutdown, but Rdio will go silent on December 22. The company sent an email this evening to subscribers. “Goodbye … for now,” the notice cryptically started. Continue Reading
The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) will outline new webcaster royalty rates tomorrow (Wednesday). Media attorneys Jay Rosenthal and David Leichtman weigh in with anticipatory comments. Continue Reading
Grooveshark was formally closed down in May after settling with the RIAA, but the questionably legal streaming site stayed alive as a series of clones. Today the recording industry group won a successful case against the reincarnated Grooveshark site. Continue Reading