Shazam opens up its verified artist program for social sharing

Posted on by Anna Washenko

Shazam announced that it is opening up its verified artist program to any performer or band who wants to participate. The verified artist designation allows that profile to share music discoveries with a fan base. The company has been trialling the verification program for the past two months with about 200 artists. Shazam said that it has an audience of 1.4 billion followers for that first set of verified profiles. Continue Reading →

Nielsen Music reports worst week for downloads, but best for streams

Posted on by Anna Washenko

Nielsen Music’s data for the week ending Aug. 27 was the lowest for digital song sales in seven years. Only 15.66 million songs were sold on digital platforms for the week. The top track for the period, “Locked Away” by R. City, sold only 92,000 downloads. On the other hand, that same week had the highest level of on-demand audio and video streams. Continue Reading →

TuneIn adds more college football programming

Posted on by Anna Washenko

TuneIn is expanding its available programming in college football, announcing the addition of play-by-play broadcasts and team-specific stations for 90 college teams. These new features mean TuneIn listeners will be able to access almost 70% of the NCAA’s Division 1 football. The platform will also be carrying a talk program called “The College Football Blitz” from IMG. Continue Reading →

UK indie labels seeking to join forces behind a new playlist brand

Posted on by Anna Washenko

We’ve seen some trend pieces in the past month discussing just how important it is for artists’ success to secure spots on streaming services’ popular playlists. The indie community has recognized this and is preparing to jump on the bandwagon. The Association of Independent Music in the UK has issued a request for proposal seeking an entity to operate a streaming music playlists brand focused on indies. Continue Reading →

App Annie: Pandora and Spotify are among the top five iOS apps by revenue

Posted on by Anna Washenko

App Annie always has great insights into mobile business, and the company’s latest report reviews the most popular iOS apps to date. The report has separate lists for global popularity by download and by revenue, with separate lists for games. Pandora took the crown as the highest-grossing iOS app, while Spotify ranked fifth on that chart. Continue Reading →