Quick Hits: A music innovators list and a hi-res download store
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Most innovative companies in music; Onkyo announces expansion. Continue Reading
Sirius XM wins right to appeal in New York for pre-1972 copyright suit
U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon has granted Sirius XM the right to appeal its New York lawsuit over royalties for pre-1972 recordings. McMahon wrote that she granted appeal permission because of “a critically important controlling question of law” and uncertainty about whether Sirius XM had fair use to make temporary copies of the music. She determined that the case “warrants a close look by a controlling court.” Continue Reading
Japan’s music industry continued trend of declining sales in 2014
Japan’s recorded music industry declined by about 4.5% last year to approximately 297.5 billion yen (€2.2 billion), according to initial data from the RIAJ. It’s the first time the nation’s music market has fallen under 300 billion yen since the… Continue Reading
Rdio joins with AEG for concert-goer promotion
Rdio has entered into a partnership that will integrate the on-demand streaming with live concert attendance. The company is working with AXS, a joint venture from AEG, to bring music to concert-goers. People who buy tickets through the AXS platform will be eligible for a free 30-day trial of Rdio Unlimited. Continue Reading
theCHIVE launches podcast, and scores with Mark Cuban interview
The Download on Podcasts is a new weekly feature sponsored by PodcastOne.
The spirit and anything-goes attitude of theCHIVE.com is carried into a new podcast, just three episodes old. The program is an interview format, and scored a big win with this week’s interview of celebrity entrepreneur Mark Cuban. Click through to listen. Continue Reading
Rhapsody’s 2.5 million subscribers increasingly favor mobile listening
After announcing 2 million subscribers back in July, Rhapsody and Napster have grown to 2.5 million paid subscribers worldwide. Those members listen to more than 5 million hours of music a week. A large part of the growth came from the company’s U.S. deal with T-Mobile, which contributed a 67% spike in unRadio subscriptions over the holiday season. Continue Reading
Clip Interactive expands to desktop products, projects dramatic results
Clip Interactive, which has built its business on building interactive mobile apps for broadcast radio stations, announced that it is expanding its product line to include desktop and mobile browsers. This interactive web player will work on computers and mobile device browsers, bypassing the need for users to download a station-specific mobile app. Continue Reading
adStream: Pre-rolls and second-rolls
In recent editions of this feature we’ve looked at pre-roll audio ads (e.g. in Stitcher), and we regard audio pre-rolls as effective marketing that doesn’t strain the listener’s patience. We search for them in TuneIn and Pandora, and find something interesting — the second-roll. Continue Reading
Spain’s music industry sees growth for first time since 2001
Spain’s music industry association Promusicae revealed that the nation’s music market grew about 21% to more than €149.9 million last year. It was the first year since 2001 with an uptick in sales. A large portion of that growth came from streaming services, which contributed €47.2 million in revenue. Continue Reading
Canadian songwriters pulled in record royalties in 2014
The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada announced its financial results for 2014, and revealed $299 million in revenue from domestic, international and private copying proceeds. The figure broke last year’s record high of $276 million. Within that total, the organization received $20 million in revenue from Internet streaming companies, up from $3.2 million in the previous year. Continue Reading
Deezer Elite gets global rollout for Sonos owners
Deezer’s first foray into the U.S. market was a special Elite service offered for Sonos systems. Now that partnership is going global, with Elite access to become available for Sonos owners across Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Canada on March 19. Continue Reading
New WiFi speaker offers online music with elegant touch controls
We saw WiFi speakers dominating the news at CES this year, and the trend shows no sights of abating. Not only are many of the big tech brands getting in on the action, but recently smaller startups have been leveraging crowdfunding to try out their own innovations in that product niche. Continue Reading