Brief news items and worth reads from around the web:
Samsung partners with Google for music in Brazil: Billboard reported that Samsung and Google have entered a partnership that will offer a free trial of Google Play Music to owners of select Samsung smartphones in Brazil. We assume that means the All Access subscription product, but have not yet been able to confirm with Google or Samsung. Android fan sites first picked up the news last week, but it seems strange to offer a free trial of a free service, so we’re curious if this is a mis-reporting about the All Access streaming platform. According to Google’s own logs, All Access hasn’t arrived in Brazil yet, but maybe it is on a slow rollout through the tech company partnership first? We’ll have to wait and see.
Digital radio talks wane in France: Radio World reported that talks among French leaders on the subject of digital radio have dwindled. Digital radio covers about 20% of the nation. The Syndicat National des Radios Libres has called for moving forward with digital projects and its chairman has suggested that public service broadcaster Radio France adopt the digital technology.
Meghan Trainor makes Top 40 on streams alone: American artist Meghan Trainor cracked the British Top-40 weekly chart on the basis of online streams. The Top-4o list is compiled by The Official Chart Company. That firm began tracking streams in July, and merging the data into its popularity calculations with an equation that equates 100 streams with one sale of the single.