Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web:
Sales and subscriptions up for Google Music: Although album sales have fallen by many metrics, Google Music has reported both an increase in digital downloads and in streaming music subscribers. Zahavah Levine, Google’s vice president of global music partnerships, spoke about the service’s performance thus far at the SF MusicTech conference earlier this week.
SoundCloud cofounder on money and mixes: Financial Times profiled SoundCloud and its recent efforts to position as a legally sanctioned place for indie artists to share their mash-ups and remixes. Cofounder Eric Wahlforss talked about the platform’s efforts to find ways to monetize those new creations. “If you connect the dots between big and small, emerging and established, we think that’s a really powerful thing,” he said.
What the world is listening to: Based on data from the International Music Summit 2012 Consumer Report, this infographic from Jacamo illustrates the most popular genres across many nations. There are some surprising combinations; apparently a lot of Swedes dig early rock ‘n roll!