Quick Hits: Lyor Cohen on YouTube; home speakers; Spotify advertising

Brief news items and worthy reads from the web:

Updates from YouTube’s Lyor Cohen: YouTube Head of Music Lyor Cohen penned a blog post reflecting on his time so far working with the video platform and extending an olive branch to a music industry that remains skeptical of it. He spoke favorably about YouTube’s subscription efforts to date, and said that the Content ID program was automatically delivering 99.5% of music claims on the platform.

The trajectory of home audio: The Washington Post profiled the impact streaming has had on home speaker systems. The shift from physical formats to downloads to streaming has been echoed in the trends for speaker design, with the wifi-enabled wireless products now on the rise.

Advertising isn’t going away on Spotify: Spotify’s chief marketing officer, Seth Farbman, gave an interview to The Wall Street Journal about the company’s advertising efforts. As Spotify targets a potential direct listing or IPO and continues global growth efforts, Farbman said the ad-supported business will be a key factor. “To be able to have a free consumer service that we can monetize and continue to invest in is enormous,” he said. “So for the growth, to have that as a viable business model on its own is tremendous.”

Anna Washenko