Amazon is bringing the free option for its music streaming service to more platforms. On Monday, the company opened access to select ad-supported playlists and stations to listeners in the U.S., UK, and Germany. Continue Reading
Sony has secured a licensing deal with Boomplay Music, a Chinese-owned music platform operating in Africa. This means that Boomplay now has agreements with all three of the major labels to bring their catalogs to its streaming and download platform. Continue Reading
In last week’s Q3 earnings call for Cumulus Media, one of the largest radio groups in the U.S., CEO Mary Berner laid out the growth of her digital business. One interesting fact: The podcast network serves 70-million monthly downloads, probably making it one of the biggest podcast publishers. Continue Reading
Deezer has offered a lossless audio subscription tier for years, but it has always been limited in scope. The Deezer HiFi option was only available via desktop apps and connected speakers in the United States for the past few years. Continue Reading
Tencent Holdings has been floated as a potential, even likely buyer for a stake in Universal Music Group. But the latest rumors indicate that while the Chinese company is still interested, it may want to make the investment with partners. Continue Reading
Podtrac published its podcast ranker for October. While many of the top-performing shows are familiar ones for the month, there is a new addition to the analytics company’s usual format. Continue Reading
Podcast hosting and services company Blubrry announced that it is now offering its clients tools in post-production. The new tools are aimed at easing and streamlining scheduling and pod drops for weekly productions, and initial launch assistance. Continue Reading
Bytedance, the Chinese company that owns short-form video platform TikTok, may be moving forward with launching its own streaming music service. Financial Times reported that Bytedance is working on an app that would offer the typical on-demand audio experience. Continue Reading
James Cridland’s International Radio Trends is a column by the Australia-based radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: Ransomware attack on Entercom. Asia radio stats. Podcasts on radio. Continue Reading
SoundCloud rolled out a new feature this week aimed at helping creators to grow their audiences. Promote on SoundCloud is a self-service tool that lets users promote their original tracks to the top of listeners’ feeds and mobile home pages. Continue Reading
Deezer has entered an agreement with the airline Emirates. Under the terms of their deal, Deezer will create dedicated playlists for Emirates’ in-flight entertainment system, called ice. The streaming service will provide more than 20 playlists for travelers. Continue Reading
Spotify has been keeping a break-neck pace of announcements, partnerships, and new features. This week, the streaming service shared two updates: one in augmented reality and one in lyrics. Continue Reading