2015 was a banner year for streaming. The RIAA released its results for the past year and found that streaming was not just the biggest segment of digital revenue, but also the largest component of industry revenue, period. The performance for 2015 demonstrated that streaming music continues its rise in both cultural and financial importance for the music industry. Continue Reading
The full agenda for RAIN Summit West, April 17 in Las Vegas, was released this morning on this site. New insights, fresh research, and distinct personalities bring outstanding features to this year’s event. A dynamic, fast-moving schedule illuminates many dimensions of streaming audio. Click through for details. Continue Reading
The trend of platform-agnostic streaming took some hits in recent months. But, at least on the business side, interest in that approach to listening has not disappeared just yet. The new player in that space is called Unision. It’s an app for iOS or Mac that unites a listener’s iTunes library with several streaming platforms. Continue Reading
Deezer announced the appointment of Aurélien Hérault as vice president of product. Hérault has been working at the music company since 2007, beginning as lead software engineers and most recently working as vice president of R&D. Continue Reading
Spotify announced a dramatic increase in targeting options offered to streaming audio advertisers. Over 100 new segments are being brought to the U.S. advertising market, many of them sharpened by Spotify’s first-party data collection of listener behavior. Continue Reading
Headphone maker Sennheiser released an app called CapTune for optimizing sound in mobile listening. The first streaming partner for this new app is the oft-beleaguered Tidal. Continue Reading
The parade of self-gating artists marches on. Gwen Stefani is the latest to only allow streaming of her new release on paid streaming services. Spotify members curious to hear her album This Is What The Truth Feels Like see a message that the release will be available on April 1. That’s a two-week delay from the album’s official launch. Continue Reading
Kickstarter meets Wall Street. Music service 8tracks is filing for a Regulation A securities offering, hoping to raise $5-million or more through a public investment opportunity open to anybody. Required documents will be filed this week. After regulatory review, 8tracks expects the investment round to open by June. Regulation A is a relatively new investment type. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Mobile YouTubing skyrockets in India; Sainsbury bets big on vinyl; developing high-definition vinyl; Panoply exec talks shop. Continue Reading
Big news in a tiny package. Daniel Ek chose Twitter to announce that Spotify has reached a milestone: 30-million subscribers to Spotify Premium. The last time the company disclosed numbers, it was at 20 million paid subs in June 2015. That is dramatic growth for a nine-month period during which Apple Music was grabbing headlines. Continue Reading
James Cridland’s Future of Radio is a column by the Australia-based radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: Martin Kelner out from BBC; listening numbers and longevity for radio in the U.S. Also podcasts, ebooks, advertising, and much more. Continue Reading