YouTube Music is adding a new feature that will automatically download tracks that a listener is most likely to enjoy. The Smart Downloads feature is on the Android app, and it downloads up to 500 songs that the user has liked. Continue Reading
7digital, the B2B music provider, may be facing bankruptcy this summer. The company’s leadership did not pass a resolution this week during its general meeting, which means it needs to raise $5.5 million by July 31. Continue Reading
Podtrac has posted its May ranking of podcast publishers. Across all of the top ten publishers, the average U.S. unique monthly audience was 8.6 million. The figure was down just 2% from April and up 41% on-year from May 2018. Continue Reading
Apple Music now has 60 million users, including both paying subscribers and listeners on free trials. Apple exec Eddy Cue gave the update in an interview with French website Numerama. Continue Reading
A new podcast network called Lemonada Media made its debut today. The founders’ focus is on building community and sharing stories about real life and shared experiences from a diverse group of people. Continue Reading
Sirius XM has entered a deal with Headliner Video, which creates sharable social media videos out of audio content. This enterprise-level deal will cover both Sirius XM and Pandora. Continue Reading
Nielsen Music released its mid-year report, another assessment of streaming driving consumption. Both audio and video streams on-demand continued to grow, while physical sales and digital downloads posted another period of decline. Continue Reading
Wondery has raised $10 million. The latest round brings the podcast network’s valuation to more than $100 million, sources told the Wall Street Journal. Wondery will use the money to expand its programming, with a focus on taking its shows international and releasing podcasts in multiple languages. Continue Reading
AdLarge’s podcast division, cabana, has released its latest Podcast Buying Guide. It is more ambitious than the previous edition, presenting a deeper dive into technicalities while keeping a high standard of clarity. Continue Reading
Apple has been facing criticism over its App Store for many months, including a direct challenge from Spotify about the share it takes of subscription fees. Apple has issued a response to the anti-trust complaint Spotify filed against it in the EU in March, but both companies have some holes in their arguments. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Fire at UMG vault destroys thousands of master recordings. How to find better podcasts. Honoring advances for digital radio in cars. Continue Reading
Soundtrap, a platform for real-time audio collaborations, has revised the features on its free tier. The service now offers unlimited capacity for stored projects; the previous free version only allowed five stored projects. Continue Reading