Facebook has been looking personnel to join its music efforts and now the social network has a leader. Tamara Hrivnak has joined Facebook to lead its global music strategy and business development. She most recently worked as director of music partnerships at YouTube and Google Play, and before that rose through the ranks at Warner Music Group. Continue Reading
Vevo is pulling in solid viewer numbers, but its performance is still tightly tied to YouTube. According to the comScore Video Metrix data, about 97 million Americans watched at least one Vevo music video in October 2016. Continue Reading
China’s consumption of online music is changing, as piracy reduces and streaming gains a big foothold. That message was delivered to the NY:LON Connect conference in London last week by Ed Peto of Outdustry, who delivered metrics of China’s music streaming services and audiences. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Why is Sprint throwing money at Tidal? A profile on China’s Tencent. Hulu’s VR music reality show. Continue Reading
YouTube is making contributions to the bottom line at parent company Alphabet, according to the tech firm’s fourth-quarter earnings report. “Our growth in the fourth quarter was exceptional — with revenues up 22% year on year and 24% on a constant currency basis,” CFO Ruth Porat said. “This performance was led by mobile search and YouTube.” eMarketer added its own assessment of the Alphabet numbers. Continue Reading
PodcastOne announced the addition of two new shows to its lineup. One is Larry Mac: America’s Crew Chief. The other program joining PodcastOne is The Tomorrow Show with Keven Undergaro. Continue Reading
Billboard is converting its genre album charts to a consumption methodology that accounts for listening on streaming music services. The company first transitioned its Billboard 200 chart to this new accounting system in 2014. The first genre charts with the new methodology will be published on January 31. Continue Reading
Personalized streaming audio company Otto Radio has hired Reenita Malhotra Hora as its VP of programming and audience development. Hora will be responsible for leading Otto’s curation and creation of spoken-word audio content. Continue Reading
Veritone, the artificial intelligence platform with a focus on audio, is announcing today an agreement with streaming giant TuneIn. TuneIn will use Veritone’s Cognitive Media Platform (CMP) to capture, archive, and analyze its sports, news, and talk programming. Continue Reading
Bandcamp posted its 2016 year in review. The direct-to-fan music platform saw digital album sales up 20% and track sales up 23%. The results are markedly different than the industry report from Nielsen, which has seen sales from downloads and physical formats mostly declining in recent years. Continue Reading
CBS is partnering with Wrapify, the San Diego-based startup (founded in 2015) which wraps selected American cars with advertising, and shares revenue with the car owner. think of it as Uber without passengers. CBS Radio will use the alliance to drive revenue in the D.C. Metro market. Continue Reading
SoundCloud announced two new hires for its advertising team in Australia. Shaun Alexander has joined as the company’s commercial director of Australia New Zealand. Marta Bonzanini, the second new hire, will lead SoundCloud’s efforts in sales strategy and brand partnerships. Continue Reading