U.K. Culture Secretary John Whittingdale addressed the British House of Commons today, and released a whitepaper, laying out operational and programming principles that will formulate the next BBC Royal Charter — that is, in Whittingdale’s words, the constitutional basis for the BBC. The next 11-year term of the charter begins in 2017. Continue Reading
A coalition of performers staged an event dubbed Fair Play Fair Pay Day, gathering at Capitol Hill in support of proposed legislation that would charge royalty fees for sound recordings played on terrestrial radio. T-Bone Burnett, Rosanne Cash, and more than 40 other artists participated in the press conference. Speakers addressed both the topic of payment for radio airplay and safe harbors in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. Continue Reading
Universal Music Group posted its Q1 financials, which carried on the strong performance by streaming from its full-year 2015 report. Total revenue for the recorded music business edged up a fraction of a percent to €1.119 billion. Continue Reading
Subha Modur, Director of North American Media at travel company KAYAK, has joined the speaker roster of the Streaming Audio Advertising Summit, June 2 at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York. Modhur will engage in a live interview session to explore the marketing opportunities, advantages, goals, and ideal outcomes of streaming audio advertising from the perspective of a brand advertiser. Click through for details. Continue Reading
Eddie Sotelo, popularly called Piolin, has signed with new podcast network reVOLVER, which programs and targets the Spanish-language audience. ReVOLVER launched in February with bilingual on-demand audio aimed at a multicultural audience. The startup will assume exclusive distribution and ad representation of the Mexican’born star’s podcast. Continue Reading
Apple Music is expected to get an overhaul to its user experience, and now the rumor is that there will be changes to the Connect social feature. According to 9to5Mac, Apple may lose its prominent place as a standalone tab in the new redesign. Continue Reading
We read and write a lot about the podcasting rennaissance, but now there’s further evidence that the audio format has in fact become de rigeur. The U.S. Energy Department launched a show called Direct Current on Monday. It tries to shed the inevitable aura of wonkiness. Continue Reading
7digital announced that Philippe Decottignies will assume the post of CTO. He held the same role at Snowite, which 7digital just acquired at the start of the year. Prior to joining Snowite, Decottignies also worked at Hewlett Packard, Access360, and Zala Telecoms. Continue Reading
Comedy has been part of music services for years, though it doesn’t get much trade ink. While you can listen to tracks from comedy albums in music services, there are problems which combine to under-serve comedy fans. A new startup aims to fix those problems with a dedicated comedy streaming service that has unique technology under the hood. Continue Reading
Beatport announced that it is ending operation of its streaming service and mobile app. The official blog post said the change was an effort “to invest in what is most important to our business and our customers, rather than adding yet another choice to a sea of streaming services.” Continue Reading
Amazon’s video plans saw a new development with the launch of Video Direct, a new video posting platform that offers professional creators options for distribution and payment. The service is rolling out in the U.S., UK, Germany, Austria, and Japan. This move does target YouTube, but only the tier of its members who are using video as a core business. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: More records for Drake’s record; a rational take on Radiohead and Spotify; Spotify exec talks Apple Music impact. Continue Reading