Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Will Podcasting Save the News Media Industry? Pondering a potential Pandora purchase. How much does a Spotify playlist boost popularity? Continue Reading
Listeners browsing through Spotify’s RapCaviar playlist may find themselves becoming viewers. The streaming service is experimenting with a mixed audio and visual format in its popular rap playlist. Clips range from an intro and outro video for the curated playlist to full-length music videos. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Podcast round-up from SXSW; Zane Lowe not the biggest fan of playlists; listening of the Irish. Continue Reading
Playlists are beating out albums for listenership, according to the latest study from the Music Business Association and LOOP. The survey results found that playlists account for 31% of total listening time across all demographics. Continue Reading
MusicWatch investigated the role of playlists in listener habits and behaviors. The company compiled 500 online interviews with users of Spotify or Apple Music. According to the results, 90% of music streamers have listened to or created a playlist. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Spotify gets animated with first original video; interview with the hip-hop curator; new gaming playlists. Continue Reading
Spotify has launched a new personalized playlist feature, Release Radar, which appears in every user’s Browse section. Release Radar is Spotify’s first expansion of the technology which powers Discover Weekly, an unquestionable hit with users and a triumph of algorithmic music curation. RAIN’s Anna Washenko and Brad Hill take Release Radar for a spin, and share their impressions. Continue Reading
Universal Music UK has introduced a new brand focused on playlists and compilations. Universal Music On Demand is a response to the importance of playlists in the streaming music economy and could look to protect the role of professional curators. Continue Reading
One of the common critiques of streaming is that those platforms favor the pop and rock charts to the detriment of niche genres. A new playlisting brand aims to improve the access to classical music on the top streaming services. It’s called unCLASSIFIED, at its goal is to create dynamic playlists based on mood or activity. Continue Reading
Spotify has debuted a new outlet for brands to get involved with the streaming company’s popular playlists. Sponsored Playlist puts a brand’s name on one of Spotify’s curated playlists, with the sponsorship options designed to match marketing needs with a musical audience. This marketing option is now available in the U.S. and in beta in the UK. Continue Reading
The cadre of apps for listening and playlisting across streaming services has got yet another member. Qus is an app that can pull tunes from YouTube, SoundCloud, Spotify, and Deezer in addition to locally stored tracks. This is becoming a more common approach to mobile listening, but few of the latest entries have shown anything that indicates they’ll stand the test of time. Continue Reading
Spotify is collecting some interesting information from playlist creators about their use of the feature. According to Music Ally, the survey inquires about whether the respondent makes and shares playlists, and how much they know or care about how others interact with their creations. Continue Reading