News items and worthy reads from around the web: Will Streaming Music Kill Songwriting? Also the RIAA’s half-measures in streaming and forecasting a direct-to-fan future Continue Reading
Guest contributor Mark Mulligan reacts to the RIAA’s decision to add YouTube music streaming metrics into the organization’s sales calculations and bestowal of Gold and Platinum album awards. But is streaming the same as buying? Here, the key difference. Continue Reading
The RIAA has decided that streaming counts will be included toward albums’ gold and platinum certification. On-demand audio and video streams will be a factor in measuring performance effective immediately. Gold certification is awarded to an album with 500,000 sales, while platinum is 1 million sales and multi-platinum is 2 million. Continue Reading
Grooveshark was formally closed down in May after settling with the RIAA, but the questionably legal streaming site stayed alive as a series of clones. Today the recording industry group won a successful case against the reincarnated Grooveshark site. Continue Reading
It was a short run. Aurous has formally settled with the RIAA for $3 million and has officially shut down. Aurous appeared on the scene in October, promoting itself as a free (and ad-free) streaming platform that pulled music from licensed third-party sources. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Dash Radio still growing and thriving; new logo emerges for hi-res music; major retailers lead the vinyl resurgence. Continue Reading
As rumored, Pandora has settled with the RIAA for use of pre-1972 music through this year and next. Settlement cost is $90-million. This development comes a few months after Sirius XM, likewise a defendant in cases focusing on performance use of oldies, settled with major labels and other litigants through 2017, at a coast of $210-million. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: 7digital CEO talks new music models; Indian digital music round-up; why RIAA still values retail data. Continue Reading
There’s a new streaming service on the horizon and it’s already attracted lots of buzz and lots of scrutiny. Aurous is a free and ad-free music platform that pulls its tunes from licensed third-party sources such as SoundCloud, YouTube, and Spotify. Within days of its official alpha launch, the service was hit with a lawsuit by the RIAA alleging massive copyright infringement. Continue Reading
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The weekly update of the streaming audio industry, from RAIN News. THIS WEEK: Crunching RIAA numbers; the value of ad-supported listening; streaming milestone; the return of Earbits; Deezer’s announcement. Continue Reading
With yesterday’s release of music industry revenue for the first half of 2015, a definitive picture emerges of two things: How streaming has eclipsed CD sales over three years, and how ad-supported streaming delivers more revenue than music subscriptions. Continue Reading
Streaming had a strong performance in the first half of 2015, according to the latest RIAA report. Overall wholesale revenue rose 0.8% to $2.3 billion compared with the year-ago period, and overall retail value inched down 0.5% to $3.2 billion. While those percentage changes are small, they do still mark a contrast from the group’s 2014 mid-year report, where the market’s wholesale revenue dropped 2.5% as streaming growth wasn’t enough to balance the losses in other sectors. Continue Reading