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
Another chapter in the saga between Sirius XM and Flo & Eddie has unfolded and potentially concluded. Following the satellite radio company’s settlement with the RIAA for $210 million in royalties for playing songs recorded before federal copyright law took effect, the former Turtles members tried to argue that the settlement would impede its class action efforts against Sirius. The duo made an effort to change the settlement payout, but yesterday received a ruling that the deal with the RIAA did not impact Flo & Eddie’s class action efforts. Continue Reading
The RIAA and the BPI have issued their 200 millionth URL takedown request to Google. The RIAA has submitted 19,569 total requests and the BPI has made 295,730. These requests seek to remove pirated content from the web. The two record industry organizations for the U.S. and UK, respectively, have been pushing for the tech company to adopt stricter measures to prevent this type of music piracy. Continue Reading
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A six-minute blast of news you need to know in streaming audio.
THIS WEEK: Streaming surpasses CD sales in 2014 RIAA report; iTunes Radio goes to programmatic sales; Rdio’s new social features; Rhapsody plays on Twitter; BBC seeks to reinvent radio. Continue Reading
Double-digit growth in all forms of streaming buttressed the U.S. music industry against the continued slide in music purchases, holding the industry’s total value steady at 7-billion dollars. For the first time, streaming revenue surpassed CD revenue. Continue Reading