Merlin has opted to cash in its entire stake in Spotify. The independent label network acquired a 1% holding in the company back in 2009, but that share has been diluted over years of additional external investment. The group did not disclose the value of the shares sold. Continue Reading
In a pivotal deal, NPR announced that its entire podcast catalog is now available on Spotify for the first time. All shows from the public media outlet, both familiar favorites and new titles, will have a home on the streaming audio service. The arrangement brings the world’s largest podcast publisher into one of the largest podcast distribution platforms. Continue Reading
Spotify is working on testing a couple new features that would amp up the social angle of the streaming music service. First is called Friends Weekly, a collection of tracks that your social connections are favoring. The second feature is a new section on the home screen called Friends’ Discover Weekly. Continue Reading
Spotify has inked a partnership with book publisher Bloomsbury. Under the terms of the deal, Spotify will exclusively offer titles from the publisher’s 33 1/3 series, which includes short books centered on a single album. The first one to become available on Spotify will be the book about Miles Davis’ album Bitches Brew. Continue Reading
Spotify’s direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange marked a new chapter for the streaming music service, and the action has continued to make waves in the industry. The latest developments are that two of the major labels that were early investors in Spotify during its startup days have sold portions of their shares. Continue Reading
Spotify shared its first quarterly earnings report since the company listed on the New York Stock Exchange last month. Despite a solid performance in listener and subscriber numbers, Wall Street was unimpressed with the results. Spotify’s stock price sunk after the data was released, falling from about $170 per share to about $153 per share. Continue Reading
Spotify has announced a new deal with Instagram for an integration with the social network. Also, Music Business Worldwide reports that long-time exec Angela Watts is leaving the company. Continue Reading
Amazon and Spotify have both announced developments involving country music playlists. First, Amazon has debuted a playlist containing country songs and artists chosen to appeal to an international audience. Second, Spotify’s Hot Country collection is now an “enhanced playlist” that includes original videos alongside the musical selections. Continue Reading
Spotify has unveiled a new version of its mobile app that adds select on-demand features to its freemium tier. Free listeners will get on-demand access to 15 of Spotify’s personalized discovery playlists — such as Discover Weekly, Release Radar, and the Daily Mixes — and its popular curated collections — including RapCaviar and Ultimate Indie. Continue Reading
Spotify is soon to join the quarterly routine of reporting its business to U.S. and global investors — the Q1 date is May 2. Meanwhile, an April 24 media news event in New York is tickling rumors of changes to the Spotify free service, and its app interface. Continue Reading
Carl Chery has departed his role as head of artist curation for hip-hop and R&B programming at Apple Music. He’ll be joining the team at Spotify, which recently had its own big curator departure when Tuma Basa relocated to YouTube. Variety first broke the news. Continue Reading
The Triton Webcast Metrics Top 20 Ranker has seen Spotify’s listening metric streak upward since the music service joined the Ranker in January, 2015. Three years later, in January of this year, Spotify overtook Pandora for the first time. Continue Reading