Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: New chapters in the licensing database saga; Apple’s original programming begins with Carpool Karaoke; iHeartRadio’s latest in-car collaboration; Spotify Xbox app reportedly in the works. Continue Reading
Spotify has hired Jane Huxley as its new managing director for Australia and New Zealand. She will start in this position on Sept. 1. The MD role was most recently held by Kate Vale, who departed Spotify in May after a five-year tenure. The hire is extra noteworthy coming on the heels of Pandora’s ANZ shutdown. Continue Reading
Spotify has made several developments this week aimed at expanding its footprint for podcasts. First, Bloomberg reports that Spotify will promote podcasts in its mobile app and in advertisements in exchange for positive buzz from show hosts. Second is a distribution deal with Australia’s Omny Studio. Continue Reading
Spotify has reportedly reached a new subscriber milestone. Sources familiar with the streaming company told the Financial Times that it now has 60 million paying listeners. The milestone would mean that Spotify added 10 million subscribers since March. Continue Reading
For the release of his newest work, Jay-Z opted to gate the album to his Tidal streaming service for one week. But even after distributing the music to most other digital platforms, Spotify still does not have 4:44. That may not be a cheap decision for the artist, and it also shows that Spotify has still not shaken some long-held assumptions among A-list performers. Continue Reading
Spotify has reportedly made progress toward securing a licensing deal with Warner Music Group. Reuters cited four unnamed sources in its exclusive report that the streaming company was moving closer to an agreement with the third major label. The specifics of this alleged arrangement are still being hammered out, but the sources told Reuters that the parties had already agreed to Spotify paying a smaller share of revenue to Warner in exchange for the label’s artists to window their work to paid subscribers for a period. Continue Reading
Licensing and royalties continue to create clouds for Spotify. The streaming company has been sued by two different parties for copyright infringement, with claims that Spotify did not obtain the required licenses to stream their respective catalogs. Continue Reading
Songwriter and publisher royalties have appeared once again as a sticking point for the Spotify streaming service. The New York Post’s Claire Atkinson is reporting that music publishers and songwriters are looking to receive a portion of Spotify’s equity when the company either goes public or finds an interested buyer. According to her sources, the National Music Publishers Association has been deeply interested in the question of equity since Spotify has been more seriously preparing for a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: How labels approach Spotify playlist promotion. Kickstarter project Mighty launches. More tough news from SoundCloud. Continue Reading
Spotify for Brands has two announcements for how to potentially market through music, data, and personalized habits. First, the company has shared a widget called Spotify.Me, a tool for quantifying listening preferences into data points that would be most useful to marketers. The second announcement is a related report called Understanding People Through Music. This analysis of 140 million people’s music habits draws some connections between the audio and likely spending habits. Continue Reading
Spotify has reportedly reached a licensing agreement with Sony Music Entertainment. Unnamed sources told Billboard that the streaming service has inked its second major label deal this year, after announcing an agreement with Universal Music Group in April. Representatives for both Spotify and Sony have declined to comment thus far on the rumored development. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Spotify is with the “banned”. Exclusivity window (sort of) ends for 4:44, but the album won’t be on Billboard charts yet. Continue Reading