Quick Hits: Stevie Wonder pens editorial; analysis of Spotify’s Katy Perry promo
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Stevie Wonder speaks out for radio fairness. Spotify doubling down on artist relations. Continue Reading
Spotify
Billboard Power 100 list recognizes several of streaming’s top dogs
Billboard published its Power 100 list for 2017. The ranking includes several prominent leaders in the streaming music industry from companies including Apple Music, iHeartMedia, and Pandora. Spotify Chairman/CEO Daniel Ek took the No. 1 spot. Continue Reading
New York Times offers Spotify bundle deal
The New York Times has a deal with Spotify. New digital subscribers who buy a year of access to the newspaper for the will also get access to the premium version of the streaming service. Continue Reading
Lovely weather we’re hearing: Spotify’s meteorological musical data dive
Every now and then, Spotify throws open the door into its vault of fascinating data about its listeners. Today, its numbers have turned the most benign small talk topic into something fascinating. Continue Reading
Apple Music hires label relations expert away from Spotify
Apple Music has hired Steve Savoca, a former Spotify exec. Savoca was the vice president of content at Spotify and his responsibilities centered on label relations. He’ll be performing the same label-focused duties at Apple Music. Continue Reading
Rumor Fact(ory): Spotify IPO could be delayed to 2018
The timeline for Spotify’s long-anticipated IPO launch may have encountered another setback. Sources have told TechCrunch that the streaming company could push the IPO back to 2018. The unnamed sources said waiting yet another year would give Spotify time to have a stronger balance sheet and revamp its label licensing deals. Continue Reading
Spotify’s purple marketing ploy: Is Prince returning?
Spotify has a colorful new marketing campaign underway in New York City that could be good news for Prince fans. Purple banners with just the Spotify logo are now on display in the Union Square subway station, leading to speculation that the streaming service will soon have access to Prince’s music. Continue Reading
App Annie 2016 report: Mobile driving revenue for streaming’s old guard
Mobile analytics specialist App Annie has published its 2016 Retrospective. The report tracked another year of growth for the app industry, growth in worldwide downloads and time spent in app. Many other reports last year pointed to mobile as a key source of listeners for streaming music services, but this retrospective revealed that it can also be a big revenue driver. Continue Reading
MusicWatch time spent listening data sees Pandora in the lead for 2016
MusicWatch sent RAIN News a pre-release note with results of its 2016 ‘Music Streaming Wars’ study, and found that Pandora was had the largest share of weekly music listening at 28%. YouTube took second place with a 27% share. Both of those figures include the audio companies’ free and paid tiers. Continue Reading
Spotify wants to be Barack Obama’s next employer
Spotify has a new job listing posted, but the position seems rather tailored for a specific applicant who is soon to be unemployed. The role is President of Playlists at the company. Federal-level playlist construction is a critical job requirement. Continue Reading
Spotify/GroupM survey evaluates streaming audio advertising
Spotify and GroupM, which struck an alliance in November, have executed a study (Streaming State of Mind) into streaming media consumption, listener demographics, mobile listening, and ad spend. Part of Spotify’s effort to evangelize streaming audio to advertisers, this deep and expansive survey delivers interesting insights. Continue Reading
Year-in-reviews: The music industry reflects on 2016
As 2016 crawls to a close and 2017 emerges on the horizon, it’s time for that most time-honored of traditions: the year in review. Music companies of all stripes have released their assessments of top performers from the past twelve months. Here’s a collection of the high points from 2016. Continue Reading