Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) gave a speech about business competition with some pointed remarks about three of the top tech companies in the U.S. She criticized Google, Apple, and Amazon for using their size and clout to limit inroads from other companies, particularly smaller upstarts. Continue Reading
Spotify and iHeartMedia have been sued on allegations that they are infringing on a patent for sharing and retrieving playlist information online. Post Media Systems is the plaintiff, representing Alan Bartholomew of SoniClear. The central patent is titled “System and Method for Creating and Posting Media Lists for Purposes of Subsequent Playback.” Continue Reading
Is music discovery important in a society where most of the stardom and audience are concentrated in a few top acts? Research tells us it is, and new music discovery products tell us that major online music services know it. Music discovery initiatives from Spotify, Pandora, and SoundCloud are bringing music discovery into an era of personalized delivery. Continue Reading
Spotify announced a new partnership with Merchbar. This deal means that artists who list their merchandise through Merchbar will have top products automatically populated on their artist page for the streaming service. Continue Reading
Spotify has surpassed 100 million active users, a representative confirmed to RAIN News. It’s a big milestone for the streaming service. At the end of 2015, Spotify had 89 million active users, including about 28 million paying subscribers. Continue Reading
Spotify has hired a new exec as head of investor relations, the latest signal that an IPO is in the streaming service’s future. The new addition is Paul Vogel, who joins Spotify after most recently running Barclays’ Internet and media research group. Continue Reading
This week Spotify will release the newest edition of its ongoing consumer survey that seeks to measure listening reach — specifically how Spotify Free compares to local AM/FM radio. The results offer a view of radio listening that unites traditional broadcast with Spotify Free, the ad-supported listening tier. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Troy Carter goes to Spotify — is it a trend signal? Also The Pirate Bay returns to its original domain and Apple’s App Store is getting a big revamp. Continue Reading
Daniel Ek has no plans to sell off Spotify to a larger tech company. That came from a Q&A with reporters in Stockholm. He cautioned that selling off European startups to U.S. tech enterprises was hoiding back the EU tech industry. Continue Reading
Spotify has hired Troy Carter as its global head of creator services. Carter has a long history in music, spending 15 years in talent management and founding entertainment company Atom Factory. So far, the speculation is that Carter could be tasked with securing exclusive releases for the streaming service. Continue Reading
The partnership between Spotify and lyrics provider Musixmatch has dissolved as of May 27. As a result, the Lyrics button in Spotify’s interface no longer displays the words to the currently playing song. That feature first appeared on the desktop version of the service last February. Continue Reading
Twitter has added Spotify support to its audio cards. Any of the streaming service’s 30 million tracks can be turned into the audio post on Twitter. The cards will only play 30-second previews and will link to the full song in Spotify. Continue Reading