Today marks a big development in the B2B music space, as Soundtrack Your Brand arrives in the U.S. through a deal with McDonald’s. Soundtrack also announced that it has received a total of $20 million in funding to date. It is backed by Spotify, which also owns a third of the company, and works with businesses to set the music they want played at their stores. Continue Reading
Spotify has been doubling down on its advertising business, which supports the Spotify Free consumer experience, for over a year. Today brings more emphasis on the advertising business. Spotify has announced new hires and promotions within its global ad team. Continue Reading
Spotify has acquired CrowdAlbum, an aggregator of photos and videos from concerts. The service, which launched in 2013, offers artists a visual album of their tours. It also helps them to identify and connect with fans. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Sonos gets Prime Music in EU; Spotify denies hack, despite weirdness. Continue Reading
Winter is coming to Spotify. With the upcoming premiere of the sixth season for Game of Thrones, the streaming service has created a tool to match your listening habits to one of the show’s many characters. Continue Reading
Billboard has named Spotify as its official streaming partner for 2016. With this new deal, Spotify will power playback on more than 75 charts from the music organization. It will also supply tunes for a New Music Fridays editorial and for three new Spotify-centric charts. Continue Reading
The lawsuit filed by David Lowery against Spotify has gotten a new wrinkle today. Lowery’s legal team has filed a request to see all the correspondence sent by the streaming service to potential participants in the class action suit related to Spotify’s recent settlement with the National Music Publishers Association. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Pandora CEO at Midem; some context on the vinyl resurgence; Spotify’s millennial listeners; Kanye and Tidal sued over “exclusivity.” Continue Reading
Spotify often has a healthy sense of humor in how it engages with listeners. The latest example is for anybody concerned about the outcome of the U.S. election in November. Welcome to Canadify. Continue Reading
Sony’s PlayStation consoles rolled out a new music feature, powered by Spotify, last March. The partnership kicked off strong, with an impressive 785 million tracks streamed on the PlayStation 4, the company’s latest gaming hardware, in less than three months. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Is Kanye West a tactical genius? Should there be more podcasts for kids? Can musicians benefit from streaming data? Continue Reading
Spotify just changed the rules of the game, raising an unprecedented $1 billion in convertible debt. Guest columnist Mark Mulligan analyzes — what is Spotify’s strategy, and where will growth come from. One key: “The 9.99 subscription model is incredibly difficult (perhaps impossible) to run profitably at scale.” Continue Reading