The annual Web Summit in Dublin usually yields some interesting insights for the digital and streaming music industries. This year’s event has been no exception, and several sessions have useful information. Continue Reading
Facebook has added a new feature dubbed Music Stories. This new post format allows people to listen to 30-second clips of any song, artist, or album shared to the social platform. Continue Reading
At ATS New York this week, Spotify’s Head of Programmatic Solutions, Jana Jakovljevic, said that Spotify has started opening up its private programmatic solution to buyers. RAIN News confirmed with Spotify that the company is indeed launching its programmatic platform. Continue Reading
On the Move tracks hires, promotions, and other notable personnel changes within the online audio industry. Today’s moves include Spotify poaching country music talent from Sirius XM and a new exec for licensing specialist CueSongs. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Insights into Spotify In Residence: Merlin CEO pens op-ed against two-tier publishing rates; a new addition to NextRadio’s platform. Continue Reading
The finances of streaming have been a hot topic for the music industry since the services first arrived on the scene. A new working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research adds some hard science to the conversation, examining the impact of Spotify on both music sales and piracy. Continue Reading
It’s a double dose of updates from Spotify today. First, the streaming platform introduced a feature dubbed Spotify In Residence. With these profiles, Spotify lets different artists take a spin at curating a special playlist in the style of a radio show. The second Spotify news comes from France, with reports that Spotify now has about 650,000 paying subscribers in that nation. Continue Reading
Buzz, accusations, and legal jargon are swirling around the echosphere today in the wake of Spotify’s removal of the Victory Records song catalog from its library. Music licensing and royalty payouts in interactive streaming services are complex, sometimes compared to an impenetrable black box. Is there a solution? Continue Reading
Spotify has reportedly started laying the groundwork for a push into Japan and Indonesia. The company currently has a small team on the ground in Japan and is currently looking to hire a financial controller in that market. Spotify is also hiring a music editor in Indonesia, although it will be based out of its headquarters in Singapore. Continue Reading
Spotify’s UK subsidiary published financial results for 2014. Both subscription revenue and advertising revenue grew in 2014 from the previous year, in Spotify UK. The disparity in growth rates is interesting. Continue Reading
Spotify announced today that it has partnered with Katz Radio Group for sales representation. Katz will exclusively represent Spotify’s geo-targeted audio inventory throughout the U.S., starting immediately. Continue Reading
Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlists have quickly become a huge success with the streaming company’s listener base. The feature has had 1 billion tracks streamed in the 10 weeks of its existence. The tool is one of a handful of self-proclaimed recommendation engines that has really knocked it out of the park, and the reason is a very savvy use of listener data. Continue Reading