Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: New gadget selects Spotify music by tempo; Napster critiques Spotify, Apple; Forbes believes in radio; Billboard reviews the web radio landscape. Continue Reading
Next Big Sound released its summer report, and the focus for this season was streaming and social media. Even though Pandora purchased the music data specialist this spring, the company is still able to provide compelling insight across several streaming platforms. In fact, Next Big Sound has already tracked more than 1 trillion online plays in the first six months of the year. That covers activity from YouTube, Vevo, Vimeo, Spotify, Rdio, SoundCloud, and new owner Pandora. Continue Reading
According to a new report from Digital Music News, Spotify may be reconsidering its free tier approach. Sources have allegedly told the site that Spotify may begin adopting a windowed path, making some music releases only available to paid listeners or only opening it up to free listeners for a short amount of time. The company is reportedly considering several different options for what form that gated material might take. Sources told DMN that multiple of those options could see a rollout in early 2016. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web. TODAY: Does Beats 1 steal radio’s last advantage? Is Spotify a hitmaker? And U2 went on podcasting to break news. Continue Reading
SFX Entertainment has entered into a partnership with Spotify. This new arrangement will bring music and video content from Beatport to Spotify’s streaming service. Brand new Beatport CEO Greg Consiglio said that the company is in the midst of building out new content partnerships with other distribution channels, but Spotify is the only one that will get access to Beatport’s new music exclusives. Continue Reading
Spotify has launched a new feature called Discover Weekly. This is a two-hour playlist personalized to each individual listener. The song choices for the Discover Weekly list stem from your particular music taste and what other similar fans are listening to. Spotify is billing it as a custom-made mixtape delivered each Monday morning. So how good are the recommendations? Pretty solid. Continue Reading
Worthy news items and interesting reads from around the web. Today: Analyzing Pandora programmatic; YouTube is bigger than cable; inside Spotify’s new playlist. Continue Reading
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The weekly update of the streaming audio industry, from RAIN News. THIS WEEK: Neil Young exaggerates; FTC and Apple; how do high-schoolers listen? Continue Reading
The Spotify Insights blog has a new data creation for its fans to play with. The latest is a musical map with accompanying playlists showcasing the songs that are most unique to many of the world’s cities. Editor Eliot Van Buskirk calls these songs ‘distinctive,’ tunes that one location seems to enjoy a lot but other areas don’t. Continue Reading
Research company Niche has released its annual survey of media usage among high school graduates. The survey collected responses from 10,000 members of the 2015 graduating high school class. Spotify is the big music gainer, but Pandora still rules. Continue Reading
Much digital ink has been spilled about the value of streaming, from its intangible impact on the music industry to the very tangible bottom line. Billboard crunched some numbers about the value of a single stream at both Spotify and Pandora, shedding a little light on who is getting what under the current deals. Continue Reading
Last week we reported (with some commentary) on Spotify’s email to iOS subscribers, which recommended unsubscribing from the music service in iTunes, and re-subscribing directly through Spotify. Now, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is reportedly examining Apple’s policy. Continue Reading