The latest outburst in the high-profile Spotify debate does more than just criticize streaming, it condemns it. Rosanne Cash, who testified in a congressional music-licensing hearing this summer, stirred up mixed reactions with two recent Facebook posts in which she equated streaming with music piracy, and also continued her impassioned campaign to alter U.S. copyright regulations. Continue Reading
After several weeks on an invite-only basis, Spotify has made its official entrance into Canada. The Swedish streaming platform staked a claim to “one of the most extensive Canadian music catalogues available,” with access to more than 20 million songs in the market. It noted a “comprehensive Quebecois library” within those millions of tunes, according to VentureBeat. Continue Reading
Monday distraction: Paul Lamere, Director of Development Platform at The Echo Nest, which is owned by Spotify, has created an entertaining hack that anyone can try — Where Is the Drama? The idea is to use waveform analysis to identify a song’s climactic section. The experiment is fun, if nothing else. Read how Lamere accomplished this hack, and where you can test it. Continue Reading
Data from App Annie revealed that music services are among the top performers for in-app purchases in August. The analytics firm found that Spotify, Pandora, and Apple’s music apps were among the leaders for in-app revenue. All three ranked in the top 10 revenue generators for non-game apps. Continue Reading
Spotify introduced its Insights blog earlier this month, and its creative take on data has already been taking the music world by storm. The latest missive delves into the listening habits of college students. Spotify listed the top 40 schools with the highest rates of sign-ups for its student deal last semester, then ranked them by number of song plays. Arizona State University secured the top place on the Most Musical Universities in America list, followed by Auburn University and Brigham Young University in second and third, respectively. Continue Reading
Spotify’s director of economics, Will Page, spoke at the Bigsound conference in Brisbane, Australia, about the impact of legal streaming services on piracy. His data showed that, in the year from December 2012, the volume of BitTorrent files downloaded by Australians dropped by more than 20%. Spotify launched in Australia on May 21, 2012. Since then, he said one in six Aussies have tried out the music service. Continue Reading
Spotify unveiled a new blog that will focus on trends and concepts stemming from its various data collections. Dubbed Spotify Insights, the information will be a combination of the global listening numbers that Spotify tracks and the recommendation-based data from its subsidiary The Echo Nest. Continue Reading
Two recent articles reviewed the international scope for Rdio. The service is available in 60 countries, but its top markets outside of the U.S. are Canada and Brazil. Mediacaster reviewed Rdio’s business activities in Canada, the service’s second-largest market. While smartphone use in third-largest market Brazil is on the rise, ZDNet cautioned that the country does struggle with the quality of its mobile Internet services. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Musicians should speak up about YouTube features; buy music and more from a tweet; Calvin Harris’ billion Spotify streams. Continue Reading
Spotify is getting visual with its latest advertising approach. The streaming service said it will test a new approach on its free version that offers listeners 30 minutes of uninterrupted listening in exchange for watching a video ad. If listeners choose to skip the video, they’ll continue to hear their regular ad-supported tunes. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Blinkbox hits a billion streams; WiMP expands internationally with Tidal; Spotify CEO on musicians making money. Continue Reading
Most online music platforms have such a large volume of songs and listeners that they unintentionally make sharing difficult. With the days of the mixtape long gone, there are few ways for people to share that song stuck on loop in their head with their friends. Enter This is My Jam, a polished resharing and curating service. Continue Reading