File this under Friday Fun. Apple will pay $3-billion for all of Beats (the electronics and music-service divisions) when the deal closes later this year. Source reveal that the Beats Music portion of the merger is accounted at $500-million. Yielding to temptation, we ran the numbers and hereby propose (not with an entirely straight face) some stratospheric prices. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthwhile reads from around the web: Cassette Store Day, Dr. Dre, an unusual Spotify protest Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthwhile reads from around the web: Pandora and Samsung, history of car music, spamming Spotify, Apple dirt. Continue Reading
Hooking into the emerging trend of longer subscription trials, Spotify today announced a “Super Summer of Music” deal — three months of Spotify Premium subscription service for the one-month price of $9.99 in the U.S. Spotify Premium includes unlimited commercial-free, on-demand music selection, and unlimited track downloads. Continue Reading
As expected, Spotify announced at a press event today that the music service is now available to Brazilian users. The expansion marks the 57th country of Spotify’s global reach. Brazil owns one of the ten largest economies in the world by any reckoning — by some accounts the sixth-largest. The country houses a population of 200-million people. Sixty-two percent of Brazil’s citizens are 29 or younger. Continue Reading
Items of interest in the music-app realm: Songza wins an award, Spotify suffers a tiny hack, Samsung will discontinue a music service. Continue Reading
It’s not every day (or week, or month, or quarter) that Spotify releases audience metrics. The company saves it up for big milestones. Today the company unleashed an important one: the on-demand music service has 10-million paying subscribers. In a celebratory playlist, there is a hidden message. Continue Reading
Spotify is reportedly set to make its music-subscription service available in Brazil. The company sent press invitations to an event on May 28 in Sao Paulo. If Spotify didn’t have its own reason for entering the Brazilian streaming market, it would be spurred by competitors. Continue Reading
Spotify upgraded its Windows Phone app, putting in features that have been painfully missing for users of that platform (e.g. Radio, Browse, and Discover). But one important feature is missing: Spotify Free. Users shouldn’t be surprised: Spotify warned of this in February. Continue Reading
Song-skipping is a persuasive feature of personalized radio and on-demand services, driving about 50 percent of user, according to one study. Paul Lamere, director of the developer platform at The Echo Nest (now part of Spotify), analyzed millions of users and billions of song plays to tease out how quickly and often we skip songs. Continue Reading
Internet Radio Rewind is a weekly program bringing you a quick and concise catch-up of the week’s top stories. Click the Play button, and be ready for the coming week. This week: Sprint and Spotify tie the knot … Royalty-free radio … One music service dies a quick death (maybe) … Rdio makes news … and a 100-day report from Beats Music Continue Reading
Rumor has turned to reality. Two weeks ago we reported that music service Spotify and telecom carrier Sprint were talking about a bundling plan that would put Spotify in front of Sprint’s 54-million customers. Today, the deal is done. Click for details. Continue Reading