Irving Azoff and his Global Music Rights PRO have intensified their scrutiny of the new YouTube Music Key streaming service. According to a written exchange between lawyers for both sides, Azoff has questioned whether YouTube has the appropriate licenses to be streaming the songs represented by GMR. The group asked for the roughtly 20,000 songs GMR represents to be removed, but YouTube has not complied. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Steve Albini on music and the Internet; Samsung launches Milk Video in U.S.; Shazam as hit-tracker. Continue Reading
NextRadio, the Emmis-owned smartphone app that tunes in FM station over the air, has employed New York ad agency DeVito/Verdi to build an awareness campaign, according to a press release from the agency. The NAB “is supporting” the agency choice. NextRadio rrecently passed the million-download milestone. Any awareness campaign faces complicated messaging. Continue Reading
Freemium — the layer of streaming music which is designed to funnel users into paid music subscriptions at services like Spotify, Rdio, and Slacker. Freemium streaming is ad-supported, and we were curious about spot load in Freemium listening. We put it to a test. Continue Reading
Spotify is expecting to expand its team by about a third, according to cofounder and Chairman of the Board Martin Lorentzon. He told reporters at a trade fair in Finland that the streaming company was recruiting around 500 new employees to join the current staff of 1,500 people. Continue Reading
Pandora was the mobile program with the most time spent in-app, according to the Mobile Metrix Key Measures report from comScore. The data reflected average minutes per visitor for U.S. adults, and Pandora clocked in with 1,271 minutes. It edged out ubiquitous social network Facebook for the top spot and had more than triple the average minutes for Netflix, the app for TV and movie streaming. Continue Reading
BitTorrent drew attention for its collaboration with Thom Yorke, where it made the Radiohead frontman the first artist to sell a pay-gated torrent of his new solo album. The company announced today that the direct-to-fan Bundle approach can now be used by any artists. The pay-gated platform’s opening was linked with an anniversary album release from DJ and producer Diplo. Continue Reading
In an initiative marked by repeated long delays, it is perhaps unsurprising that Music Key, YouTube’s new music subscription service which was supposed to start today, has been pushed back to tomorrow. In other Music Key news, it is widely reported that a rumored subscriber connection between Music Key and Google’s audio-only subscription service, All Access, will indeed happen. Continue Reading
Rio Caraeff will step down as CEO of Vevo at the end of 2014. CFO Alan Price will serve as the interim leader for the video hosting service while the company looks for a full-time replacement. Vevo has had a rocky year, and the launch of YouTube Music Key is also a potential risk for Vevo’s business. Continue Reading
Imagine getting into a taxi and hearing your Spotify playlist, which you were just listening to, coming out of the car stereo. That is the vision, and starting this Friday the reality, of a partnership announced today by Uber and Spotify. The heart of the deal is about ownership vs. access, of both music and transportation. Continue Reading
Tomorrow, Pandora will discuss the eventful and controversial topic of music licensing in a public conference call with investors. Anyone can dial in. The call comes after webcasters filed their royalty-rate arguments to the Copyright Royalty Board, in which Pandora proposed royalty rates to labels and artists lower than present rates, and about half the amount suggested by SoundExchange in its brief. Continue Reading
A New York judge ruled against Sirius XM’s motion for a summary judgment in a lawsuit filed by the Turtles. The band is seeking $100 million in damages for the satellite radio’s playing its songs from before 1972, when federal copyright laws took effect. It is the latest in a series of state court decisions that challenge a loophole in federal music licensing regulations. Continue Reading