Facebook has taken its licensing deals across the Atlantic. These latest agreements add to Facebook’s stable of both the European-centric deals, such as with online rights hub ICE, and its work with outlets from the major labels, including Warner Music Group and Sony/ATV. Continue Reading
SoundCloud has hired Antonious Porch as its new general counsel. In this role, Porch will lead the legal affairs and public policy strategy for the audio company. He joins SoundCloud from Shazam, where he held the same post, and he also worked at Viacom for more than a decade. Continue Reading
The BBC will reportedly be getting a new role of podcast commissioner. Bob Shennan, the BBC Director of Radio and Music, announced at the Radiodays Europe conference that the broadcaster is “about to announce” the new role, which will focus on cultivating content beyond the station brands. The effort is aimed at reaching new and young audiences. Continue Reading
James Cridland’s Future of Radio is a column by the Australia-based radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: Another blow for AM radio, and a blog post on the honesty of modern radio, plus much more. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Podcast trends from Infinite Dial. EU to rule on Apple/Shazam next month. Anchors aweigh for social podcast videos. Continue Reading
SoundExchange announced that it has paid out a cumulative $5 billion in royalty distributions since the company’s founding. The December 2017 payouts tipped the company past the milestone. Continue Reading
Panoply Media has entered a new partnership to provide distribution and monetization services for HowStuffWorks’ podcasts. HowStuffWorks will use Panoply’s Megaphone technology for publishing, distributing, and dynamically inserting ads into shows. Megaphone will also provide performance metrics for all episodes of HowStuffWorks’ shows. Continue Reading
Merlin has signed agreements with five music streaming services in China. The independent label network now has partnerships with NetEase Cloud Music, Ali Music Group’s Xiami, and Tencent’s QQ Music, Kugou, and Kuwo. As a result, Merlin’s members can now… Continue Reading
Lyor Cohen, YouTube global head of music, spoke at SXSW about the video platform’s previously reported plans to make a new subscription music service. “We know we’re late to the party,” he said. It’s okay.” Continue Reading
Independent label network Merlin has seen its earnings from Latin America increase five-fold in the past three years. Based on current growth rates, Merlin’s 2018 revenue from Latin America are projected to exceed $60 million. Streaming appears to be a key driver of that international growth. Continue Reading
Spotify is expanding the beta test of its self-serve advertising platform. After an initial launch in the United States in September, the streaming music company is opening the beta trial of Spotify Ad Studio to Canada and the UK. Continue Reading
Pandora has entered a deal with Linkfire, a music marketing platform, to improve music discovery for fans and marketing for artists. The agreement dubs Pandora the premiere streaming music data provider for Linkfire and it will provide its attribution data to the company. Continue Reading