If partridges in pear trees aren’t your type of holiday fun, maybe Tidal’s 12 days of free streaming is more your style. The company is offering 12 days of free access to its Hi-Fi tier. Each day will also include a release of some exclusive content, plus there will be a giveaway of concert tickets. Continue Reading
Universal Music Group has signed a global, multi-year licensing deal with Facebook, marking a big legal development for how and where music might start showing up on the social network. Universal is the first major label to ink a licensing deal with Facebook, and the arrangement will allow the creation of music features across Facebook’s properties. Continue Reading
The Interactive Advertising Bureau has released its report on digital advertising trends from the first half of 2017. Music streaming shows astonishing penetration of top-10 brands, when measuring time spent. Continue Reading
YouTube is making a move to curb posting of videos that might skew the chart performance of songs. This premise, where a repeating loop of a song snippet is tagged in YouTube’s system to look like the full track, came to light around a popular single called “Rockstar” by rapper Post Malone. Continue Reading
Amazon is eventually ending its service that offers cloud storage of MP3 files. The Amazon Music Storage is projected to shut down in January 2019, but an exact date has not been shared yet. There are two important details in this announcement. Continue Reading
Radioplayer is looking to find a new provider for its technology and support contract. The collaborative radio platform is accepting bid applications until January 29, 2018, and the three-year contract has an anticipated start date of the second quarter of 2018. Continue Reading
Musical.ly announced the start of a fund to support its users. The short-form music video and lip syncing app will invest up to $50 million into a Creator Fund over the next two years. The money will go toward a range of programs, from college scholarships to co-development deals to a “creator marketplace” where users can trade creative assets or instruction. Continue Reading
Tidal has launched its first television apps. Today, the streaming service has rolled out programs to run on the Apple TV and Android TV. Subscribers who own either a device that runs either platform will be able to access Tidal’s music and video content on their televisions. Continue Reading
Mixcloud announced that it will use Gracenote for music recognition. Applying Gracenote MusicID will help Mixcloud to make accurate royalty payments to rights holders on mixes and DJ sets. After Gracenote’s technology identifies a song, Mixcloud adds it to its database of artist, label and publisher rights holders. Continue Reading
PRX has received a grant of $465,000 from the Barr Foundation that will support a multi-tier podcast training program next year. The 2018 campaign will build on PRX’s Podcast Garage studio and its Project Catapult training program for public radio stations. Continue Reading
YouTube has signed a new licensing deal with Universal Music Group. UMG did say that the deal would lead to “growing compensation” for its artists, but neither company has disclosed details. “We’re thrilled to strengthen our partnership with Universal Music Group,” YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said. Continue Reading
BMI announced that a Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has ruled in its favor, meaning the preforming rights organization will be able to continue its use of fractional licensing. That’s a big win for BMI, although understanding why requires some review of legal proceedings and details from the past 18 months. Continue Reading