Google Play Music has launched in South Africa, marking the music platform’s first entry into Africa. The launch comes at an introductory price of 49.99 Rand ($3.50); normally the membership costs $9.99. Continue Reading
Guvera has announced an official launch into the U.S. The platform debuted yesterday with a launch party hosted at its production studio in Los Angeles. It has a global catalog of more than 26 million tracks and a current audience of more than 14 million listeners. Continue Reading
Pandora has added another direct licensing deal to its arsenal, this time with independent outfit SONGS Music Publishing. Details of the multi-year agreement were not disclosed. “Now is the time to move past the over-regulation of songwriter rights and towards a market-based approach to streaming music,” SONGS’ Matt Pincus said. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Vevo acquires Showyou; Zane Lowe interview; is podcasting replacing the company newsletter? Continue Reading
Another major album release, another segmented digital launch. Coldplay dropped a new album on Friday but have restricted its online availability to paid-only music services. That means A Head Full of Dreams can be heard on the likes of Apple Music and Amazon Prime Music, but not on Spotify. At least, not yet. Continue Reading
Indian streaming company Saavn has hired a new exec to lead its charge into sports and comedy content. Gaurav Wadhwa is the service’s new vice president of entertainment and original content. He joined the company from PepsiCo, where he was a senior marketing consultant. Continue Reading
Bauer Media is assuming ownership of Radio Nova, a Finnish commercial radio business. Bauer is acquiring the service from Bonnier Group’s MTV Media branch. Following this transaction, Bauer and MTV will make multimedia solutions – combining digital, TV, and radio – available to commercial partners. Continue Reading
James Cridland Weekly Links is a column by the U.K.’s radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: Live streaming stalls at NPR; an Australian station adapts to bush fires; much more. Continue Reading
Podcast2Radio, a new service launching from a partnership of venerable Internet broadcaster Live365 and podcast host Blubrry. It will formally go live this week. Rae Palermo of Live365 previewed the service for RAIN News. Continue Reading
With its launch of Looped, CBS’s Radio.com audio portal moves into the video space. The product is bolted into Radio.com, and is powered by Vadio, a company which provides audio-ti-video synchronization to radio stations and whose tagline is “Radio Worth Watching.” Continue Reading
Another week, another potentially big album release with a streaming distribution strategy. In the wake of Adele’s music-market takeover last week, Coldplay released the A Head Full of Dreams project today. Spotify? No. Pandora? Not that we can find. Continue Reading
Pandora issued a follow-up press release today, after announcing yesterday that the company is issuing a $300-million debt offering to institutional investors. Pandora stock closed down 11.5% yesterday, and has inched downward another 2% this morning, nearing the year-to-date low of $11.51 per share. Continue Reading