More pre-CES news includes an intriguing tie-up between social media and music hardware. Twitter announced an investment in Muzik, a startup company making connected headphones. Could this be the social network’s first music deal that really sticks? Continue Reading
NPR has announced plans for an experiment in audio on Facebook. In this new post format, listeners will be able to hear particular moments or stories within the social platform. Continue Reading
WNYC Studios is testing out Facebook as a distribution channel, publishing a new, full-length episode of its Here’s the Thing show to the podcast’s Facebook page. The 48-minute episode was uploaded as a native Facebook video since the social network doesn’t support direct audio uploads. WNYC is calling this odd hybrid an audiogram. Continue Reading
Facebook has added a new feature dubbed Music Stories. This new post format allows people to listen to 30-second clips of any song, artist, or album shared to the social platform. Continue Reading
Social media platform Vine announced an expansion of its audio capabilities. The service, which lets users film six-second looping videos, will now have options for seamlessly adding music to content directly within the app with the optional Snap to Beat feature. You can add music from your phone to videos directly through Vine, or you can browse the newly added Featured Tracks section. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Pandora is using social to think local; Jelli co-founder explains how programmatic works; Russian government could assume royalty collection duties. Continue Reading
Next Big Sound released its summer report, and the focus for this season was streaming and social media. Even though Pandora purchased the music data specialist this spring, the company is still able to provide compelling insight across several streaming platforms. In fact, Next Big Sound has already tracked more than 1 trillion online plays in the first six months of the year. That covers activity from YouTube, Vevo, Vimeo, Spotify, Rdio, SoundCloud, and new owner Pandora. Continue Reading
iHeartRadio is going social with its latest partnership. The online audio company has signed on with social media app Snapchat to be one of its featured Discover brands. According to Snapchat, it brought on iHeartRadio and BuzzFeed in an effort to provide more content variety to its users. Continue Reading
Even a cursory glance at the music industry headlines and market research will show that mobile is the wave of the future. We communicate, we entertain ourselves, everything happens on smartphones. In response, we’ve been seeing a surge of startups and programmers exploring just what the mobile music space might look like. This morning I explored an entry into the field of mobile apps for social music. This one is called Cymbal. Continue Reading
The Fair Play, Fair Pay Act is getting a boost of support from an unusual corner. Two artists rights and management groups in the UK – the Music Managers Forum and the Feature Artists Coalition – have asked members to get involved with the social media campaign to raise awareness for the issue. The legislation aims to pay performance royalties to musicians for their plays on terrestrial radio. Continue Reading
UPDATE: The social media juggernaut spoke to Billboard following yesterday’s leak at Music Ally, which alleged that Facebook is planning a video service to compete with YouTube and a pure music service to compete with Spotify. Facebook said in a statement that it has “no plans to go into music streaming.” Continue Reading
Facebook has allegedly had early discussions about working with the major music labels. According to a report by The Verge, the social network has expressed an interest in getting involved with the music industry, but it is still unsure what form that interest might take. It has reportedly spoken with Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group. Continue Reading