Tag Archives for " Spotify "
April 5, 2018
Spotify Finally Goes Public, And Sony Sells Some Of Its Stock
Spotify finally went public yesterday in a unique direct listing that had Wall Street watching the offering closely. The stock opened at a price of $165.90 per share but fell to $149.01 by the end of the day. The stock dropped down another 8% to $140.02 by midday Wednesday. That said, even at $140 per […]
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March 21, 2018
Spotify Makes A Move To Stop Playlist “Playola”
Way back when radio was the main channel for developing a hit, record labels tried to game the system by bribing radio station program directors with money and gifts to add a record to the station’s playlist, a process that became known as payola. Several scandals ensued and the practice became illegal, but labels and […]
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March 19, 2018
Why Spotify’s Investors Seem To Have Little Confidence In Its Future
Spotify’s direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange is coming on April 3rd and there’s already been plenty written about this unusual tactic. Much of the reasoning for the move coming from the company seems to circle around the fact that underwriting a traditional IPO costs too much, so there will be considerable savings by avoiding […]
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March 8, 2018
Good News! Major Labels To Share Spotify Stock Listing Windfall With Artists
With Spotify about to become listed on the New York Stock Exchange, a big question that has hung over the heads of major label execs is what will happen if they liquidate their shares in the company. Revenue windfalls like this in the past have found their way to the company’s bottom lines and not […]
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March 6, 2018
Musician, Engineer And Studio Owner Greg Curtis On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast
My guest this week is Greg Curtis, who is not only a session and touring trumpet player and accomplished engineer, but he’s also the founder of The Bridge Recording, which is one of the busiest scoring stages in Hollywood. The Bridge is actually one of the few studios anywhere that’s found its business increasing in […]
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February 27, 2018
Engineer Lij Shaw On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast
Lij Shaw is the host of a great podcast called Recording Studio Rockstars, and is the owner of the Toy Box Studio in Nashville, where he’s been making records for the last 25 years. The studio is in his house, and recently he received a cease and desist order from the city for violating a […]
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February 26, 2018
The Pros And Cons Of Spotify Becoming A Hardware Company
There have been a number of recent reports lately that Spotify is looking to launch its own series of branded streaming hardware products. This is supported by its search for an “Operations Manager – Hardware Product” as well as several listings for hardware related positions on its website. Let’s look at the pros and cons […]
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February 22, 2018
Spotify Gets Legally Scammed From Bulgaria
It’s not everyday that you hear of a big tech company getting scammed, but when it’s done legally it’s especially unusual. A report in a recent Music Business News described how someone from Bulgaria used a pair of playlists to take as much as a million bucks in royalties from music tech giant Spotify. Here’s […]
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February 19, 2018
Universal Music Making Close To $18 Million A Day
The recorded music business is definitely feeling better these days as all the major labels have reported big increases in revenue recently. The latest of these is Universal Music Group, who reportedly saw an income stream of close to $18 million every day in 2017. This represents a sales increase of around 11% from the […]
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February 12, 2018
Sony Launches A New EDM Label Liquid State In China
China is becoming a hot place for music, as Western influences gradually seep into the country. Last year hip-hop became a dominant force in Chinese music (although mostly with Chinese artists, not American imports) and now it looks like electronic music is hitting there too. As a result, Sony Music has launched a new label […]
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February 7, 2018
Believe It Or Not, Apple Music Is About To Surpass Spotify In The US
When we look at streaming subscriber numbers, it always looks as if Spotify is in a commanding lead with over 70 million paid users as compared to Apple Music’s 36 million. But as we’ve seen so many times before, statistics can be deceiving. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required to […]
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February 2, 2018
NOI LOOKUP May Make It Easier To Get Paid From Spotify
Spotify has been in running battles with songwriters and publishers for the last year over the fact that the platform was playing music without complete copyright information, and therefore without a license. This has resulted in several lawsuits against the streaming giant, with more threatened. A new free service launched recently by SXWorks, a subsidiary of […]
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January 9, 2018
Soundways CEO Gebre Waddell Guests On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast
Gebre Waddell started in the music business as a mastering engineer from his Stonebridge Mastering in Memphis, but he’s always been into programming since he was a kid. He eventually turned that into a real business as co-founder and CEO of plugin developer Soundways. The company now offers a number of next generation plugins like […]
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January 4, 2018
Wixen Music Publishing Is Suing Spotify For $1.6 Billion
Spotify’s legal team is going to be kept pretty busy for a while defending the company against a $1.6 billion (yes, with a B) lawsuit brought by the Wixen Music Publishing. The company licenses music from about 200 artists, including superstars Tom Petty, Neil Young, The Beach Boys, Donald Fagen, Stevie Nicks, Missy Elliott, and Janis […]
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January 3, 2018
7 Music Business Predictions For 2018
2017 is now in the books and it was a big year for the recorded music industry, so now it’s time to look ahead to 2018. Here are 7 predictions that can affect the music business in ways big and small in the upcoming year should they come to pass. 1. Spotify finally goes public, […]
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