Tag Archives for " streaming music "
November 7, 2016
Neil Young Gives In And Puts Music Back On Streaming Services
Neil Young pulled his music off of every streaming service in 2015 because of the poor sound quality in favor of his own Pono service, but in a reversal, now he’s back. Although last May his music was made available on Tidal, now it can be found on both Spotify and Apple Music. Pono was […]
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October 24, 2016
11 Popular Artists Still Not Streaming
Billboard recently posted a very interesting article about 11 artists, some major, that still can’t be be found on a streaming network. While you have to admire that they stand for their principles, it does seem to be a somewhat dated view, since streaming has not only become a major source of income for previous […]
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October 19, 2016
Amazon’s Actually Losing Money From It’s New Music Service
The major record labels are adamant about keeping the price of a music streaming subscription at $9.99 per month, regardless of the platform, so it was a great surprise last week when Amazon announced that its new Amazon Music Unlimited service was priced at $7.99 per month for Amazon Prime members. It turns out that the […]
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October 13, 2016
Don’t Be Fooled By Amazon Music Unlimited’s Price
Amazon has finally launched it’s long awaited stand-alone streaming music service and it’s called Amazon Music Unlimited. On the surface it has a number of interesting features that differentiate it from the other major streaming services, but one has to wonder whether potential users will find them compelling enough to subscribe. Perhaps the service’s biggest […]
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October 10, 2016
Spotify’s Paid Over A Billion Dollars To Record Labels This Year
The major record labels seem to have it out for Spotify, but the platform is contributing mightily to their bottom lines. It’s been reported that the company has already paid $1.2 billion dollars in royalties to the music industry this year, and over $5 billion lifetime. The platform is paying out around $133 million per […]
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October 3, 2016
YouTube Misses The Point With Its Lyor Cohen Hire
If you want to start a music label executive ranting and raving, just mention YouTube. It’s currently public enemy #1 to the music industry thanks to its relative intransigence over royalty payouts that execs and artists alike feel are way too low. That’s a good reason why Youtube may think its brand new hire of […]
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September 26, 2016
Apple Music At 17 Million Subscribers After 70 Exclusives
Record labels hate giving exclusives to streaming services, but they appear to be working when it comes to signing up new paid subscribers. During Apple’s latest product rollout, CEO Tim Cook mentioned that Apple Music was now at 17 million subscribers thanks to over 70 exclusives with artist like Taylor Swift, Frank Ocean and Drake. The […]
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September 14, 2016
Will The New Cheap Tier From Pandora And Amazon Be Worth It?
Ever since music streaming began in earnest, there’s been a mantra inside the music industry that’s gone something like this – “Until the paid subscription rate gets to $5 per month, streaming is never going to scale.†That’s only partially been true, as subscriber numbers have grown steadily at the now standard $10 per month, […]
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September 13, 2016
Engineer Tom Weir On Episode #126 Of My Inner Circle Podcast
If you ever wanted to hear a true Hollywood story, then you’ll love this week’s episode of my Inner Circle podcast. Engineer Tom Weir has had some studio experiences that you could only get if you grew up in Southern California, and you won’t believe how cool some of them have been. Tom is also the […]
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September 7, 2016
Which Music Streaming Services Will Survive 2016?
Note: Here’s a guest post from Caroline at Culture Coverage. In a world of free music, not all streaming services are created equal. Between premium subscriber systems and free platforms with limitless libraries, there are a lot of options that can cloud a music lover’s desktop and not provide any real advantages. For these five industry […]
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August 26, 2016
- in Commentary by Bobby Owsinski
Will Amazon Break The $5 Streaming Music Barrier?
There’s been speculation for some time that Amazon was going to launch it’s own streaming music service to rival that of Apple Music and Spotify. While such a service could be formidable indeed, another me-too platform might not shake up the streaming landscape much. That could change if Amazon is able to launch a lower-priced […]
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August 8, 2016
Goodbye MP3, We Hardly Knew Ya
When it comes to technology, the music business has always been about convenience. It’s ultimately never about the sound or even a lower cost, it’s always comes down to what’s easiest to use. Still, it’s surprising to see the MP3 file format (or the “download” as many know it) accelerating so quickly towards the end […]
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July 29, 2016
A SoundCloud Demise Would Create A Void For Indie Artists
SoundCloud is seeking a buyer, and that could make it much more difficult for indie music artists across all genres to have their music heard. The streaming music service is reportedly seeking a sale in the $1 billion range in a deal that could alter that part of the music landscape for a long time. According to […]
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July 22, 2016
Deezer Launches In The U.S., But Does Anybody Care?
After a year run up, the streaming service Deezer has finally launched in the United States. Spotify’s major competitor in Europe is now in the world’s largest market, but the question is, does it have enough to differentiate itself from the rest of the current streaming contenders in the space? The Paris-based service launched in […]
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July 20, 2016
Apple’s Publishing Royalty Proposal Is A Shot At Spotify
Who says Apple’s music executives aren’t smart? In what may end up being a brilliant strategic move, the company discretely made a proposal to the governing Copyright Royalty Board to increase the song publishing royalty rate to 9.1 cents per 100 interactive streams, a significant increase over what is currently paid, according to the NY […]
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