Music Industry News Roundup For The Week Ending On 6/9/17

Here’s the Music Industry News Roundup for the week ending on June 9th, 2017. There was a wide range of new this week, and for once it’s not all centered on streaming. Let’s get into it.

The digital music war is over, and the major labels lost. Good article in Rolling Stone how the industry adapted to streaming music way too late.

Apple Music’s growth is relentless, as it’s up to 27 million paid users. It still can’t catch Spotify though.

Pandora’s share price continues to fall as it looks for a buyer. If it sells, it will be for pennies on the dollar.

It looks like Spotify is working on its own hardware. That’s where the real money is, and the company needs another revenue generator if its ever going to turn a profit.

The music industry’s battle with YouTube continues. I’m not so sure that this article helps to the win the war that much. The truth is that YouTube’s musical influence has already peaked and will continue to grow weaker from here on.

Warner Music is creating an arts division. It’s called Art Music and will concentrate on non-pop genres like orchestral and jazz.

Stem is trying to get artists paid more seamlessly. There’s a lot of money falling through the digital cracks, and Stem is just one of many companies trying to capitalize on the fact.

In Canada, radio listening is bigger than ever. Streaming just hasn’t penetrated that deeply yet.

In the US its different, as the end of the FM radio in the car may be on the horizon. This article just shares an opinion, but it makes a good point. AM radios are already being left out of  some new cars, it’s only a matter of time before it happens to FM as well.

 

Virtual Reality seems to be on hold, but not in the music space. New VR releases and programs continue, and UK startup MelodyVR just raised over $6 million. I still think that AR will be the breakthrough.

That’s the Music News Roundup of what went on in the music industry last week. Have a great week ahead!