Category Archives for "Music Industry News"
December 10, 2018
American Pop Music No Longer The Global King, But Its Christmas Music Can’t Be Beat
One of the ways I used to gauge the magnitude of a hit was if I could walk down a street in another country and hear it blasting from the bars and shops. Since the 80s when I began to travel a lot, this little test has never let me down, as it’s been a […]
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December 7, 2018
The Indie Label Market Is Bigger Than Ever And Growing Larger
More and more artists and bands are going the indie label route these days, some by choice and others by the fact that the pathways to a major label are perhaps more limited than ever. This is clearly shown in Mark Mulligan’s latest post that reveals that indie labels contributed just a touch under 40% […]
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December 5, 2018
Qobuz, Another Hi-Res Streaming Service To Launch Soon
The fervor for high-resolution music streaming has died down in recent months, and it looked like everyone has finally settled on the current CD-level quality as sufficient enough for most users. That sentiment isn’t enough to stop hi-res streamer Qobuz from planning a launch for next year though, as the company recently opened up a […]
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December 3, 2018
Buying A Bot For More Spotify Or SoundCloud Streams Is Still Easy
You’d think that after all the recent uproar it would more difficult to buy a bot to manipulate an artist’s Spotify or SoundCloud streams, but that’s not the case, as Hypebot points out. As the article states, “Some bots are run by commercial services selling guaranteed streams. Others come from developers like somiibo which offers bots for […]
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November 30, 2018
When It Comes To Playlists, Artists Want Everyone To Know They’re Indie
Being an indie artist can be looked at two ways – it’s either a badge of honor for having control over your own career destiny, or it’s someone that can’t get signed by a major label so they’re forced to do it themselves. Many choose the former point of view and prefer to stay outside […]
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November 26, 2018
If You’re Young, Music Drives Social Media
It’s probably no surprise that if you’re between the ages of 13 to 24, music tends to be a bigger part of your life than when you get older. Since that’s the case, it stands to reason that social media used by that age group would also be driven by music, as this recent report […]
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November 22, 2018
Remember Those In Music Who Lost Everything This Thanksgiving
Most every Thanksgiving we all have so much to be thankful for, and for you this one might be no exception. There are many people suffering as a result of the devastating fires in California however, and more than a few of them are music figures that you know and love. One is guitar maker […]
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November 21, 2018
Universal Music Artists Might Get A Big Gift Thanks To Taylor Swift
It’s big news that Taylor Swift has left the Big Machine label for Universal Music, but a byproduct of that deal is that the label’s artists would receive all of their share of the revenue from a sale of the company’s holdings of Spotify should it decide to sell. That means that the total amount […]
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November 19, 2018
Spotify Song Skip Rates Tell Us A Lot About Our Attention Span
One of the byproducts of the digital age is that our collective attention span is a lot shorter than it ever was before. If something doesn’t grab us immediately then it’s highly likely that we’ll skip right to something else that does. This is outlined by a recent study regarding skip rates of songs played […]
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November 16, 2018
When It Comes To Stadium Concerts, It’s Now A Pop World
Those of us who grew up with rock tend to remember the stadium concert as a bastion of the legendary rock performers like The Rolling Stones, The Who, and Black Sabbath among many others. While those bands and more from that era still manage to play stadiums (at least before they retire), that part of […]
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November 14, 2018
Artists Are Getting Fake Plays On Spotify But Not From Where You Think
Throughout the digital age, artists have learned to game the system in an effort to move their careers ahead. It’s easy to buy fake YouTube views, Twitter followers, Facebook friends and followers, playlist rankings, and just about anything else where the number seems to validate the artist’s popularity. It’s gotten to the point where labels […]
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November 12, 2018
I Thought CDs Were Supposed To Be Dying, But Maybe I Got It All Wrong
All the focus has been on streaming music the last few years, with the comeback of the vinyl record getting much attention as well. Meanwhile the once mighty CD has been pretty much written off as a relic of the past. After all, who needs a round plastic souvenir when the same music can be […]
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November 9, 2018
Spotify Offering New Analytics To Publishers
While artists have long felt that they’re not making enough from streaming, songwriters and publishers have it even worse, making as little as a tenth per stream as that of an artist. Although the rates may not change, Spotify is at least attempting to provide more info to publishers to help them understand their payouts […]
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November 5, 2018
Spotify Turns A Profit And Adds More Paying Subscribers
There’s good news for Spotify on a couple of fronts, but it may not be as cheery as it looks. Spotify reported that it has grown its paid subscriber base to 87 million, and actually made $56 million in Q3 of 2018. On the surface this looks great but underneath the numbers there’s a reality […]
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November 2, 2018
10 Great But Under-Appreciated U.S. Music Cities
When artists and bands think of “music cities” the ones that immediately come to mind are the big 5 – New York City, Los Angeles, Nashville, Seattle and Austin. There are other cities that have great scenes that don’t come immediately to mind though. Flypaper put together a list of 10 and ranked them, although […]
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