Category Archives for "Music Industry News"
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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October 31, 2018
SoundCloud Changes Its Contract Terms After Artist Pressure
In this era of big business its seems to be the norm when the contract terms favor the company rather than the user, even to the detriment of the user. Usually we blindly accept those terms, but if the latest SoundCloud kerfuffle proves anything, it’s that fighting back can sometimes bring about some needed change. […]
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October 29, 2018
The Reasons Why Rock Is Still King On The Concert Circuit
If you were to believe the music press, the only thing in music that’s hot these days is hip hop. While that may be true when it comes to the charts, rock is far from dead when it comes to the concert circuit, and in fact clobbers most other music genres in terms of ticket […]
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October 26, 2018
Getting On A Spotify Playlist Just Got Easier
Getting a placement on a Spotify playlist can be career changing as suddenly millions of people can be aware of you and your music, but until now the chances of that happening were extremely slim if you weren’t on a major label. The company has been trying to democratize its service though and making its […]
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October 24, 2018
Study Finds That The Smart Speaker Does Indeed Impact Music Consumption
To the surprise of no one, a new study finds that the smart speaker trend is impacting music consumption in a big way. A new study by AudienceNet of people over the age of 16 looked at exactly how each age group is consuming music and by what distribution source. Those that own a smart […]
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October 19, 2018
Warner Music Launches WMG Boost To Invest In MusicTech Startups
You can tell that the music industry is back in the money when the major record labels decide to spread some of their cash around. To that end, Warner Music announced that it has launched WMG Boost in order to invest in music-related tech startups. Although no exact figure on exactly how much money is […]
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October 18, 2018
Spotify Deal With Distrokid Means Artists Can Now Upload To Other Streaming Services As Well
When Spotify announced its direct upload feature last month many artists weren’t particularly wowed since they’d still have to use a distributor to have their music uploaded to the other streaming services anyway. The company has now turned that argument on its ear by making a “passive” investment in the the distribution company Distrokid, which […]
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October 17, 2018
Here’s Why Apple’s Acquisition Of Shazam Is Such A Big Deal
A few weeks ago Apple completed its acquisition of Shazam for $400 million, and while it didn’t go unnoticed, it didn’t created much of a ripple either. That said, there’s a lot going on behind the scenes that could make this a much bigger deal down the road. Music Business Worldwide covered this in depth, […]
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