Tag Archives for " Apple Music "
December 31, 2018
10 Music Business Predictions For 2019
Predictions can be a tricky thing, but if we look at the trends in the music business over the last year we can see where things might be going. Here are 10 predictions for how the industry will fare in 2019. 1. Apple Music Nearly Catches Spotify Spotify is still the king of the hill […]
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December 12, 2018
Apple Gets Into The Elevator Music Business
Remember Muzak, the music we all loved to hate, affectionately known as “elevator music?” Even though it supplied super-sweet versions of cutting edge hits to businesses everywhere for years, it was actually a good business to be in as it made a lot of under-the-radar money, and Apple now wants a piece of it. According […]
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November 13, 2018
The Legendary Al Schmitt, Apple Music’s Approved Distributors, And 10 Greatest Synths On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast
My guest today on the podcast is one of the most revered recording engineers in the world today. Al Schmitt has won 22 Grammys, worked on 160 gold and platinum albums, and even received his own star on Hollywood’s famous Walk of Fame. Al has worked with so many of the real legends in the music business, including […]
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November 7, 2018
Is The Power Of The Playlist Overblown?
It’s not uncommon to day to find an artist that will spend a great deal of time, energy and even money to get a placement on one of Spotify’s major playlists. The current consensus in the business is that a playlist appearance can make a career, but is that really the reality? An example that’s […]
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September 24, 2018
There’s More Behind Spotify’s Artist Direct Upload Strategy Than Meets The Eye
In a surprise announcement, Spotify will now allow indie artists to bypass distributors like CD Baby and TuneCore and directly upload their songs to the platform. Best of all, there will be no charge to do so, relieving artists from paying the nominal fees that distributors charge for the service. The upload feature will be available via the […]
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May 23, 2018
Why Record Labels Hate Free Streaming Tiers So Much
If you were to poll record label execs off-the-record on which music streaming service they like the most in a strictly business-sense, chances are that Apple Music would end up as the clear winner. Why? Apple has steadfastly refused to institute a free ad-driven tier. Even though labels, artists, songwriters and publishers realize revenue from […]
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April 11, 2018
Under The Radar Amazon Music Adding Millions Of Subscribers
Amazon has always been the sleeping giant in music streaming. It’s Prime Music comes as a part of Amazon Prime, and although there are no official numbers as to the number of subscribers, the company hints that it’s at least hundred million. Amazon also has a stand-alone service as well called Amazon Music Unlimited, which […]
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April 9, 2018
Spotify’s Market Cap Shows Just How Powerful Apple Really Is
Spotify’s direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange last week proved to be a little underwhelming in that most existing stockholders decided to hold on to their shares, a good sign for the company’s long-term future. Its stock price at the end of the week ended up at just shy of $148, which translated […]
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April 3, 2018
Blues Hall Of Fame Sax Player Joe Sublett On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast
My guest this week is saxophonist Joe Sublett, who’s a Grammy and W.C. Handy Award winner as well as an inductee of the Blues Hall of Fame. Joe’s credits include work with superstars like The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, Little Feat, The Band, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, BB King and a […]
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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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January 11, 2018
Is The MP3 Era Coming To An End?
Reports are that Apple is moving up its timetable for killing the MP3 download from its iTunes Store to later this year. Originally the company was planning on next year for end-of-life, but have accelerated the schedule thanks to quickly declining sales and the unprecedented growth of music streaming. There has been no official announcement […]
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January 10, 2018
With Jimmy Iovine Leaving, A Look Back At What Apple Got For Its $3 Billion Purchase Of Beats
Reports from all over the Internet suggest that Jimmy Iovine will be leaving Apple shortly after the stock he received in the company’s 2014 acquisition of his previous enterprise, Beats Electronics, vests in August. There’s been no denial or even suggestion that the story isn’t true, so it prompts a retrospective question – What exactly […]
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November 13, 2017
Can A Lip-Syncing Site Be Worth $800 Million?
If you’re a musician then you probably aren’t aware of lip-synching site Musical.ly. After all, why pretend to create music when you’re able to do it for real? That’s said, there are millions of people everywhere who find doing short clips of themselves lip-syncing to hit songs is a lot of fun – 200 million of […]
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October 3, 2017
Producer/Engineer J.J. Blair On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast
My guest this week is Grammy-winning producer/engineer J.J. Blair, who has a wide variety of credits that go from Johnny Cash to Rod Stewart to Weezer to the Black Eyed Peas, and many more. J.J. is an avid microphone collector and we spoke at length about his collection, his studio, and his techniques, as […]
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September 18, 2017
This Is Why Spotify Is Beating Apple Music
At around 65 million, Spotify has more monthly paying customers than any of its competitors by far. One of the reasons is that it was one of the first in the streaming music space, and another is that it has a fairly simple user interface. But the biggest reason by far is the fact that […]
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