Red Bull Music Academy and Red Bull Radio will shit down after 21 years, the company announced Wednesday. Both will cease operations by Oct. 31st as the global beverage giant shifts its substantial marketing budget to a more localized approach. The Red Bull Academy offered free educational and networking opportunities…
Author archives: Bruce Houghton
AM BRIEF: Red Bull Academy, Radio To Shutter • iHeartMedia To IPO • New Beats Powerbeats Pro • Deezer • More
THURSDAY 4.4.19
Music Business News From Around The Web
Updated continuously under the More News tab
iHeartMedia Files For $100M IPO As It Nears Bankruptcy Exit
iHeartMedia, the dominant player in US radio broadcasting, has filed a $100 million IPO offering of Class A shares, just as it nears exiting bankruptcy. With 855 stations and numerous digital properties, iHeartMedia estimates a monthly reach of 275 million listeners over the age of 6, outpacing Google (251 million)…
Why Buy Disc Makers When CD Sales Are In Free Fall?
[UPDATED] While CD Baby and related digital properties were bought last week by Downtown Music for a reported $200 million, its physical good companies Disc Makers, BookBaby and Merchly were not a part of the deal. Now a newly created entity led by company executives, DIY Media Group, has acquired…
25 Songs Have Each Played Over 1B Times On Spotify
Two and a half years ago, Drake’s “One Dance” became the first song on Spotify to be played one billion times. This week, the 25th song joined the billion stream club. Here is the list of the the all the songs played 1 billion or more times on Spotify. Ed…
Billie Eilish Set For Massive Debut
Interscope buzz artist Billie Eilish’s first full release "When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? "is expected to debut at No. 1 on next week’s Billboard 200 chart with more than 275,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending April 4, according to the trade magazine. That…
Troy Carter, J. Erving Launch Q&A Music Tech Company
Troy Carter has announced his next chapter, music and tech startup Q&A. The former Lady Gaga manager, music tech entrepreneur and Spotify executive has reunited with his former Atom Factory cohorts J. Erving, Suzy Ryoo and Tim Luckow to form the new company. Q&A will merge with Erving’s Human Re…
MIDEM Announces U.S. Pavilion
MIDEM 2019 will host a U.S. Pavilion during its 53rd annual convention in association with AIMP, A2IM, Women In Music, Music Managers Forum-US, and others in Cannes, France, June 4-7. Access to the U.S. pavilion allows badge holders to more easily schedule and host meetings with international labels, publishers, distributors…
Spotify Names Chaka Zulu To Head Artist Relations
Spotify has hired Chaka Zulu to head artist and talent relations. Zulu is the long term manager of rapper Ludacris and co-founder of the Disturbing Tha Peace label. He replaces Troy Carter who exited the streamer several months ago. He shared the news via a post on Instagram. “I am…
Gaana Beats Apple, Spotify As India’s Top Music Service
Music streamer Gaana has beaten Apple Music and YouTube as Indian consumer’s most popular music streaming service. Spotify barely registered on the survey. In terms of popularity, Gaana at 25% was followed by Apple Music at 20%, YouTube at also at 20% and Wynk 14%, according to the Music Streaming…