Author archives: Bruce Houghton

YouTube Music Had 3X Better 1st Week Than Spotify In India

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki and global head of music Lyor Cohen are in India to celebrate the launch of YouTube Music there and announce that the app was downloaded 3 million times in its first week. That’s 3 times more than Spotify, who had 1 million signups during its first…

Soundcloud Adds Virtual DJ Integration

Soundcloud has added Virtual DJ so that Soundcloud Go+ subscribers can use the streamer’s 200 million track catalog in their live DJ sets. Soundcloud announced a similar partnership with Serato’s DJ Pro 2.1 or DJ Lite 1.1. Here is how the new integration works. Download and log in to Virtual…

‘You Have Used Us,’ Spotify Secret Genius Songwriters Tell CEO Daniel Ek [Full Letter]

Nile Rogers, Frank Dukes, Teddy Geiger and Babyface Edwards were among the dozens Spotify Genius Award nominated songwriters who signed an open letter to Spotify CEO Daniel Ek over the streamer’s decision to challenge a US Copyright Royalty Board ruling that guaranteed songwriters a 44% increase in streaming royalties. Google,…

Major Labels Want Millions, But TikTok Says No

The three major label want millions in payments for the use of music on two hugely popular short music video apps, TikTok and its Chinese counterpart Douyin. Deals between UMG, Sony, WMG and the Chinese owner of the apps, ByteDance, expire this spring, But after months of talks, the two…

Lykke Li Announces All-Female Music Festival

Lykke Li has announced a festival featuring females and female-identifying acts in conjunction with her YOLA mezcal brand. YOLA Fest will be held at Los Angeles’ Historic Park June 6th and feature Courtney Love, Charlie XCX, Cat Power, Cupcakke, Megan Thee Stallion and Ambar Lucid. A portion of the proceeds…

PledgeMusic Goes Silent

PledgeMusic has not offered an update to the hundreds of musicians and thousands of fans affected by the crowdfunder’s inability to pay creators the funds that fans had pledged. Even the rumor mill is almost silent. As the week’s drag, on it seems increasingly unlikely that anyone is ready to…

Spotify Adds Streaming Conversion Metrics To Ad Studio

Spotify has added streaming conversion metrics to Ad Studio.The useful new metrics allow artists and labels to track how each listener responded when they hear ad on the streamer. Spotify Ad Studio launched in 2017. The self-service ad platform can target fans and fans of similar artists with a $250…

Songwriters vs Big Tech: Has The Tide Turned? [David Israelite]

[UPDATED] In this guest post, National Music Publishers Association head David Israelite explores how social media has shifted public opinion toward the songwriters and music publishers in their battles with Spotify, YouTube and other music services. _____________________________________ By David Israelite of the National Music Publishers Association [NMPA], This first appeared…