Revenue Per User To Fall 25% Even As Streaming Grows In Popularity says Goldman Sachs Study

The global recorded music business brought in $19.1 billion in revenue in 2018, according the IFPI. By 2030, that number will grow to $45 billion, with streaming expected to represent $27.5 billion of the total, according to a new Goldman Sachs analysis. The total number of paid music-streaming subscriptions worldwide…

Stay Calm! Apple Did NOT Just Kill Music Downloads

For the many, the announcement that Apple is "killing" iTunes also meant that Apple was also killing its music download store. In fact, iTunes on the Mac is just being divided into three separate apps for music, podcasts and TV. And the iconic music download store lives on, at least…

Billboard To Add Top Songwriters, Top Producers Charts

Under pressure from alternative data sources and soon to launch charts from Rolling Stone, Billboard is expanding its own chart offering. Top Songwriters and Top Producers charts will be based on weekly activity on the Billboard Hot 100 and other “Hot” genre song charts that blend data from streaming, airplay…

More Streams? Here Are Music Streaming’s Trigger Cities

While we may think of places like Nashville and New York as being those cities with the most influence on the music business, the reality is quite different. In this piece we look at some surprising dark horse ‘trigger cities’ that are having an increasing amount of influence when it…

Victory In Europe: Two Year War Over Copyright Directive Has Begun

With the passage of new copyright legislation in Europe, many are assuming that Big Tech will finally be held accountable to the new laws, but Chris Castle takes a somewhat different view, predicting a two-year copyright war is just heating up. _____________________________ Guest post by Chris Castle of Music Technology…

Apple Set To Kill iTunes Today, New iPod Touch Unveiled

Apple is set to announce the end of iTunes today. Ironically, the company unveiled a new iPod Touch last week, the newest iteration of the hardware that made it so easy to put a whopping 1000 iTunes tracks in your pocket. During Tim Cook’s keynote at its annual Worldwide Developers…

This Week In Music Commentary

This week in music commentary, the industry gave voice to concerns that PledgeMusic was lining their own pockets, what it takes to build a music empire, a paradigm shift in how fandoms are monetized and more. Was PledgeMusic Lining Their Own Pockets? A Brief Inquiry Into Building Music Empires With…

Tencent Music Requires You Pay To Stream Current Music – Will This Catch On?

In an effort to increase its profitability, Chinese streaming giant Tencent has begun experimenting with limiting the amount of current hit music which its customers can access for free. Given the mixed results windowing saw in the US however, it remains to be seen whether this trend will catch on….