Amazon’s freemium music service soft launch may force Spotify to reevaluate its own strategy to keep advertisers. In an interview published earlier this year, David Limp, Senior Vice President of Devices and Services over at Amazon, shared a surprising…
Category archives: music streaming
Nashville Metro Council Condemns Spotify’s Anti-Songwriter Stance
How long will Spotify continue to hold out against growing opposition? Spotify doesn’t seem to have many friends in the music industry anymore. From top executives – including Irving Azoff – and major publishers – such as Warner/Chappell – the industry…
Apple Music Doubles Down on Data-Driven ‘For You’ Recommendations — Sound Familiar?
Apple Music has expanded its ‘Music For You’ personalized recommendations, despite criticizing Spotify for the same thing. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek believes that Spotify’s computer-generated playlists are a crucial differentiator in the industry. Up unti…
Spotify Formally Opens Its R&D Center in London, Creating Around 300 New Jobs
Spotify has formally opened a new R&D center in the heart of Great Britain. Nearly two years ago, Spotify revealed its plans to launch a new research and development hub. The R&D center would co-exist alongside its current operations in London…
SiriusXM Strikes Back Against Spotify — Converts 22 Of Its Shows Into Exclusive Pandora Podcasts
SiriusXM is launching 22 new podcasts for Pandora and SiriusXM subscribers. The new podcasts repurpose many of SiriusXM’s most popular shows. SiriusXM finished its acquisition of Pandora just three months ago in a deal valued at $3.5 billion. These new…
Spotify Expands Its ‘Spotify Lite’ Beta Into Asia — Starting With Malaysia
The Spotify Lite beta app with data cap features is now available in Malaysia for Android only. Spotify Lite is currently in beta and is aimed at developing countries where data usage is at a premium. The beta app features many of the same features of …
Amazon Music Is Preparing to Launch an Ad-Supported, Free Version — Report
Who says Spotify and YouTube get to have all the ad-supported fun? ‘Ad-supported’ has become a dirty word in certain sectors of the music industry. Though that doesn’t seem to be stopping Amazon from toying with an ad-supported expansion. The foray in…
BTS Becomes the First Group from Asia to Cross 5 Billion Streams on Spotify
Spotify partly fueled this fire with some plum playlist placement. BTS remains dominant among Kpop fans and broader Asian audiences, though Spotify has been promoting the group worldwide within powerful playlists like Teen Party. With nearly four mill…
Republicans Lambaste Apple Music for Censoring Pro-Democracy Songs In China
Following the removal of pro-Democracy songs in China, Apple is facing a backlash led by Republican politicians. Apple Music in China removed several Hong Kong singers from its platform. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) spoke to The Verge about Apple’s decis…
Report: 1 in 3 Apple Music Subscribers Share Their Passwords
Cord cutters have championed the subscription streaming model, but password sharing is rampant among subscribers. Apple Music is the subscription music service most likely to be shared. By the end of 2018, there are an estimated 33 million “cord cuttin…