Rumors abound that Google will be merging its YouTube Music and Google Play Music platforms into one giant music juggernaut. Now, a redesigned YouTube Music app supports those claims. If Spotify represents order, then YouTube is the chaotic …
Category archives: music streaming
Spotify’s Q1 2018: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Looks like Spotify isn’t going to become the next Netflix after all. Nor will it turn a profit in 2018. Spotify has just published its first quarterly earnings since going public. And the news isn’t pretty. At least, not f…
Instagram Just Added Spotify and GoPro Content — Cooler Stories Anticipated
Instagram is now allowing apps to post content directly into Instagram stories – starting with Spotify. Spotify is all about creating a giant funnel of users — then migrating a percentage of them into high-value, paying subscribers.…
14 Years Later, iTunes Lands on the Microsoft Store
iTunes on the Microsoft Store? Hell freezes over once again. If you’re in the iOS world, this is utterly unimportant. But once upon a time, a Windows version of the iTunes Store was a really big deal. Now, that relationship is getting even …
Streaming Pushes Sony Music’s Revenue Over $4 Billion
Thanks to streaming, Sony Music CEO Rob Stringer had a great first year. Sony Corporation has published its earnings report for the 2017-2018 fiscal year ending March 31st, 2018. The company’s music division brought in ¥447 billion ($4…
Spotify’s ‘Got You by the Balls’ — And Now They’re Testing Out a Price Increase
Spotify’s got 71 million reasons to test a price increase out. But will this little experiment work? Spotify early investor (and longtime board member) Sean Parker may have said it best back in 2010. “You have no choice,…
YouTube Remix Will Terminate Google Play Music, Sources Say
Looks like Google won’t have three separate music streaming services after all. Yet, why has YouTube Remix repeated the same mistakes the parent company made with Play Music and YouTube Red? According to a new report, Google Play Music will…
For the First Time Ever, Streaming Surpasses CDs as the Largest Music Format Worldwide
While CDs will likely go the way of the dodo very soon, the music industry remains in full recovery mode. According to a new report by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the global recorded music market grew 8.1% in 2017….
Who Says Spotify Gets to Have All the Fun? Tencent Music Prepares for an IPO
Will investors readily line up behind Tencent Music’s IPO? Following Spotify’s debut on the New York Stock Exchange, Tencent Holdings has now started preparing to launch its own IPO. The Wall Street Journal reports that the company’s …
A Band Threatens to Sue Us After We Accuse Them of Playlist Payola. Here’s My Response.
Should payments to Spotify playlist curators — of any kind — be banned? Yes, they should. As Spotify replaces radio (and pretty much everything else), there’s a pretty serious debate over how songs are landing onto coveted playl…