Full Text Of The Spotify, Universal Licensing Announcement

Spotify and Universal Music Group have finalized a new licensing deal that includes for two week album windowing for select releases. Full text of the official announcement: ____________________________ Read our analysis here. Spotify and Universal Music Group announce global, multi-year license agreement April 4, 2017 Spotify, the leading global music…

Pandora And Spotify Diversify, Offer New Features

In what has been a busy month for the music streaming biz, Pandora debuted a new on-demand option, while Spotify began to consider limiting its free tier as it looks ahead towards an initial public offering. ________________________ Guest post by Melina Druga of Midem March was a busy month in…

Are UMG, Labels Encouraging Spotify’s 50 Million Free Users To Become Pirates? [UPDATED]

[UPDATED] With today’s news of a Spotify, Universal Music Group deal that includes two week windows that make some album releases available only to paid subscribers, this article which we published yesterday is all the more poignant. In it, Ross Pruden, points out that windowing and other exclusives encourage Spotify’s…

Warner Music Group Sells Music Distributor Zebralution To Management, Indie Label Investors

As part of a divestment package negotiated way back in 2012 with Impala and Merlin, Warner Music Central Europe has sold digital distributor Zebralution back to its founders and a small group of indie music industry executives. _________________________________ Warner Music Central Europe has sold Zebralution GmbH to a consortium of…

SoundCloud Finally Available On Google Chromecast with iOS

Two years after it launched on Android, SoundCloud is now available on Google Chromecast through iOS devices. SoundCloud has enabled shared playback, so multiple users can control what’s playing. SoundCloud has also upgraded both of the mobile apps and the receiver "to provide a consistent and streamlined experience." Related articles…

Calculate Your Spotify Payments With This FREE Per US Stream Mechanical Calculator

Music collection agency Audiam has created a free payment calculator based on per streaming mechanical royalty rates supplied to them by Spotify. The rates are for the United States and only for mechanical royalties. Mechanical royalty rates also vary month to month, based on how many total streams occur in…

YouTube Ad Debacle Continues: Creators Concerned About Falling Payments, Vevo says: "We’re Safe!"

A growing number of creators and musicians with popular videos on YouTube are worried about a drop in income thanks to a spreading boycott by major advertisers upset that their ads have been placed alongside controversial videos. ________________________ “If you’re seeing fluctuations in your revenue over the next few weeks,…

Spotify Tiers May Soon Look Different

Although it’s hoping to go public this year, Spotify’s licensing deals with major labels are, for the moment, out of contract. As Spotify reworks these deals, it’s expected that the different payment tiers available through Spotify will soon look different. ___________________________ Guest post by Bobby Owsinski on Music 3.0 As…

Streaming Now Generates More Revenue For Music Industry Than Downloads, Physical Combined

Double digit growth in streaming in 2016 meant that Spotify, Apple Music and their competitors now account for 51.4% of all U.S. music revenue. Digital downloads were 24.1% in 2016 and physical was 21.8% of total revenue. This marks the first time since 1998 that the industry has posted back-to-back…

Apple Music Had 20% More Users Last Month Than Spotify or Pandora

90 day free trials helped Apple Music amass 20% more unique monthly users in the U.S. in February than Spotify or Pandora, says a new just released study by Verto Index. ___________________________ click on image to enlarge Apple Music had 40.7 million monthly unique users in the U.S. last month,…