Just days after Norwegian investigative journalists accused TIDAL of a massive manipulation of streaming data, multiple sources are reporting both underpayments and late payments from the streamer. At least two performing rights organizations are now calling for action including a criminal investigation and audits. _______________________________ Norwegian financial newspaper Dagens Næringsliv…
Category archives: streaming
Pandora Learns More Ads Doesn’t Mean More Subscribers
Having been in financial hot water for some time, Pandora is anxious to crank up its revenue, and so has increased the number of ads which play on its free tier. Unfortunately, although perhaps not surprisingly, this uptick in ads seems to have blown up in Pandora’s face. _____________________________ Guest…
Apple Music Has 50M Subscribers, Up 2M In Single Month
Apple Music now has 50 million subscribers, CEO Tim Cook shared in a wide ranging Bloomberg interview. That’s up 2 million since April when a leaked Apple memo revealed 40 million paid subscribers and 8 million currently a part of the music streamer’s 90 day free trial. By contrast, Spotify…
Is Troy Carter Leaving Spotify Over New Hate Content Policy?
Troy Carter, Spotify’s global head of creator services, is rumored to be leaving the company, according to multiple sources. Carter is apparently upset over how the music streamer handled partial censorship of music by R. Kelly and XXXTentacion and the implementation of a new ""Hate Content and Hateful Conduct" policy….
TIDAL Referred To Norwegian Police Over Beyonce, Kanye West Streaming Manipulation
Norwegian performing rights organization Tono has asked local police to investigate TIDAL, after a reports that the music streamer falsified hundreds of millions of plays of the music of Beyoncé and Kanye West. Tono, which represents 30,000 rights holders, found that claims of streaming manipulation by TIDAL were "strong" and…
Online Radio’s Data Collection Problem
While online streaming and terrestrial radio both seem to have figured out the best way in which to gather listener data, online radio is lagging behind in this department, a problem which needs to be solved if they hope to keep/bring in advertisers. _________________________ Guest post by Bobby Owsinski of…
Could Spotify Buy Universal? Should It? [MARK MULLIGAN]
Vivendi has been openly exploring spinning off Universal Music Group. Publically the talk is of a possible IPO, but the rumor mill has spun out several scenarios, including a purchase by Apple or Alibaba. But what if Spotify bought UMG? Could that bold move solve its ongoing profitability problem? _________________________________…
How Spotify Can Suck Less For Streaming Than YouTube
New numbers have revealed that YouTube is more popular than every other streaming service combined, and while there’s some suspicion regarding these numbers, there remains a great deal that Spotify could do to make itself a little more user friendly to consumers. ______________________________ Guest post by David Gerard of Rocknerd…
TIDAL Lands Exclusive On Unreleased Prince Music
The Prince Estate and TIDAL have announced plans to debut new Prince music exclusively on the streaming service. The new album will contain previously unreleased material from Prince’s extensive vault of recordings. The new Prince album – expected to be released in 2019 – will stream exclusively on TIDAL for…
Warner Music Quietly Launches Free Tunecore Competitor
Warner Music Group has quietly launched a digital music distribution service that is a direct competitor to Tunecore, CDBaby and DistroKid. Level Music, which WMG has never announced it’s involvement is live online, accepting artists and offering some additional service. ___________________________ A video walkthrough of Level Level Music has launched…