Spotify To Come Pre-Loaded In Millions Of Samsung Phones

Spotify and Samsung are expanding their partnership. Starting today, Spotify will be pre-installed on millions of new Samsung mobile devices globally. In addition, new Spotify users in the U.S. with select Samsung Galaxy mobiles will qualify for six months of free Spotify Premium, redeemable in app. In August 2018, Spotify…

Apple Music Is Only Major Streamer Not Trying To Cut Songwriter Royalties

Spotify, Pandora, Google and Amazon are appealing the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board ruling that would increase streaming payouts to songwriters by 44%. Notably absent from the list of music tech giants is Apple Music. Under this CRB ruling, streaming services will be required to pay songwriters and publishers 15.1% of…

Pandora Launches Own Version Of Stories

Always looking to stay relevant, Pandora is one of the most recent platforms to incorporate a ‘stories’ feature into its offerings. Given the nature of the company, their stories look a little different than other platforms, marrying music tracks and podcasts into single playlists. ______________________________ Guest post by Bobby Owsinski…

2018 Was A Good Year To Be Spotify [Russ Crupnick]

While there has been much discussion of Spotify’s financial situation, another important metric to pay attention to is actual listeners. Here Russ Crupnick of MusicWatch breaks down some of the numbers on Spotify’s market share. _____________________________________ Guest post by Russ Crupnick of MusicWatch Spotify’s financial results are widely available and…

Spotify, Pandora, Google and Amazon Join To Fight Higher Royalties For Songwriters

Spotify, Pandora, Google and Amazon are teaming to appeal the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board ruling that would increase streaming payouts to songwriters by 44%. The four plan to file an action with the D.C. Court of Appeals. Spotify, Google, Pandora issued a joint statement: "The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), in…

Streaming Revenue Impressive, But Can It Ever Make Up For Lost Physical Sales?

With streaming revenue showing a massive increase in comparison to previous years, the major three record labels are rejoicing at their annual haul. A big part of this income still draws from physical sales however, and as these old-school revenue streams continue to thin to a trickle, will streaming be…

SiriusXM Creates Pandora Content Team For Podcasts, Playlists, More

SiriusXM has created its first Pandora “content team” focused on sharing content between the two platforms. The team will also create original content in music, sports and talk content ranging across comedy, politics, music and entertainment. The team will report to SiriusXM’s Chief Content Officer, Scott Greenstein, and includes: Alex…

Symphonic Distribution Expands To China

Independent music distributor Symphonic has expanded its reach to China via partnershipd with Tencent, NetEase and soon, says the company Alibaba.The new deals were spearheaded by indie rights powerhouse MERLIN. Content can be placed on Chinese music serives NetEase Cloud Music, Xiami (Alibaba), QQ Music, Kugou and Kuwo (Tencent Music…

WMG, Dubset Partner To Offer Legal DJ Mixes

Dubset, the music marketplace and rights management database for DJs and artists, has inked a deal with Warner Music Group (WMG). Warner is the latest major label to partner with the platform whose aim it is to equip DJs with new mix and remix distribution and monetization opportunities. Sony signed…

100 Million Use Paid Music Streaming Services In US [MusicWatch]

Fresh off the release of RIAA revenue numbers MusicWatch shared its year-end numbers assessing the size of the US streaming market and how music listening is evolving. Among the internet using population 13 and older MusicWatch reported a record 165 million streamers in 4Q, based on listening at least one…