FREE Google Home Mini Smart Speaker For All Current and New Spotify Premium, Family Subscribers

Spotify and Google are offering a free Google Home Mini smart speaker to every subscriber – bot current and new to a Spotify Premium Individual or Premium Family plan. The streamer says it is also planning new features with Google "that will make it even easier to discover and listen…

Making The Most Of Spotify’s Canvas Tool

Thanks to its Canvas visualization tool, Spotify will be seeing a good deal more looping videos in the near future, something which bodes well for artists looking to give their music a little visual boost. Here, we unpack how bands can make the most out of these 3-8 second clips….

Court Approves Pandora Appeal Of Pre-1972 Recordings Suit Due To Music Modernization Act

Last week the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals told a lower federal court to reconsider Pandora’s bid to negate a class-action lawsuit over the streaming of pre-1972 recordings. The appeal was granted because of the Music Modernization Act, which makes these tracks eligible for digital performance royalties. When the Flo…

Spotify’s New Replay Playlist: New Algorithms Create Benefits For Fans, Artists, Labels

In this piece, Kristen Westcott Grant explores the evolving role of data algorithms in the streaming industry, and how Spotify’s continued rollouts of new personalized playlists can help not just fans and the streaming service, but also artists and labels. ______________________________ By Kristen Westcott Grant of Wescot Multimedia from Forbes…

Ballad of ‘LoFi Rod’: How DashGo Became The Home Of A New, Dynamic Genre

At a time when many of the figures reinventing the music business belong to a new generation, Universal veteran Rod Linnum aka "LoFi Rod" is helping to lead the charge for the blossoming lo-fi genre. _____________________________ Behind some of the most popular LoFi playlists on the major streaming services is…

Music Think Tank Weekly Recap: Streaming Success Stories • Run A Business From The Road • Music Startups • More

This week on MusicThinkTank, our contributors shared streaming success stories, advice on how artists can run a business from the road, info on five cutting edge music startups, and more! Juri Kobayashi | Streaming Success Stories From Musicinfo And China Casey Barker | Don’t Forget The Other Half Sam Bowman…

Life At Spotify: A Curated Behind The Scenes Look

Spotify this week released a series of shoer videos dubbed "Life At Spotify" that offer a curated look inside the world’s top streaming service. While quite clearly a carefully scripted PR piece, collectively they offer a look at who and what makes Spotify tick. See the full Life At Spotify…

Copyright Infringement Liability In The Music Business

Living as we are in the digital age, any company which plays host to entertainment media on a large is at constant risk of copyright infringement. Whether it’s Spotify or YouTube, difficult challenges will inevitably arise over how to best monitor for and remove infringing content. Here we look at…

Why Blockchain Won’t Be Saving The Music Business (Yet)

Here Bobby Owsinski outlines why the rise of streaming culture has largely nullified the viability of a blockchain-based system for selling music, and why services like Audius, which do utilize blockchain tech, are more susceptible to piracy. _________________________________ Guest post by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0 I started getting blockchain…