Music Metadata: Why You Need To Get It Right

Metadata (aka data about data) has become a huge part of achieving musical success in the digital age. So huge, in fact, that to ignore it, or to have incorrect metadata, can ruin your chances of keeping your head above water in the streaming era. By Chris Robley of CD…

Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” Is Most Streamed Song Of The 20th Century

"Bohemian Rhapsody,” the iconic song by Queen, has became the world’s most-streamed song from the 20th Century, as well as the most-streamed Classic Rock song of all time more than 40 years after it was recorded. The original song and official video for “Bohemian Rhapsody,” taken from Queen’s seminal 1975…

Tencent Music IPO’s At Reduced $12.3B Valuation

Tencent Music [TME] will launch its scaled down U.S. IPO on Wednesday. China’s largest music streamer priced shares at $13 ahead of its NYSE listing hoping to raise $1.1 billion. The IPO had originally been scheduled for October 18th. Tencent was valued at $30 billion in the Fall of this…

This Week’s YouTube Music Charts: Ariana Grande, Mariah Cary and More

This week’s YouTube Music Charts finds Ariana Grande’s “thank u, next’ at #1 on the Global Charts, the Charlie Puth and Selena Gomez collaboration crossed 2 billion views and Christmas classics are climbing the charts. Highlights: After its record breaking debut, Ariana Grande’s “thank u, next” lands the #1 on…

Qobuz Hi-Res Streaming Service US Launch Imminent

While consumer need for a hi-res streaming services seems to have cooled down of late and most listeners seemingly content with CD-quality music, Qobux close to imminent launching its hi-res streaming and download platform in the US. The news comes on the same day that Sony became the first major…

Sony Music Takes On Spotify, Launches Streaming Service In Japan ‘Powered By Napster’

[UPDATED] Sony Music will use Rhapsody’s "Powered By Napster" platform to launch the first high resolution streaming music service in Japan. The move by Sony Music Entertainment Japan makes Sony the first major label to directly challenge Spotify, Apple Music and others with their own music streaming service. Music will…

SoundCloud Names 2018 Top Tracks, Artists To Watch, More

SoundCloud has crunched the numbers and released its top artists, tracks, trends and more of 2018. For the second year, Two Friends released the top DJ setl, and “synthwave” and “phonk” were the most tagged genres. Stream the 2018 SoundCloud Top Tracks Playback playlist and 2019 Artists to Watch.

Spotify’s Most Streamed Artists, Tracks 2018 Are All Male and It Has Only Itself To Blame

Despite all the talk of equality for women in music, the top 5 most streamed most artists of 2018 on Spotify are all men. Spotify’s 5 Most Streamed Tracks were also all male. The streamer registered the same all male top artist inequality in 2015 and 2016. Spotify’s Top 5…

Will Fans Unsubscribe If Artists Leave Major Streamers?

In a followup to his recent piece regarding user-centric royalties and the idea of an "ethical pool" solution to streaming royalty allocations, Chris Castle here raises the question of whether artists’ departure from major streaming services would cause fans to follow suit and ditch them as well. ____________________________ Guest post…

Where Playlists Are Concerned, Artists Want Everyone To Know They’re Indie

While not having the backing of a major label has its downsides, many artists wear their indie status as a badge of honor, and music distributor Record Union wants to take things a step further by getting streaming services to tag songs and playlists as ‘independent’ in much the same…