Publishers, Songwriters Respond To ‘Tech Bullies’ Spotify, Pandora, Google, Amazon Appeal Of Royalty Increase

National Music Publisher President & CEO David Israelite and Nashville Songwriters Association International Executive Director Bart Herbison have issued responses to Spotify, Google, Pandora and Amazon’s decision to fight the royalty increase granted to songwriters by the US Copyright Royalty Board. The NMPA, who has sad they will file their…

Ticketmaster, Amazon Partner: ‘Hey Alexa, Who Bought All The Good Seats?’

Live Nation’s Ticketmaster has announced that it was partnering with e-commerce titan Amazon to sell tickets via Alexa, Amazon’s cloud-based voice service. The partnership will allow fans to discover events and buy tickets directly from Alexa-enabled devices, such as Amazon Echo and Echo Dot via voice commands Would-be ticket buyers…

NoiseTrade Continues Serving Artists As Owner PledgeMusic Struggles, President Exits

[UPDATED] Last week, Christopher Moon, developer and President of NoiseTrade announced his resignation: "I recently wrapped up my tenure running NoiseTrade," he wrote in an email. Moon’s departure was the latest in a series of setbacks for the PledgeMusic owned music discovery platform. PledgeMusic acquired NoiseTrade, alongside online performance platform…

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…

Kobalt Is Now A Next Generation Major Label In The Making [Mark Mulligan]

"Kobalt has been the poster child for the changing of the guard in the music business," writes MIDiA analyst Mark Mulligan. But it’s on a path to become much more as "next-generation label… plotting a course to becoming a next generation-major." __________________________________ By Mark Mulligan of MIDiA from his Music…

6 Analytics Tools: How To Change Future of Music Marketing

After a tough few years during which the sale of physical albums declined precipitously, the music industry seems to be making a relatively speedy recovery. This rebound has been assisted heavily by music companies’ harnessing of analytics and big data. Here we look at six such analytics tools that are…

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…

Saving Money While Eating Healthy On Tour

Going on tour may have a road-trippy feel to it, but being on tour also requires a significant amount of both physical and mental rigor, and it’s important to take care of your body. That said, it’s also important not to waste all of your hard-earned tour funds on expensive…

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…