Spotify [SPOT] Stock Drops On Threat From Amazon Music [UPDATED]

UPDATE: Spotify stock closed down 4.42% Monday on news that Amazon was close to launching a free ad-supported music service. With the exception of Pandora’s radio-like free offering, no other major streamer offers a free music service. Details and analysis here. Amazon To Launch Free Ad-Supported Music Service To Take…

Many Spotify, Apple Music Subscribers Share Passwords Costing Artists, Labels Millions

A survey of 1000 streaming service subscribers showed that many share their passwords with others, breaking terms of service. Apple Music subscribers were the biggest offenders among music services, with 31.4% admitting to sharing their passwords with others. 22.2% of Spotify subscribers and 13,5% of Pandora users shared their passwords,…

BTS, Halsey Break 24 Hour YouTube Record Capping Massive Weekend For The K-Pop Superstars

YouTube has confirmed that the new video from BTS, “Boy With Luv” featuring Halsey, is the now most-viewed 24 hour music video debut in YouTube history, adding to an already huge week for the K-Pop superstars. “Boy With Luv” got 74.6 million views in its first 24 hours. The video…

REWIND: The New Music Industry’s Week In Review

In this cycle back through a busy week in the music industry, we revisit BTS’s meteoric rise past five billion Spotify streams, the decline of playlists and rise of podcasts, how Generation Z is reshaping the music business, and much, much, more! BTS Is First K-Pop Artist To Pass 5…

TOP POSTS: This Week’s Most Read Posts On Hypebot

Hitting the top of the charts among Hypebot readers this month, we had articles looking at BLACKPINK’s beating out of Ariana Grande and BTS for biggest YouTube debut, the distressing radio silence from PledgeMusic, why we need a conscious music tech revolution NOW, and more! BLACKPINK Beats Ariana Grande, BTS…

Amazon Planning Free Ad-Supported Music Streamer To Take On Spotify, Pandora

UPDATED: Amazon is in talks with the major labels to launch an ad-supported music streaming service in direct competition to Spotify and Pandora according to a new report. The free music service could launch as early as next week. Currently, Spotify is the only major music service to have a…

BTS Is First K-Pop Artist To Pass 5 Billion Spotify Streams

BTS has released its new album, MAP OF THE SOUL: PERSONA today and Spotify is confirming that they are now the first K-Pop group and first artist from Asia to surpass 5 billion streams on the platform. BTS also has an impressive 10 million followers on Spotify. Their hit song…

Spotify: The Decline of Playlists and Rise of Podcasts [MIDiA]

Just as the music industry gets comfortable with playlists as a marketing and revenue generation tool, come words of caution from the analysts at MIDiA. A playlist ‘hit’ often does not do much to help long-term artist brand building, they say, and then there are the challenges and opportunities caused…

Spotify [SPOT] Gets Boost From Mad Money’s Jim Cramer

[UPDATED] During his daily Mad Money Lightening Round Thursday, CNBC host Jim Cramer gave a very positive shout out to Spotify. "I think it’s only a matter of time before subscriptions take over," said Cramer. "This is a good one." But the former hedge fund manager’s stock picking track record…

Tone Deaf? Spotify’s Daniel Ek Says Artists Can Now Make a Living From Streaming

Breaking down our streaming royalties payout list for 2019, Spotify doesn’t exactly have the best per-stream rates. For the third year in a row, and at $0.01682 per play, Napster ranked as the ‘king’ of streaming music payouts.  On average, the Rhapsod…