Twitter music app ready to launch on iOS soon?
Twitter is reportedly getting ready to launch its own social music discovery app on iOS. The app has been built by the team behind the music site We Are Hunted. Read more at GigaOM »
What Andrew Sullivan and Amanda Palmer have in common — a fanatical devotion to users
photo: Flickr / Christian Scholz
Both Andrew Sullivan — the conservative blogger who recently announced that he is going independent — and former Dresden Dolls singer Amanda Palmer are taking the same approach to media: connect with your fans, and then ask for help. Read more »
RIM revamps BlackBerry app store, adding music and video
photo: RIM
BlackBerry App World is becoming simply BlackBerry World as RIM prepares to revamp its mobile storefront. In addition to apps and games, RIM will be selling multimedia. Read more »
Rolling Stone finally comes to iPad, with buy links to iTunes
Two years ago, Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner criticized magazine publishers’ “premature” rush to iPad. Now, the 40-year-old music magazine is launching an iPad edition that includes a music purchase partnership with iTunes. Read more »
Music site This Is My Jam could spin out from Echo Nest
A year after it launched as a skunkworks project inside music data company The Echo Nest, trendy social music site This Is My Jam is “looking at options” for going independent — as well as getting ready to launch some fun new site exploration features. Read more »
Can the creation of music be crowdsourced? Ericsson and DJ Avicii think it can
Swedish DJ and producer Avicii has agreed to work with network builder Ericsson to experiment with a crowdsourced music composition on. Starting on Wednesday, the public will be able to submit audio tracks that could wind up in Avicii’s new single. Read more at GigaOM »
Interview: Spotify exec on royalties and keeping labels happy
Spotify labels relations director Will Hope addresses questions over supposedly low payments artists receive from plays on the service — and why Adele boycotted Spotify for so long. Read more »
There’s life in iTunes yet – global expansion is good news for labels
photo: Shutterstock / Smith
Music labels can expect prolonged life for the track download format to come from new overseas markets, as Apple launches iTunes Store in 56 more countries, introducing a legal store to fast-growth and difficult territories. Read more »
Music service Rara faces challenge to turn free in to $0.99
Music service Rara has spent the last 10 months quietly tweaking its offering following a quiet launch. Now it will start going live properly. The catch? Every user is going to have to pay to play. Read more »
Interview: How Deezer’s CEO will spend his €100 million music round
photo: Flickr/LeWeb12
Fresh from raising €100 million, French music service Deezer’s CEO Axel Dauchez tells paidContent he wants to tip-toe around the US and Spotify while using funds to go global. Read more »
Let’s get physical: in music, bits take on appearance of atoms
Though plastic sales may be waning, value may remain in ascribing physical characteristics to virtual content. But do “digital album signing” and “second-hand MP3s” add up to real innovation? Read more »
In Warner’s stable, Deezer has funds for costly global Spotify fight
photo: Jordache/Shutterstock
Deezer now stands a much greater chance of challenging powerful Spotify in the race to sign unlimited-music subscription customers, after reportedly taking a €100 million funding. But can any of their ilk be a success? Read more »
Apple can pick its moment to re-invent music again
photo: Tim Bradshaw (Twitter)
Any subscription music service from Apple could fundamentally alter the entertainment business. But it may come only when iTunes’ current gas runs out, and we’re not quite there yet. Read more »
Music service Omnifone on acquisition trail as it moves to profit
The company which powers mobile music for Sony and RIM says it is buying a Swedish indie and will acquire further, after it turned a pre-tax profit last year. Read more »
Spotify gets a leg-up in Germany from Deutsche Telekom bundling
photo: Spotify
Carrier bundling will help grow music subscription income by 46 percent a year, one analyst forecasts. Spotify continues on that road by allying with Deutsche Telekom in Germany. Read more »
Declaring playlist bankruptcy – lost in a land of infinite choice
Subscription media services are rapidly seeing consumers build up libraries in their rental ecosystems. But, as they become more popular, operators must keep it easy for users to go back to the content they love and pay for. Read more »
Drip.fm has indie labels eager to become subscription music services
photo: Will Calcitt
Waves of music labels are keen to join a recently-launched new platform that promises higher returns than big-name streaming services. But can Drip.fm, which charges the same for just a few tracks each month that Spotify does for millions, entertain users as well as owners? Read more »
Learning the hard way: music service Wahwah.fm killed by license costs
Wahwah.fm was trying to bring personal radio into the social age, while doing it all legally. It failed – at least for now – and CEO Philipp Eibach has a very cautionary tale for startups planning to take on the music business. Read more »
Blog network Buzz Media acquires music magazine Spin
Los Angeles-based entertainment blog network Buzz Media, which owns over 40 sites including Stereogum and Just Jared, has acquired music publication Spin, including its print magazine, website, iPad app and events business. It’s unclear whether Spin will survive in print. Read more »
Despite digital growth, albums’ days look numbered
photo: s_bukley / Shutterstock
Not even the biggest-selling album of all time can put a shine on it – the music album may be spinning its last revs per minute. Read more »
Musicplayr: cross-platform harmony for web music
It’s easy to embed a wide variety of music players on your website, but hard to get them singing from the same hymnsheet. Musicplayr’s trying to fix that with a newly-revamped player it calls ‘eye-candy for the ears’ Read more »
Media store wars: iTunes vs Amazon vs Google Play
Google now activates one million Android devices per day and has 400 million devices in the wild, but its media store efforts have lagged. Google Play now has more digital content types, so here’s a look at how it compares to iTunes and Amazon’s digital store. Read more »
Amazon’s Cloud Player plays on iPhone, iPod touch
Once a Google Android exclusive, Amazon released an iOS version of its Cloud Player app for iPhone and iPod touch devices. The free software provides streaming and download access to audio files on Amazon servers either purchased from Amazon’s music store or later uploaded by customers. Read more »
MOG just landed on a new device platform: Fords
You can already access music subscription service MOG on your smartphone, tablet, PC, and many home entertainment appliances. Now it’s moving onto the biggest gadget of them all, the car. MOG is launching on Ford’s Sync connected car platform. Read more »
Digital music sales and the role of the post-holiday surge
UK music sales reached the milestone of digital music revenues exceeding physical for the first time – but it’s mostly the effect of Christmas iPod sales. Read more »
Sunnyvale to Bangalore, Dhingana rides India’s music cloud
Music servlces like Spotify and Rdio are expanding around the world, but they should take heed in India – a slick, Silicon Valley-built service is already proving a draw with Bollywood fans. Read more »
Streamed music chart has short long tail, more Rihanna than Rita
photo: Columbia Records
The UK’s current best-selling single is nowhere to be seen in the first ever dedicated streaming music chart – but, elsewhere, anomalies are harder to spot. Read more »
The world’s hottest digital markets: a music map
photo: Shutterstock / Smith
Unlimited-access digital music services are racing to beat iTunes – and each other – in new countries each week. Our map breaks down the world’s digital music market, country by country. Read more »
Deezer shows Spotify how to do music on the web
The upstart unlimited music service, like Rdio before it, has a better web music widget than Spotify, and has just inked a media partnership for it. But will it really count for anything? Read more »
Spotify partners with Coke to expand international reach
Spotify is partnering with Coca Cola in a deal that it says will expand its international reach, giving it a boost similar to the way Facebook integration has supercharged usage. Coke will use Spotify to power its music outreach and will help promote the service internationally. Read more at GigaOM »
Rolling Stone rolls out Instagram-integrated fan site; apps on the way
photo: @connortdoyle
Rolling Stone’s new social networking hub, #RSFans, aims to be a “two-way conversation” between Rolling Stone editors and Facebook, Twitter and Instagram users. Read more »
Spotify sales near $900 million, but reach comes before return
photo: Spotify
CEO Daniel Ek says Spotify could take a fifth investment to value it at $4 billion, as he puts some latest financial figures out there. Read more »
Spotify dips a toe in web waters, but isn’t yet swimming
photo: Spotify
Spotify has moved a step toward embracing the web by introducing a new embeddable widget – but the launch highlights perhaps one of the biggest anomalies of the music service. Read more »
Russia’s Facebook is ‘holding back’ digital music
photo: Shutterstock / KTS7077
The music industry is battling to stop piracy through Russia’s largest social network so that it can turn the country from a digital backwater in to a top music market. vKontakte, which is often called a Facebook copycat for its similar features and design, includes built-in […] Read more »
Digital Music Now Pays Artists More Than Pubs
UK songwriters, composers and music publishers received 3.2 percent higher royalty earnings in 2011, as new online music services boosted pa… Read more »
Facebook's Big Freemium Funnel Helps Spotify Et Al Find The Pay In Free
photo: mpgrigg
In the land of the freemium, how much free is enough to convince users to pay?
In the latest refinement to its market strategy, Spotify in… Read more »
Interview: Rdio Prepares To Take On Spotify, Deezer Et Al In Europe
Unlimited-music service Rdio concedes it will have to fight incumbents as it prepares to launch across the whole of Europe. Read more »
Suddenly, Spotify Is Ad Buyers' Favourite Thing
photo: BBC / AMC
UK advertising buyers now say Spotify is the outlet they enjoy the best experience with. Read more »
Updated: Pandora Says Rates Still Too Costly For UK Re-Entry
photo: Flickr/Thomas Hawk
Pandora (NYSE: P) quit the UK in 2008, citing excessive music streaming rates. A year later, PRS For Music, noting similar concern, slashed… Read more »
Music Industry Can See The Light After 'Least Negative' Sales Since 2004
photo: Shutterstock / Edyta Pawlowska
The music industry enjoyed its best sales performance for eight years in 2011, as CDs’ collapse decelerated, digital sales continued growing… Read more »
