The podcast’s blessing may also be its curse: it wasn’t invented to be profitable. A popular early term for podcasting was “audioblogging,” which alludes to its DIY origins. Anyone with a laptop, a microphone and a voice can host their podcasts on iTunes, SoundCloud and numerous other distributors. Not only do many podcasters enter the craft as listeners first, learning…
Analysis Of How Users Of Each Streaming Music Service Differ
Given that the content made available on streaming services is largely the same from platform to platform, what actually differentiates them? This article explores the role of audience, and the role they play in setting streaming services apart from each other. ______________________ When every music streaming service has almost identical tracks, artists, and choices. ….
Spotify Softens Stance on Windowing New Music In Exchange For Lower Royalty Rates: Report
Spotify may be finally softening its stance on windowing. According to the Financial Times, the music streaming service is nearing new deals with major labels that would allow artists to restrict new music to paid subscribers only for a short window of time. The concession, which Spotify has long resisted, would reportedly be in exchange…
DJs and Producers Will Now Be Able to Make Money Off Their SoundCloud Mixes
SoundCloud just made a decision that’s music to the ears of uploaders. The music platform announced yesterday (March 13) that DJs and producers are now eligible to get paid for their posted mixes. “Beginning today, DJs and producers who create sets, remixes and other forms of creative works will now be invited to join our…
JIMMY IOVINE ISN’T ALWAYS RIGHT – BUT THIS TIME, HE’S ON THE MONEY
After Jimmy Iovine arrived at Apple in 2015, he soon admitted: “I have an express train from my brain to my mouth.” It was an accurate self-critique. Case in point: the time an excited Iovine proclaimed at the 2015 Apple conference that “Apple Music… is all the ways you love music, all in one place…
Spirit Music Launches New Production Division After Acquiring AECG
Spirit Music Group has launched Spirit Production Music following its acquisition of the production music division of Alan Ett Creative Group (AECG), according to an announcement made today by David Renzer, SMG chairman and Jon Singer, the company’s coo/cfo. Alan Ett will head the new division out of Los Angeles. AECG, which includes the Opus 1…
Sound the Alarm: Nicolas Jaar and the Politics of Dance Music
“Meet Nico at the triangle on 66th St. next to the head.” So goes the cryptic message from Nicolas Jaar’s publicist, in advance of my meeting with the 26-year-old producer. While hard to parse or plug into Google Maps, the directions seem fitting in this instance, in that Jaar’s own restless muse can make for…
Music tech is the new music industry
Technology has been pushing music forward since the advent of electricity. Records, radio, cassettes, recording technology, CDs, and finally digital and streaming have all disrupted the norm in music. Yet, the industry has always been reticent to adopt new technologies. With the rise of music tech, the music industry can no longer stop the march…
X Ambassadors Debut New Song ‘Hoping,’ Benefitting the ACLU: Listen
X Ambassadors are back with a brand new track, and it’s one with purpose. Titled “Hoping,” the song is a declaration of exactly what its title and lyrics insinuate: Hope in a time when many people may not have a lot of it. “Though my faith is shaky, I got to keep on hoping / Keep…
How Hip-Hop Would Be Different If Biggie Were Still Alive
It wouldn’t be hyperbolic to say that everything in rap changed on March 9, 1997. On that day 20 years ago, just after midnight, Christopher Wallace, b.k.a. the Notorious B.I.G.—hip-hop’s biggest artist at the time and arguably the greatest rapper ever—was shot dead in the passenger seat of a green Chevrolet Suburban after leaving a Vibe magazine…
