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…
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…
UNIVERSAL LEADS $6M FUNDING ROUND IN MASS APPEAL
Universal Music Group (UMG) has led a Series A funding round for New York-based Mass Appeal, whose footprint in urban culture straddles a magazine, TV, film and a record label. Additional investors on the $6 million round of funding include Evolution Media, Jon Jashni (Raintree Ventures), Charles King (Macro), Michael Kassan (MediaLink), Usher, Steve…
Spotify Hits 50 Million Paid Subscribers, Lifting Music Industry
Spotify has surpassed 50 million subscribers, extending its lead over rivals Apple Music, SoundCloud and Google as the world’s largest paid music streaming service. The service, owned by Stockholm-based Spotify Ltd., has been growing at a breakneck pace. The company said it had 30 million subscribers less than a year ago, and 40 million subscribers…
‘IT’S EASY TO LOOK AT LABELS WITH ROSE-TINTED GLASSES. THAT’S NOT THE REALITY.’
Chance the Rapper isn’t the only independent artist smashing through the mainstream music scene on his own terms. London rapper Stormzy is currently fighting for a UK No.1 with his self-released debut album, Gang Signs and Prayer. He performed with Ed Sheeran at the BRIT Awards last week, where he was nominated for British…
Can Music Exec Lyor Cohen Bridge the Divide Between YouTube and the Music Industry?
One February afternoon, Lyor Cohen shows me around the soundstage at YouTube Space LA. The new facility, located on the site of what was once a Hughes Aircraft plant for building helicopters, is one of nine that parent company Google has built around the world to encourage the creation and evolution of user-generated programming. For…
SOUNDCLOUD LAUNCHES $4.99-A-MONTH FULLY ON-DEMAND STREAMING PRODUCT
SoundCloud has become the first major music streaming company to launch a $4.99-a-month, ad-free, fully on-demand service – but there’s a catch. The company has today announced that its paid-for tier, SoundCloud Go, will now be available for the budget price (or £5.99 in the UK). That’s because it’s true premium product will now…
Why Vinyl’s Comeback Might Be The Death Of Music
With the death of a mom and pop record store, there was nowhere to hang out anymore. For those of us who spent hours trolling through milk crates and boxes for albums, a record store closing down was like boarding up the local Y. We’d search under the cabinets for records that might not…
Why Indie Artists Can’t Afford to Skip Streaming
Tracy Maddux is the CEO of CD Baby, a digital distributor that works closely with independent musicians to get their work on platforms like iTunes, Spotify and Apple Music, among others. It was a watershed year for the half-million or so artists and labels CD Babydistributes worldwide in 2016. It was the year its artists’…
Why The Music Industry Is A Model For Every Business
When I first started listening to music, it was on vinyl records. Then we used cassette tapes—source of the first mix tapes—and, yes, we would copy each others’ albums without paying any royalties. Next came CDs, followed by digital downloads. And now, of course, we’re all streaming. It seems like a natural progression, in hindsight….
