Apple Music, Spotify Battle Heats Up; Are Playlists the New Album?

Apple Music, Spotify Battle Heats Up Again as Race for US Subscribers Gets Closer — www.billboard.com 
 While Spotify continues to be the darling of the music industry in terms of providing superior marketing tools to labels and artists, as well as having the ability to create a buzz among music fans, Apple Music’s streaming service is coming on strong.

Are playlists the new album in the age of music streaming? — routenote.com 
 Music streaming has brought music from every time and every corner of the globe into our homes, but it’s also changing the ways we experience music.

As HomePod launches, Spotify cuts off support for some speakers and receivers — www.theverge.com 
 Speakers and receivers that once offered built-in Spotify streaming have lost the feature.

Cleveland Orchestra scours archives, releases historic audio clips for online ‘Prometheus Project’ — www.cleveland.com 
 Stocked with essays, photos, artwork, and previously unreleased excerpts from archival recordings, the Cleveland Orchestra’s ongoing “Prometheus Project” centered on Beethoven’s orchestral music constitutes a truly rare treat for the insider and casual fan alike.

Janet Jackson got a huge streaming bump after the Super Bowl Halftime show — www.thefader.com 
 Following Justin Timberlake’s second Super Bowl performance, Spotify streams of Janet Jackson’s music significantly increased.

Gareth Emery of blockchain music startup Choon: ‘We’re committed to radical transparency’ — musically.com 
 We’ve seen a few blockchain-music startups in our time, but Choon is the first one named after what you might shout at the DJ when feeling over-excited

European bodies want streaming controlled — www.musicinafrica.net 
 The Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) and the European Composer and Songwriter Alliance (ECSA) have appealed to the European Council to implement tough measures that forbid users to upload copyrighted content for streaming on sites such as YouTube and Facebook.

‘Despacito’ Is First Spanish-Language Song to Reach a Billion Streams on Spotify — www.billboard.com

Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito,” featuring Justin Bieber, continues to make history. This time, the global hit has reached 1 billion streams on Spotify — the first Spanish-language song to reach the milestone.

Robert Johnson in the 21st Century : Streaming The Blues — audiophilereview.com

Mark Smotroff goes down to the crossroads of analog and digital.

Pandora’s New COO Is David Gerbitz — variety.com

Music streaming service Pandora has promoted David Gerbitz, who previously served as the company’s executive VP of revenue operations, to the chief operating officer (COO) role

Austrian Music Market Makes Gains Thanks to 86 Percent Jump in Streaming Revenue — www.billboard.com 
 The Austrian music market saw revenue of 145.4 million euro in 2017, up over 6 percent from the previous year, according to a new report by IFPI Austria.

Musicoin: Could It Revolutionise the Music Industry? — themarketmogul.com

Musicoin is an ambitious project — so much so that its current white paper has the coin’s fourth stage of development titled as ‘Life on Mars’. They want to make what was previously thought impossible, possible. Musicoin’s developers need to be ambitious, as do music industry incumbents and their competitors.