Are Artists Finally Profiting From the Streaming Era?; Apple’s HomePod & the Curious Music Fan

Are Artists Finally Profiting From the Streaming Era? — www.theringer.com 
 Lil Pump is among a handful of young rappers earning big paydays as the record industry’s revenue surges. But there are still lots of musicians waiting to get paid.

Artists want to break free… a blockchain solution. — hackernoon.com

Lightstreams mission is to give freedom back to artists so that they are ultimately in control of their content and not at the mercy of record labels, production companies, publishing houses and other intermediaries.

Does Apple’s HomePod Have Anything to Offer the Curious Music Fan? — pitchfork.com 
 Two weeks of Siri not understanding my song requests suggest otherwise

Spotify Paints Self as Next Netflix, Transforming Entertainment — www.bloomberg.com

Investors have a lot of reasons to avoid Spotify Technology SA, owner of the world’s largest paid music service, when it lists shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

Is It a Good Idea to Criminalize Music Piracy? — www.mironline.ca

Legislators often ignore the fact that music piracy is a complex cultural phenomenon with an inherent appeal that transcends ‘freemium services’.

Why don’t streaming services know who wrote The Beatles’ songs? — musically.com 
 The latest twist in the controversies around ‘notices of intent’ (NOIs) in the US concerns the most famous band of all-time: The Beatles.

Africa Might Deliver the Next Global Pop Star — www.billboard.com

For longtime followers of African music, the nnouncement that Universal Music Group had acquired, through its Dutch subsidiary, a 70 percent stake in Kenya’s AI Records, brought the continent a step closer to joining the global marketplace for music — and eventually minting international pop stars of its own.

Setting the record straight: is streaming greener than vinyl? — theecologist.org

To settle the debate the two environmental consultants developed a life cycle assessment comparing the resource impacts of the two audio technologies…

Facebook Inks Licensing Deal With France’s Sacem — www.billboard.com 
 French authors’ rights society Sacem has become the latest music industry organization to strike a licensing deal with Facebook.

Spotify to launch in India soon, according to CEO Daniel Ek — in.pcmag.com 
 Spotify has 159 million users, out of which 71 million are paid subscribers.

Songwriters call for publisher commitments on Spotify and Facebook cash — www.completemusicupdate.com

BASCA has called on the global music publishing sector to ensure that any financial benefits enjoyed by the publishers as a result of Spotify’s flotation or the newly signed Facebook deals are shared with the songwriters whose works they control or represent.

Brian Eno Wants to Take You ‘Inside the Music’ — www.nytimes.com 
 The British musician is collaborating with other artists to create a high-tech, immersive experience that will tour Europe and America.

Has Spotify answered its royalty problem? — uk.reuters.com 
 In its much-anticipated filing to go public last month, Spotify revealed revenue growth was outpacing costs, suggesting the music streaming service was striking deals with the music industry that defeat the central tension in its business model.