As Amazon Turns Up the Volume on Streaming, Spotify Should Shudder; Apple Music Taps CD Baby, The…

Why Amazon and Other Tech Companies May Be Poised to Upend Spotify — www.digitaltrends.com Spotify, Apple, Amazon, and others are all…

Why Amazon and Other Tech Companies May Be Poised to Upend Spotify — www.digitaltrends.com 
 Spotify, Apple, Amazon, and others are all looking to capitalize on the popularity of streaming music. But, as Spotify’s quarterly revenue has shown, it’s nearly impossible to make a profit under the current structure. Could major tech companies like Amazon be primed for a streaming take-over?

Apple Music Taps CD Baby, The Orchard and Kontor For ‘Apple Preferred Distribution Program’ — www.billboard.com

This summer, Apple Music passed Spotify in U.S. subscribers, but it appears the former is taking a page out of the latter’s playbook with the launch of a new distribution initiative.

Spotify’s connected device streaming is now open to free users — www.engadget.com 
 Spotify is giving non-paying users access to Connect audio streaming for supported speakers and devices — a feature previously limited to Premium members. You’…

Amazon Music Reveals Alexa-Powered New Release Notifications — www.digitalmusicnews.com 
 In another voice-enabled differentiation, Amazon Music has quietly released a feature that allows users to follow their favorite artists using Alexa.

Insta-Albums and Why It (Sort Of) Pays To Be Social — www.hypebot.com

The concept behind free samples has long proven itself to be successful in the world of retail, and now the marketing strategy has been adapted by artists for use on Instagram, making music more social and boosting sales.

Ask Trey Anastasio Of Phish Anything On SiriusXM Again — www.jambase.com 
 SiriusXM has put out a call for a second round of questions to ask Phish frontman Trey Anastasio for a future installment of “Ask Trey.”

And the biggest music-streaming service in the Nordics is… — musically.com 
 If you just completed that sentence with ‘Spotify’, sorry, that’s not the answer, according to a new survey from Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland.

Daniel Ek: Spotify key to identifying “real fans” — www.iq-mag.net 
 The leading streaming platform is uniquely placed to enable artists to upsell their products to super-fans, Daniel Ek told Spotify investors.

Face the music: Explicit anti-piracy warnings are best deterrent — phys.org 
 STOP! This is illegal. You may be monitored and fined.

Vince Staples’s FM! is a counterpoint to bloated streaming era rap albums — www.thefader.com 
 Rap albums have gotten bloated in the streaming era, but Vince Staples FM! project is a remarkable work of precision.

MelodyVR CEO On Building a Global Music Business Out Of Virtual Reality — www.billboard.com 
 The London-based business is now the owner of the world’s largest library of virtual reality music content, has licence agreements in place with all three majors and a number of independents (Big Machine, Roc Nation) and has worked with over 650 international artists.