Blockchains and the Future of Digital Music; Apple Said to Seek Lower Rate in New Deals With Labels

Blockchains and the Future of Digital Music — gowlingwlg.com 
 Some technological revolutions come suddenly, others come slowly, but this one is coming in regimented ten minute updates to a distributed public ledger. Heralded as the next great step forward for the Internet, blockchain technology is already turning heads in the finance world, and is attracting major investment interest around the globe.

Spotify builds collaborative playlist tool for Facebook Messenger to get people talking music — www.thedrum.com 
 Music streaming company Spotify has introduced a social element into the creation of music playlists by integrating a new feature with Facebook Messenger.

Apple Said to Seek Lower Rate in New Deals With Record Labels — www.bloomberg.com

Apple Inc. is seeking to reduce record labels’ share of revenue from streaming, part of negotiations to revise the iPhone maker’s overall relationship with the music industry, according to people familiar with the matter.

Taylor Swift’s return to streaming earns $400K in 12 days — www.cnet.com 
 Swift’s music returned on June 8 to the streaming services she left in 2014 and has already earned her nearly half a million dollars.

Looking back and ahead, indie labels preach the gospel of patience — musically.com 
 If nothing else, the 2017 edition of A2IM’s Indie Week was a grand, prolonged call for patience from indie labels and their partners.

Spotify Offline Playlist Syncing Arrives For Smartwatches — www.forbes.com 
 The Holy Grail for smartwatch users, finally arriving… on the Samsung Gear S3.

Tidal Launches New Podcast Series — variety.com 
 Tidal, the Jay Z-owned global music and entertainment platform, will launch podcast playlists, the company announced Tuesday afternoon.

TuneIn Sues Pandora for Breach of Contract Over Failed Ad Sales Goals, Guaranteed Payments — www.billboard.com 
 Radio streaming platform TuneIn is suing Pandora for breach of contract in a deal where the music streaming service failed to meet ad sales goals and guaranteed payments over the first quarter of 2017.

Small Russian Labels Balk at ‘Unfavorable’ Licensing Deals From VKontakte — www.billboard.com 
 The social network VKontakte — aka “The Russian Facebook” — which recently launched a paid music service and has license agreements with Sony, Warner and Universal, is having trouble signing deals with smaller, local labels.

What Spotify and Apple’s figures tell us about music streaming right now — www.musicweek.com 
 Here’s the cold, hard truth about music streaming: right now, Spotify can’t seem to make money out of it. Apple, meanwhile, doesn’t need to… Music Week looks at the two streaming giants’ financials and analyses what they mean for the future…

Adult Swim Singles’ creative director: ‘People don’t download music anymore’ — www.theverge.com 
 For 31 weeks last year, Adult Swim dropped a new track every Wednesday from artists like Earl Sweatshirt, Tim Hecker, and Run the Jewels. This year, the TV network is going to extend Adult Swim…