Chance the Rapper’s Grammys = Big Win for Streaming Music

The Grammys. They were fine. Some good, some bad… whatever that Metallica/Lady Gaga thing was. Adele was in fine voice for her George Michael tribute, but the arrangement was terribly boring. No spark, nothing memorable other than the restart.

I thought Sturgill Simpson should have absolutely won AOTY. I guess Adele was the safe choice.

So much amazing music out there that doesn’t get a taste of the Grammy spotlight. I usually come away from the show unsatisfied.

Chance the Rapper’s Grammys = Big Win for Streaming Music — www.marketwatch.com 
 Chance the Rapper was named best new artist at the 59th annual Grammy Awards, spotlighting the rise of music that can no longer be bought in CD form.

In the age of Spotify, radio stations should no longer get away with playing music for free — qz.com

Owners of radio station conglomerates have recently renewed their effort in Congress to maintain this exemption from the free market, giving them a huge competitive advantage over the innovative new services that do compensate artists for their work.

Under the misnomer of the “Local Radio Freedom Act”, radio station owners are using their profits and influence in Washington to preserve a decades-old subsidy that means they don’t have to play by the same rules as other music platforms.

The NY Times/Spotify Joint Subscription is Weird, Very Weird — thetrichordist.com 
 We did not photoshop any of this. This is a real screenshot! A lot of people in the music community have been scratching their heads over the new NY Times subscription offer that includes Spotify Premium. Songwriters are trying to figure out: Exactly how it is we ended up subsidizing newspaper subscriptions?

Instead of buying exclusives, Spotify lures artists with promises of bigger audiences — www.theverge.com 
 Spotify has started to lean on its biggest strength to appeal to big-name artists: its listeners. According to a report from Bloomberg, the company is running a “months long promotional campaign”…

The clock is ticking for Spotify — www.bbc.com 
 Spotify may be “too big to fail”, according to Billboard magazine, but the clock is ticking as the company hatches its plans to go public.

dotBlockchain Music: Data Before Database — rightstech.com

The dotBlockchain Music Project (dotBC), an ambitious effort to create an open-source data framework for sound recordings and musical compositions, received a major boost last week with the announcement that four industry partners have signed on to support the initiative:

Magic Works unlocks the jukebox with WiFi radio and 29million song online library — www.express.co.uk

British Spotify competitor Magic Works is to launch a voice controlled radio that can play any station in the world and play 29million songs from its online library.

How Spotify Balances Employee Autonomy and Accountability — hbr.org 
 The whole company is organized around it.

Music streaming sheds light on young dreams of stardom — english.cctv.com 
 Thanks to the internet, perhaps there is no easier time for people to become famous. And music streaming platforms have given hope to millions of Chinese who want to be cultural idols. So how has the industry transformed with the rise of these platforms?

In tune with the brand: Empowering the next generation of music makers — www.thedrum.com 
 Evan Greene, the chief marketing officer of The Recording Academy, tells us how the organization is empowering the next generation of music makers.

Prince’s legacy lives on in the cloud after albums return to streaming services — www.thedrum.com 
 Prince fans can rejoice today after the artist’s legacy work, pulled from streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music and Pandora, two years ago are now back online for people to enjoy.