Deezer Revs Up Against on Spotify, Apple and Amazon; The Controversy Around Music Stream Calculations

From Brazilian gospel to Puerto Rican reggaeton and Dutch hip-hop, music streaming company Deezer is scouring the globe for gaps in the market where it can survive and thrive against Spotify and Apple.

In the fast-paced world of calculating music streams, how do we know what's real and what's not?

Spotify has announced the "RapCaviar Live" lineup for the third installment of the concert series, this time in Chicago on Oct. 20 at the Aragon Ballroom, featuring Lil Uzi Vert, Playboi Carti and DJ Drama, along with surprise guests.

The music industry is both excited and cautious about emerging technologies, and blockchain is no exception.

Now there's another way to beat the system: tips on Songtradr. Here's how it works.

Several blockchain startups have pursued taking on the middleman-heavy music industry, but still business-as-usual persists.

But maybe not for long, with Slovenia gig-booking blockchain platform, Viberate, snagging two high-profile advisors – bitcoin entrepreneur Charlie Shrem and Pinterest chief scientist Dr. Jure Leskovec – to help the company figure out how topple the tower.

In financial terms, Spotify is like a high-end mall that was just built on an earthquake fault line.

Now the tremors are coming in the form of high-stakes copyright infringement lawsuits -- and Spotify’s response could shake the foundations of the streaming business even more.

Spotify, Apple Music and other services have 30 million U.S. subscribers, and streaming revenue is up 48 percent so far this year.

To make sharing easier for both paid and freemium users, Spotify has launched its own Facebook iMessage app which allows users to search for, share and send tracks and playlists from Spotify's library of 40 million songs.

Although the term is thrown around often as an issue which needs fixing in the music business, particularly where streaming is concerned, what it is and why it's important for songwriters to manage their own is often unclear.