Free Streaming Gravy Train Ending; Spotify Testing Lossless Audio
The Free Streaming Gravy Train Is Coming to an End — theringer.com
With news that Spotify has reached a deal with Universal Music Group, the service’s free streaming gravy train is about to end.
Spotify is testing lossless audio. Can you hear the difference? — www.theverge.com
Is lossless audio really worth it? In March, Spotify briefly A/B tested a new lossless audio version of its streaming service. Spotted by Reddit users and confirmed to The Verge by a source inside…
Google beats Spotify to bring subscription music streaming to India — venturebeat.com
Google’s great Indian charm offensive continues today with the news that the internet giant is finally opening its subscription-based music streaming service to users across the country.
Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo is the first album to go platinum from streaming only — techcrunch.com
Kanye West’s last album has just made streaming history. The Life of Pablo, released a little over a year ago, just went Platinum with over 1.5 billion song..
Pandora CEO Tim Westergren to Keynote A2IM’s Indie Week — www.billboard.com
The head of the world’s largest internet radio platform will give this year’s keynote address at A2Im annual indie confab.
2017 Coachella Free Live-Stream on YouTube Featuring Lady Gaga — variety.com
Google’s YouTube will exclusively live-stream the first weekend of Coachella 2017 for the seventh year in a row.
Vinyl is having its best year since 1985. But no one is listening to the records — qz.com
Vinyl’s still got something up its sleeve. According to a new report last week from the Recording Industry Association of America, the US music business saw its first double-digit growth in almost 20 years in 2016.
High school students tackle Spotify brief for 4A’s competition — www.campaignlive.com
See the winning presentations from the latest ReACT competition.. From Campaign US
Are Record Labels About To Encourage Spotify’s 50 Million Free Users To Become Pirates? — www.hypebot.com
All signs point to a new deal between Spotify and the record labels including some limits on its popular free tier. Most probable is a shift that would make some new hit product only available to paid users. But Ross Pruden of Techdirt thinks that practice, known in the industry…
Kim Dotcom announces new Bitcoin venture for content uploaders to earn money — www.reuters.com
Controversial New Zealand-based internet mogul Kim Dotcom plans to launch a Bitcoin payments system for users to sell files and video streaming as he fights extradition to the United States for criminal copyright charges.