Labels Mull Options Over Spotify’s Direct Deals; A (Very) Brief History of Digital Music In Kenya…

As Market Cheers Spotify’s Direct Deals With Artists and Managers, Labels Mull Their Options — www.billboard.com Over the past year…

As Market Cheers Spotify’s Direct Deals With Artists and Managers, Labels Mull Their Options — www.billboard.com 
 Over the past year, sources say, Spotify has been offering to pay a number of artist-management firms several-hundred-thousand-dollar advances in exchange for licensing their acts’ music directly to its streaming services.

A (Very) Brief History of Digital Music In Kenya — techcabal.com

Africa as a whole does not have a lot of localised digital music offerings. However, the ecosystem is still young so that’s not exactly a bad thing.

Who Cares About New Music? — jacobsmedia.com 
 New sceintific research reveals that interest in new music discovery drops off when most poeple are in their 20s or early 30s. And that explains the success of the Classic Rock radio format.

Sonos Taking on Amazon, Apple, Google as It’s About to Go Public — variety.com 
 How Sonos wants to take on Apple, Google and Amazon — by teaming up with them.

Tidal Makes Huge App Store Jump In Downloads, Revenue After The Carters’ ‘Everything Is Love’ Release — www.billboard.com 
 Another splashy Tidal-only exclusive, this one from Jay-Z and Beyoncé, boosted the app’s popularity in both revenue and downloads once again. Can it hang on?

Hartwig Masuch: ‘Spotify isn’t doing anything wrong.’ — www.musicbusinessworldwide.com

Following reports that Spotify is now directly licensing music from independent artists — and paying them six-figure advances — the major labels are not happy.

Non-Traditional Ways to Share Your Music Online in 2018 — blog.symphonicdistribution.com

The internet is a place full of endless music promotion.

Baidu Music rebrands while functionality remains unchanged — technode.com

The move follows a 2015 merger between Baidu’s music service and Chinese music company Taihe Entertainment Group,

Law revision to mean more profit for artists from streamed music — m.koreaherald.com 
 Musicians in Korea will make more money from their products starting next year, as a law revision approved Wednesday will increase their share from streaming music.

Lyor Cohen on YouTube Music: ‘How do we actually grow the business?’ — musically.com 
 “This is about where we are — not we, YouTube, but where the industry is — and how do we move forward? And to me that’s the key: how do we elegantly move forward as we are transitioning from 18 years of decline, where artist development may have gone a little thin?”

Cover Art Guidelines For Streaming Services — music3point0.com 
 Cover art is still an essential part of a record release even on the streaming services, but you must follow these guidelines first.

Online radio pioneer TuneIn explores potential sale — techcentral.co.za

TuneIn, the online radio service, has enlisted LionTree Advisors to help the company evaluate strategic options, including a possible sale.