Philadelphia Orchestra Debuts Streaming Service; Spotify: Free Service Is for Users Who Can’t Afford to Pay

Move over, Spotify and Deezer: There’s a new digital portal for classical music - “Orchestra on Demand” - and it's all Philadelphian, all the time. - Jonathan Takiff, Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News

In music, as in life, making it big is often a matter of who you know.

Now that whispers of an acquisition by Spotify have petered off, Berlin-based streaming platform SoundCloud appears intent on independence (for now), with co-founder Eric Wahlforss saying in a new television interview the company is laser-focused on the expansion of its revenue-generating Go subscription tier across the globe.

As first reported by Swedish outlet Breakit, and confirmed to Billboard, Spotify recently allowed initial partnerships to lapse while strongly affirming a focus on original content.

Pandora Premium will take on upstart rivals Spotify and Apple Music with the $10-a-month, on-demand music subscription it could never offer before.

Spotify's Troy Carter defended the company's free, ad-supported tier as a way to monetize users that can't afford paid streaming.

SoundExchange's Michael Huppe covers the AM/FM Artist Loophole, the DMCA Safe “Ocean,” internet enabled auto dashboards and the org’s ISRC online searchable database.

The music industry’s new driver will be the fans and the lesser-known artists who create mixes, remixes, live recordings and cover songs—content collectively known as “gray music”—says strategist Michael Wolf in a presentation at WSJDLive.