Soundtrack Your Brand Secures New Licensing Deals; Why Did Cymbal Fail?;

Soundtrack Your Brand, the Spotify for Background Music, Launches Wide as It Secures Direct Licensing Deals — www.billboard.com…

Soundtrack Your Brand, the Spotify for Background Music, Launches Wide as It Secures Direct Licensing Deals — www.billboard.com 
 Soundtrack Your Brand, the Stockholm-based, Spotify-backed streaming platform devoted to background music in the b2b space, has announced a rush of direct deals with labels and publishers as it expands and looks to open up an often-overlooked revenue opportunity for rights holders.

Spotify will reveal the future of its mobile app next week — www.theverge.com 
 Spotify will be announcing news about changes in its mobile app at an event next week, according to a flyer the company sent out.

Why did the Instagram of music fail? — www.theverge.com 
 This week on the Why’d You Push That Button podcast, Ashley Carman and Kaitlyn Tiffany talk about Last.fm, Cymbal, and Spotify’s attempts at making a social music network.

Mixcloud, the audio streaming platform for long-form content, raises $11.5M from WndrCo — techcrunch.com

The music streaming site has carved out a decent following as a place to house archived radio shows and DJ mixes, and counts more than 1 million “curators” uploading content to the platform.

Kakao’s Melon app dominates Korea’s music streaming service market — www.koreaherald.com

Melon, the music streaming app operated by South Korean mobile business giant Kakao, dominates the country’s music streaming service market, leaving little room for foreign players like Apple Music to join the competition.

Streaming dominates Australian music sales — www.news.com.au 
 Music streaming has officially taken over, accounting for more than half of total music sales in Australia.

In defense of the HomePod — techcrunch.com

My HomePod, Google Home and Amazon Echo all live within about 15 feet of each other in my apartment.

Soundeon Announces Alpha Version Launch — platformandstream.wordpress.com 
 Soundeon, a decentralized and vertically integrated blockchain music platform, has made the leap and is launching its alpha version — the Music Token Sale layer along with “Talent Unleashed” contest.

Why the Music Modernization Act Is Important for the Music Industry — www.billboard.com

While it’s often referred to as singular, the music industry has a history of being fragmented.

VR concerts startup Ceek to use blockchain smart contracts — musically.com 
 Ceek is one of the startups looking for a business model in broadcasting music concerts in virtual-reality. Now it’s adding a splash of blockchain technology into its mix.

Spotify’s secret weapon — money.cnn.com 
 Spotify wants Wall Street investors to think it has as much potential as Netflix, and it’s leaning on an exec who helped take Netflix public to make that case.

New Australian single uses eye-controlled music technology — themusicnetwork.com 
 The Music Network is Australia’s #1 source for music industry news, charts and jobs since 1994.