Spotify Allows Artists to Upload Their Music Directly; Farm Aid to Live Stream Saturday’s Show

Spotify to Allow Indie Artists to Upload Music Directly to Service, bypassing Distributors — www.billboard.com 
 Beginning today (Sept. 20), Spotify will begin allowing a select group of independent artists the ability to upload their music directly onto the streaming platform through their Spotify For Artists account.

RIAA mid-year figures reveal 10% growth in US recorded-music market — musically.com 
 US industry body the RIAA has published its mid-year figures for 2018, outlining the growth in recorded-music revenues in the first half of this year.

Apple Music now works with Android Auto — www.theverge.com

Apple has just released an update for Apple Music on Android, and the biggest new addition is that it now supports Android Auto.

Privacy is Still a Concern for Smart Speakers and Streaming Music — www.digitaltrends.com 
 Consumer research firm MusicWatch has been digging into the habits of 5,000 smart speaker owners to see how they’re using devices like the Amazon Echo and Google Home and the research indicates that users still have concerns about privacy while streaming music.

Farm Aid to Live Stream Show With Willie Nelson, Dave Matthews, Chris Stapleton — www.billboard.com 
 If you can’t make it to the sold-out 33rd edition of Farm Aid at the Xfinity Theatre in Hartford, Conn., on Saturday (Sept. 22), take heart: the show will be available on a free webcast on the event’s YouTube page this year.

Amazon Alexa Adds New Music Skills, TIDAL — www.hypebot.com

Amazon unveiled a slew of new and improved Alexa voice controlled devices on Monday, and with them came new music related services, features and skills.

Cheaper smart-speakers are selling strongly in the US — musically.com 
 The latest research from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) on the US smart-speaker market is making headlines for its views on Apple’s HomePod — but we think it highlights a bigger trend.

Indian offline music service Carvaan gets a premium version — musically.com 
 ‘Offline’ music? That’s the raison d’etre of something called Carvaan in India: a portable music player launched by Saregama that is preloaded with 5,000 ‘evergreen’ songs in Hindi, Bengali, Tamil and Marathi versions

Spotify Faces Stiff Competition as Music Streaming’s Battle to Conquer the Car Heats Up — www.billboard.com 
 Streaming has helped the music industry dig itself out of nearly 20 years of economic decline — and with Spotify on the New York Stock Exchange, previously skeptical investors are now cashing in.

NZ classical artists feature on new international music streaming platform — www.radionz.co.nz 
 A number of high profile New Zealand classical music groups are featuring on a new streaming platform that allows classical music lovers to access millions of works from anywhere in the world.

Pandora AMP Adds Eventbrite Listings — www.hypebot.com

Eventbrite events will now be integrated into the free Pandora AMP artist marketing platform, making it easier to use AMP’s Promote Show feature and for Pandora to promote the live shows.