Spotify Focused on Nashville, Country Music; RealNetworks Doubles Stake in Napster; Liberty Media Sizes Up Big Moves in Music Biz

Streaming-music service is actively courting country fans in what it views as a rich “music territory."

The media giant could end up owning a stake in no less than seven billion-dollar or multi-billion dollar music companies by the time 2019 is through.

As stocks founder and analysts warn of a possible recession, the music business could face another storm — and come through better than it did in 2008.

RealNetworks has doubled its stake in Rhapsody International, which operates the Napster music streaming service.

Album sales have dropped by 75 percent in five years as fans have started going directly to the source.

Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon may dominate many of the discussions about music-streaming, but there is more to the global market than the biggest players.

Fans of Tool have to currently listen to the band's music the old-fashioned way, through CD's. As of now, Tool's legendary catalog is not available on any major streaming platform.

Any artist today is aware of the value of building followers on Spotify, as growing this base increases your chances of landing on a high-profile playlist. Here we look at some creative ways for artists to flip fans into followers.

While Spotify's recent stock market roller coaster has failed to offer much benefit to artists, Chris Castle here looks at how some interesting moves by streamer Tencent could be adopted by other streaming companies to put fans on a path to greater artist sustainability.

SoundCloud co-founder Eric Wahlforss announced on Wednesday (Jan. 23) he will be stepping down from his day-to-day role as chief product officer and transition into an advisory role for the streaming service effective March 1.

Nintendo Switch is a popular gaming console, but lacks in the way of media entertainment. But is Spotify coming to Nintendo Switch?