Spotify Pushes Beyond Just Streaming; Amazon is Out of the Music Streaming Shadows

Spotify is not just streaming. It’s becoming the entire music industry. — qz.com

Few people have heard of Lauv, Russell Dickerson, or Trippie Red. In a couple of months, everyone will. Spotify — the biggest music-streaming service in the world right now, with 140 million active users, 60 million of whom are paying subscribers — this week launched RISE, a program that promotes hand-picked emerging artists.

We have the biggest distribution system in the world for streaming music, so why not use that to help young artists,” Troy Carter, Spotify’s head of creator services, said to Billboard.

How Sonos Is Banking On Artists and Culture To Compete In The Smart-Speaker Market — www.billboard.com

Earlier this year, Sonos founder John McFarland stepped down from his role as CEO after 14 years on the job, admitting he had allowed his company to be beaten to the punch by Amazon when it came to making voice-activated speakers.

But nine months later, Sonos is working to stay in the game with its new Sonos One speaker.

With 16m music subscribers Amazon is no longer a dark horse — musically.com 
 We’ll stress upfront that this isn’t an official announcement from Amazon: the company hasn’t abandoned its policy of keeping its key music stats to itself.

How Traditional Radio Can Thrive In A Digital Age — www.mediapost.com

Despite its historical resilience, some researchers say if radio doesn’t adapt to the rise of digital, its days are numbered.

Can The Billboard Charts Be Valid Without Including YouTube? — music3point0.com 
 Billboard is changing the way it formulates its charts, but will not be including YouTube views. Is the exclusion coming from label pressure?

Is South Florida Soundcloud Rap Really the New Punk Rock? — genius.com

It all depends on your definition.

Fats Domino’s Music Genome Lives On — medium.com 
 Music icon Antoine “Fats” Domino passed away Tuesday, leaving a legacy and an incalculable impact on future generations of musicians and fans. (Click here for a tribute station at Pandora,…

YouTube Sets ‘Best.Cover.Ever.’ Singing-Competition Show Premiere Date, Releases Trailer — variety.com 
 “Best.Cover.Ever.”, a YouTube original series featuring aspiring singers competing to win the chance to sing a duet with their idols, will debut exclusively on the ad-supported video platform worldwide on Nov. 20.

New Pioneer technology aims to distribute artist royalties for music played in electronic sets — mixmag.net 
 Maybe KUVO can help answer “Track ID?” too

Sam Smith swaps Spotify for Apple Music in new video project — musically.com 
 With every music-streaming service now keen on making original video projects with artists, should the latter pick one partner? Not if you’re Sam Smith.

SoundCloud CFO Holly Lim exits, joins streaming audio service TuneIn — www.musicbusinessworldwide.com

Live streaming and on-demand audio service TuneIn has appointed Holly Lim as Chief Financial Officer. The news comes little over a year after Lim joined SoundCloud as CFO from her prior role at Google.

U.S. Latin Music Revenues Up 44 Percent In First Half of 2017 — www.billboard.com 
 Unsurprisingly, given the record-breaking success of Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s song of the summer “Despacito,” Latin music revenue in the United States is up 44 percent in the first half of 2017 over the same period last year, according to the RIAA, reaching $115 million.