Spotify Tests Voice Control; Indie Labels Stream Into International Markets; Drake Conquers Another…

Spotify is testing in-app voice search — www.engadget.com Spotify is currently compatible with voice search, but it only works through…

Spotify is testing in-app voice search — www.engadget.com 
 Spotify is currently compatible with voice search, but it only works through integrations with voice assistants, such as Google Assistant and Alexa.

Let Me Hear You Stream: Indies Rock Overseas Music Markets — www.wsj.com 
 Independent record labels are experiencing a surge in international revenue as streaming services such as Spotify open up foreign markets previously accessible only to local music companies and major labels with global marketing and distribution capabilities.

Drake Conquers Another Streaming Service: Twitch — www.nytimes.com 
 The rapper played Fortnite on the video-game platform with a professional gamer and some famous friends. Hundreds of thousands tuned in.

Spotify Confirms April 3 Public Offering, Doubles Down on Freemium in ‘Investor Day’ Presentation — variety.com

Amid his familiar wide-eyed predictions about the company’s future, Ek confirmed that the service now has 71 million global subscribers, along with 3,500 employees and more than 35 million tracks — “but we’re just getting started.”

Amazon, Spotify, and Tencent, now have a keen ear for Indian digital music — qz.com 
 India’s digital music scene is having its moment. Over the last one week, India has seen at least two international e-music majors step up their game, while a local one has raised fresh funding.

Pandora Partners With Linkfire as the Premier Streaming Music Data Provider — platformandstream.wordpress.com 
 Pandora today announced a partnership with leading smart link aggregator, Linkfire, to make discovering music easier for fans, while amplifying marketing efforts for labels and artists.

Lyor Cohen wants YouTube to break ‘two-horse race’ of Apple and Spotify — musically.com 
 Why did Lyor Cohen take the job as head of music at YouTube in 2016? In his keynote speech at SXSW today, the music-industry veteran explained.

A $1.6 billion Spotify lawsuit is based on a law made for player pianos — www.theverge.com 
 Streaming music services like Spotify are built on a tangle of copyright, which is why Spotify is getting sued by Wixen Publishing for $1.6 billion over licenses you’ve probably never heard of.

Classical streaming service Grammofy returns — using Spotify — musically.com 
 Grammofy was a classical music-focused subscription-streaming service that launched in May 2016 in the UK and Germany, but then shut down in November 2017.

Music Distribution In The Age Of Smartphones — www.hypebot.com 
 Sound recording is younger than you might think — it was only invented around 130 years ago. Over this time, it has evolved from physical to magnetic, then digital, ultimately losing the need for a physical medium.

Spotify IPO: business model flaws — www.cnbc.com 
 However it’s lack of original content may dampen its potential revenue.

Apple continues beta rollout of ‘Apple Music for Artists’ analytics dashboard — 9to5mac.com

After opening the platform to a few thousand artists earlier this year, Apple is further expanding beta testing of its ‘Apple Music for Artists’ dashboard, the company announced via a tweet.

SoundExchange Saw Dip in Royalty Distributions in 2017, Citing Pandora Label Deals — www.billboard.com 
 As expected, SoundExchange’s gross distributions in the U.S. fell more than $225 million, or 26.2 percent, to $652 million from last year’s total of $884 million, due to Pandora switching from a compulsory license to direct deal with record labels.

As Spotify’s profits stagnate, is music streaming dying out? — www.scmp.com 
 Most of the income from music streaming goes to the artists, publishers and labels, and streaming services are struggling to make a profit. If Spotify can gather 100 million subscribers, it may start to make money