Tencent Streams Beatles Albums on Path to IPO; How Much Do Spotify, Labels Need Each Other?

Tencent Music Streams Beatles Albums on Path to IPO — www.scmp.com

Tencent Music Streams Beatles Albums on Path to IPO — www.scmp.com

Tencent Music last year signed a distribution and licensing agreement with Universal Music, including to build Abbey Road Studios China.

Users of Tencent Music and three of its platforms, QQ Music, KuGou and Kuwo, are able to listen to selected songs from 28 Beatles albums for free, with others available with a subscription.

CDs and vinyl are outselling digital music downloads — www.engadget.com

Digital music downloads began to outsell physical media since 2012. It took four more years for digital music revenue to surpass those from physical media as well.

How Much Do Spotify And Record Labels Still Need Each Other? — www.billboard.com 
 So far, Spotify’s relationship with the recording business has resembled many marriages, says MIDiA Research managing director Mark Mulligan: A passionate honeymoon, followed by a series of arguments over which partner is in charge, and then a realization that both depend on each other.

Reliance just took over Saavn in a strategic merger worth $1 Billion — in.pcmag.com

Another big turn in the Indian music streaming market.

Two Ways Scammers Game Spotify — www.bloomberg.com 
 Buy the streams or hack the playlists.

Apple Music’s Jimmy Iovine says streaming services are ‘too similar’ — www.bbc.com 
 Apple Music executive Jimmy Iovine says streaming services need to diversify to survive.

Vinyl Me, Please CEO Matt Fiedler on Building a Record Club That Does What Spotify Can’t — www.billboard.com 
 Growing vinyl record sales over the past decade or so have proven fertile ground for the subscription-based record club Vinyl Me, Please to build its business.

Pandora Thinks Record Labels Need To Change For Streaming To Survive — www.digitaltrends.com 
 Pandora’s Elizabeth Moody spoke with Digital Trends about the changes that need to be made in the music industry in order for streaming services like Spotify and Pandora to become profitable.

Spotify Stream Fraud: 2 Million People Used Illicit Apps to Block Ads — variety.com 
 Spotify said it discovered 2 million users were accessing the streaming-music service using unauthorized apps that blocked ads.

Music streaming is a tough racket, unless you’re Apple — www.marketplace.org 
 Music licensing fees make it almost impossible to turn a profit in streaming.

Finally, Hoodoo Gurus’ complete catalogue is on Spotify etc. — www.theindustryobserver.com.au 
 It’s thanks to their new partnership with Universal Music Australia and New Zealand.

Spotify’s break came when founder got ‘love letter’ from Napster — www.businessinsider.com

Sean Parker played a big part in Spotify’s global expansion.

It’s Time For People To Learn How Streaming Really Works — www.hypebot.com

Despite it being the fastest growing form of music consumption, many people still don’t fully grasp how streaming works or, as this article maintains, doesn’t work.

How Spotify came to be worth billions — www.bbc.com 
 As the company says its value could be more than £16.7bn, we take a look at its rise to the top.