The New eMusic; Pandora is Running Out of Options; Spotify Partners with Capital One; Drag City…

May 11, 2017

eMusic Relaunches Indie-Centric Music Service — www.billboard.com
The new service is based around an ownership model featuring downloads exclusively from indie labels and offering users cloud-based storage.

Pandora, Digital Music Pioneer, Is Running Out of Options — www.nytimes.com
A flurry of announcements — including a cash infusion from KKR, new board members and widening losses — sets the stage for a sale of the company.

Lyor Cohen, YouTube’s music ambassador, makes his case to the big music labels — www.recode.net
Warner Music Group signed a deal with YouTube and then complained about it. Here’s the video site’s response.

Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s Best Troubadour and Bill MacKay’s Esker are on Apple Music.

Spotify Partners With Capital One for Discount Subscriptions — www.billboard.com
Spotify and Capital One announced a new partnership this morning that will offer 50 percent credit rebates for users who sign up for its premium subscription service using a Capital One Quicksilver card.

Using Shazam To Counter Misogynistic Lyrics, And Other World Changing Ad Campaigns — www.fastcompany.com
Learn about the winner of the advertising category of Fast Company’s 2017 World Changing Ideas Awards–and the other innovative finalists.

Report claims 35.6m Americans will use smart speakers in 2017 — musically.com
Smart speakers like Amazon Echo speaker and its Alexa assistant have been getting plenty of music-industry people excited about its potential for music.

Why Deregulation Destroys Spotify, Pandora & the Music Industry Comeback — www.digitalmusicnews.com
Publishers think they’re getting a raw deal in America. But you can’t deregulate without destroying some of the biggest streaming services in the world.

IBM, Andrés Cepeda Introduce First ‘Cognitive Music’ Project in Latin America — platformandstream.com
IBM and Grammy-winning Colombian singer, songwriter and producer Andrés Cepeda will partner to collaboratively compose the artist’s next single, a pioneering initiative in the region, marking the convergence of artistic talent and artificial intelligence technology.

How Is Pandora Doing? Well, It’s Tough Out There — www.npr.org
The Internet radio (and now on-demand streaming) service has $150 million coming from a private equity firm, as long as nobody wants to buy it for a fair price.

Platform & Stream