Spotify is the biggest music streaming service, with a wide selection of artists and types of music. That means it has the widest variety of artists who may become annoyed at its royalty structure, or artists and composers who the service can’t even find. The Sweden-based company settled with one group of publishers, reportedly putting up $21 million to cover unpaid royalties. [More]
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Report: Amazon Planning A Subscription Streaming Music Service To Rival Spotify
By 1.28.16
The popularity of streaming music services like Spotify has others in the business scrambling to hit upon just the right formula for success. Amazon, for one, is reportedly working on a Spotify-killer that is entirely separate from Prime Music. [More]
Spotify Introducing Streaming Videos On Its Mobile Apps
By 1.25.16
You may be familiar with Spotify, a streaming music service that offers commercial-free listening for a monthly subscription price, as well as a free version that comes with ads. The streaming platform is now branching out with the debut of music content on its mobile apps this week. [More]
Starbucks, Spotify Team Up To Let Users Take The Sounds Of The Coffee Shop On The Go
By 1.19.16
Have you ever walked into a Starbucks for your daily caffeine fix, heard the music playing and thought to yourself, “Man, this is my jam, I wish I had this on my playlist.” No? Well, okay, but just in case this ever does happen, you’ll be covered, as the coffee giant has partnered with Spotify to allow customers to take more than just java home with them. [More]
Pandora Mulling The Idea Of An Offline Listening Feature
By 11.11.15
It’s tough out there for a streaming music service like Pandora, with competition from Spotify and Apple Music constantly putting on the pressure to get more subscribers. But there’s one thing Pandora’s rivals have that it doesn’t — an option for subscribers to listen to music offline. That may change in the future. [More]
You Can Record Movies Off Netflix, Or Music Off Spotify, But You’re Not Allowed To
By 11.6.15
Once upon a time, in the long-long ago bygone years of the 20th century, teenagers communicated their feelings through a medium known as the mix tape. Those of us who can remember tape cassettes can remember hitting “record” on a boom box at exactly the right moment when a favorite song started on the radio or, as the ’90s waned into the shadow of Y2K, recording tracks off a bunch of CDs into one themed tape to play in the car or slip into the hand of a not-so-secret crush. [More]
Chicago Sued Over 9% “Cloud Tax” On Streaming Services
By 9.14.15
Back in July, the city of Chicago started levying an unpopular new tax on its residents: cloud services, including streaming media like Netflix, suddenly cost 9% extra. Neither denizens of the Windy City nor the businesses who serve them are at all happy with this, however, and now the lawsuits have begun. [More]
New Spotify Privacy Policy Aims To Provide “Plain Language” Explanation For Collected Data
By 9.4.15
Just weeks after Spotify ticked off many of its 75 million active users with an updated, potentially invasive privacy policy, the music streaming service has once again revamped the terms, this time including an introduction that provides clear reasoning and examples of data collected. [More]
What Does Spotify’s New Privacy Policy Actually Say, And Should I Be Worried?
By 8.21.15
Spotify has basically run away with the music market over the last couple of years, boasting over 75 million active users. But the popular streaming service this week ticked off a bunch of those customers this week when it updated its privacy policy and user terms and conditions. And their timing couldn’t have been worse: the combination of seeming to add a dramatic and invasive new set of permissions to their apps, in a week when privacy concerns and hacks are already the top headline, set off an angry internet firestorm. [More]
Sen. Al Franken Calls For Federal Investigation Into Apple Music
By 7.23.15
In response to concerns arising from the recent launch of Apple Music, U.S. Senator Al Franken called on both the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the possibility that the tech giant may be creating an anticompetitive environment in the streaming music market. [More]
Starbucks Teams Up With Lyft To Give Drivers, Riders Extra Points Through Its Rewards Program
By 7.23.15
Take a Lyft, earn a free cup of coffee? Well, something like that anyway. Starbucks and ride-sharing service Lyft teamed up on Wednesday to unveil a new arrangement that gives customers – and drivers – of the car service extra perks through the coffee chain’s loyalty program. [More]
Spotify Wants iOS Users To Skip Apple’s App Store, Save $3
By 7.8.15
Apple’s new streaming music service costs $10 per month. So does competing service Spotify, but if you subscribe through the Spotify iPhone app, they charge you an extra three bucks because of Apple’s 30% cut of every subscription sold through apps on their devices. However, Apple’s rules for what’s okay to put in an app mean that Spotify can’t actually tell you this, so they sent an e-mail to users explaining how to change your subscription. [More]
App Loops 30-Second Spotify Snippets To Support Your Favorite Artist
By 6.25.15
Do you want to support your favorite musicians, but do so without spending any money and without actually listening to their songs? A band came up with a brilliant scheme to extract as much royalty cash from Spotify for your favorite musicians in the shortest amount of time. It’s called Eternify, and it renders your favorite songs unlistenable. [More]
Apple Music Offers Musicians Royalties Of 70% Of Nothing During Free Trial
By 6.15.15
Apple’s streaming music service is coming to a device near you at the end of this month, since it’s likely that there’s some kind of device with iTunes on it near you right now. Yet while Apple is promising musicians over 70% of the revenue from the service as royalties, that also means musicians will get around 70% of nothing for the first three months of Apple Music, since the service will be free to users. [More]
Pandora CFO Not Worried By Apple Music Announcement
By 6.9.15
Yesterday’s Apple Music announcement was seen as a long-overdue swipe at streaming music services like Pandora and Spotify that have dominated the market that Apple helped to create with the introduction of the iPod and iTunes, along with the iPhone and iPad mobile devices that people listen to the music on. Given Apple’s ability to instantly reach the large swath of iOS users, you wouldn’t fault these competitors from being frightened, but the Chief Financial Officer of Pandora doesn’t seem terribly worried. [More]
Apple Knows You Hate iTunes And Love Spotify, So They’re Launching A Streaming Music Service Too
By 6.2.15
Apple’s iTunes digital storefront for music was a pretty big deal when it launched over a decade ago. But time, and data plans, march on. Where once being able to buy a cheap single was the new hotness, these days consumers are more likely to want to stream their music, through a service like Spotify or Pandora. And so, Apple being Apple, they’re about to launch a new streaming service too. [More]
Starbucks & Spotify Team Up In Streaming Music Deal
By 5.19.15
Just two months after Starbucks stopped selling CDs in its stores, the coffee chain says it’s going to be filling customers’ ears with music another way, announcing a streaming partnership with Spotify that will let customers have a say in what’s being played. [More]
Warner Music Is Totally Cool With Streaming Music Now That It’s Making More Money Than Song Downloads
By 5.12.15
Once seen as the knife that would slay the music industry, it seems the popularity — and profitability — of streaming music is making some labels change their tune. Warner Music Group said revenue from streaming music has passed that from digital downloads for the first time. [More]
