Can Music Keep Up in the Attention Economy?

Music streaming services have continued to add U.S. subscribers this year, according to MIDiA Research, growing by 11 million paying users from January to September, to 117.9 million. But in a potentially troubling sign for the recorded music business, the number of total streams has remained the same.

Lima's Music Industry Leader

The Wrap-Up Magazine is proud to present their artist Gansta-Marcus of Lima, Ohio as the music industry leader in the city. Will all his hard work and dedication he puts into social media, his career is still taking a rise to exposure.

Jay-Z Returns To Spotify Music

Rap icon Jay-Z brought his music discography back to the world’s largest streaming platform Spotify, leaving Tidal subscribers scratching their heads. The service he bought for $56 million in 2014 has struggled to gain any real market share against major players like Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music.

Jay Z Talks Tidal, Jimmy Iovine, And Rewriting The Music Rulebook

Jay Z doesn’t give many interviews. In conversation, he often pauses mid-sentence, considers, rewinds, slices and reshapes his answer, choosing a more appropriate word or analogy that draws a finer point before revealing it to the interviewer. What’s commonly assumed is a mistrust of the press may just be that unlike his work in the studio or onstage, Jay Z doesn’t ultimately control the final result of an interview, and therefore treads more carefully while giving one.

Sprint To Buy Parts Of Tidal

TIDAL has sold 33% of its stake to mobile phone carrier Sprint, a deal worth roughly $200 million. JAY Z and all of the original owners will remain with a stake in the streaming service and the app should be broadcasted to all 45 million of its customers soon. Also, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure will join the TIDAL board of directors.

Streaming Music Has Sold More Than CDs

I have not heard a soul in this world that say they dislike +Spotify. Even artist can +Get Your Music On Spotify now and days. The music industry is changing, with music streaming earning more money than the sale of CDs for the first time ever in 2014. According to the RIAA, music streaming earned a total of $1.87 billion in 2014, while CDs generated $1.85 billion, with the entire industry earning $6.97 billion overall, which was slightly down from their numbers in 2013.

What Is The Streaming War All About?

 

Media companies have launched direct-to-consumer video services to compete with Netflix. All of them have been following category leader Netflix with global expansion and investing billions of dollars in content.

Will Amazon Buy MGM Film Studio?

 

Amazon is reportedly in talks to buy MGM, the vaunted film studio that was a staple of Hollywood's Golden Age. A tie-up would give the tech firm a big brand to wield as competition in streaming grows fiercer by the day.

MGM's iconic logo of a roaring lion has played before tons of classic films, including the "James Bond" series, and the studio could be valued at between $7 billion and $10 billion.

Netflix Prices Set To Rise

Prices for its popular standard plan, which allows streaming on two devices at the same time, will be increased to $12.99 per month from $10.99. The company's top-tier plan, which allows streaming on four screens in high definition, will be raised to $15.99 from $13.99 per month, while fee for its basic plan will rise to $8.99 from $7.99.

Netflix is raising monthly fees for its U.S. subscribers by between 13 percent and 18 percent, the video streaming pioneer's first price increase since 2017 as it spends heavily on original content and international expansion.

Apple Buys Musicmetric

Apple has acquired a London music startup. The tech giant has bought the company behind music analytics service Musicmetric, Musically reports. 

Musicmetric owner Semetric changed its registered address to 100 New Bridge Street in London, home of Apple Europe Ltd. On the same day, it also filed documents to detail the appointment of a new director. He’s called Gene Daniel Levoff and up until now has been based at Apple’s global HQ.

Apple told Musically that it “buys smaller technology companies from time to time,” adding that it doesn’t “generally discuss our purpose or plan”. Semetric also declined to comment.

It’s speculated that Apple’s latest purchase could pave the way for the company to expand its music services. Apple wants to better tune its music arms: iTunes will likely be overhauled. But it’s Beats Music that stands to benefit most. Apple is going to relaunch the platform this year and there’s talk it could come pre-installed on iPhones and iPads.

Musicmetric launched in 2008 and allows music industry clients to track social and sales analytics through a dashboard, Musically writes — it also offers data streaming. In Jan. 2013 it received $4.8 million in funding.

Musicmetric says it’s about “turning big data into big opportunities”, and continues: “Whether you’re planning your first album launch or a global tour, on the lookout for new talent or after some killer intelligence to help pick your next brand ambassador, the Musicmetric dashboard will quickly and simply tell you all you need to know.”

How Apple chooses to use and develop Musicmetric remains to be seen, but one certainty is the implications the acquisition has for other streaming companies such as Spotify and Next Big Sound.

Here’s what Musically says:

Spotify has a partnership with Musicmetric to pipe in streaming data for labels to access via the latter’s dashboard.

Just as rival streaming services ended their partnerships with music/tech firm The Echo Nest firm when Spotify bought it last year, so Spotify is unlikely to be too keen on providing a firehose of its data to an Apple subsidiary.

U.S. Music Sales Hit Decade High

The total consumer spending on music in 2017 reached $8.72 billion, which is a 16.5 percent increase from 2016 to $7.5 billion.

Spotify May Be Doing Deals With Independent Artist

As the internet grows and the music industry landscape continues to morph, artists are finding newer ways to generate income without the help of a major label. According The New York Times, the folks at Spotify are helping some of them along the way.

Itunes To Shut Down All Music Downloads

An Apple executive has officially announced that all iTunes MP3 music downloads will be terminated by early 2019. Apple Music executive and Beats creator Jim Iovine announced today that paid downloads on the iTunes platform will be phased out in an attempt to shift users toward Apple Music's online streaming.

Jennifer Lopez's Netflix Movie Hits Streaming Milestone

 

Jennifer Lopez has set a 2023 streaming record for Netflix movies after the success of The Mother. The action-thriller landed the biggest opening of the year so far for a Netflix movie.

During the May 8-14 viewing window, it was watched for 83.71 million hours, which is particularly impressive when you consider it was only released on May 12. Per Variety, the movie also took the number one movie slot in 82 countries.

Jay-Z Buys Scandinavian Music Streaming Company

Rumors are that Hip-hop star Jay-Z is buying a Scandinavian music streaming company for $56 million to add to a business empire that has spanned clothing and sports bars.

Project Panther Bidco Ltd, a company controlled by the 45-year-old rapper, said on Friday it had agreed to buy Sweden-listed Aspiro for 464 million Swedish crowns ($56 million) in cash.

Shares in Aspiro, which runs music streaming service WiMP, leapt 59 percent in early trading to the bid level of 1.05 crowns per share.

Get the FOXNOVO Sound Card for your Studio

 

If you want to dip your feet into podcasting, this kit is all you need to get started. This device can help you start a professional or funny podcast or complete your online speech humorously, or it can help you change your voice in games.

Equipped with a professional Live Sound Card, our microphone sound card is ideal for podcasting, vlogging, recording music at home, office. The Purple appearance shines in your live streaming channel. Compatible for cell phone live, computer live, computer accompanies cell phone live, instrument input cell phone live.

Have You Started Streaming #DisneyPlus Yet?

 

Disney+ is the home for your favorite movies and TV shows from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic.

I started streaming Disney Plus because of my newborn daughter. It carries all her favorite shows such as Mickey Mouse and Bluey. Most of all, it had all my favorites from Marvel such as Avengers and Thor.

Disney+ gives you endless access to all the Marvel movies and TV. Disney Plus, Hulu and ESPN Plus are bundled together in a $13.99 per month package, which saves you $5.83 per month. The devices it supports are: Roku, Amazon Fire, Chromecast, PS4, Xbox One, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Android and Chromebooks.

Learn About Tidal Music @TIDAL

TIDAL is the first music service with High Fidelity sound quality, High Definition music videos and Curated Editorial, expertly crafted by music journalists. Apple is exploring the possibility of buying Tidal to boost its Apple Music streaming service, eyeing Tidal's strong affiliation with subscriber-attracting major artists such as Jay Z, Beyonce, and Coldplay.

Apple Sued Over Unpaid Royalties

The main sale and attraction of streaming services is that they pride themselves in how much they pay for artist royalties. However, Apple has recently received a new lawsuit over unpaid royalties for independent artists. The lawsuit contradicts the value that they promise to artists.

"Old Town Road" Remains At #1

It's safe to say that Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" is the biggest hit of the year, and he recently showed off the streaming numbers to prove it. The hit song has five of the biggest streaming weeks in the U.S. this year.

The news comes as "Old Town Road," which features Billy Ray Cyrus, remains at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the sixth consecutive week. The song also returned to #1 on Digital Song Sales for a fourth week. 

Last month, it was revealed that "Old Town Road" broke Drake's streaming record. Drake previously held the record for 116.2 million streams for "In My Feelings," which Lil Nas X smashed with 143 million streams for the week of April 20.