Apple had good news for Wall Street yesterday, when CEO Tim Cook announced fourth quarter results, with revenue of $62.9 billion, $10 billion of it from the company’s Services unit, which includes Apple Music, iTunes and Apple Pay. The $62.9 billion figure represents a 20 percent increase over the same period last year, and beat analysts’ expectations (pegged […]
Apple announced today that it closed its $400 million acquisition of music recognition app Shazam, a transaction initiated late last year. Shazam lets users identify songs simply by listening to the music playing around them. In a press release, Apple said it intends to offer its experience ad-free for all users “so everyone can enjoy the […]
Google has unveiled it’s new vision for music: breaking up its premium YouTube Red into two new categories: a YouTube Music streaming service that can be accessed free with ads or by subscription for $9.99 per month, and YouTube Premium that will include original video content and ad-free access to everything on YouTube for $11.99 […]
The Xbox game Halo Wars 2 is shaking things up musically as the first game soundtrack in 12 years to recorded with American Federation of Musician union players on Twentieth Century Fox’s Newman Scoring Stage, where composer Gordy Haab conducted an 80 piece orchestra last fall for the February release. For the final mix, Haab also integrated […]
Facebook is offering song rights-holders “hundreds of millions of dollars” so it can legally use songs in videos uploaded to the service. The arrangement, negotiated over the past few months, according to Bloomberg, which was the first to report the news, seeks to avoid frustrating users by having to remove videos they upload, as well […]
Spotify has closed a deal with its last major label holdout — Warner Music Group. Media reports emphasized the fact that Spotify would use its full house to power a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Universal signed in April and Sony was reported to have signed last month. “It’s taken us a while […]
Nielsen Music has announced an agreement with talent agent giant WME centered on Nielsen’s Music Connect service. Nielsen’s industry-leading reporting and analytics tool will empower WME to most effectively promote and position its high-profile roster of clients and enhance the agency’s ability to identify emerging trends and key consumer segments. The alliance is interesting, in that WME is […]
Bruce Springsteen is taking a stand to ensure fans are not subject to extortive scalper pricing for tickets to his intimate Springsteen on Broadway solo shows. As the exclusive sales portal for the Oct. 3 to Nov. 26 run, Ticketmaster Verified Fan is position to screen out middlemen as well as to heighten excitement with […]
Ya gotta hand it to Neil Young, who turned 71 in November, but is not letting technology leave him behind. The folk rocker who sang “rock and roll can never die” is making sure his legacy won’t either, unveiling a career-spanning and comprehensive digital archive project. Coming soon, according to its website, The Neil Young […]
It’s official. Sirius has reached an agreement to invest $480 million in Pandora, purchasing a 19 percent stake in the streaming music service. The satellite radio service had been circling Pandora for some time, prompting rumors of an outright purchase. This agreement, which will take weeks to conclude, is the best of both worlds for Padora, guaranteeing […]
