Tag Archives: music biz

The Guardian reports: Apple has bought Shazam, a London-based app that allows smartphone users to identify music, for a reported $400m (£300m). The US company, which revolutionised music with the introduction of the the iPod and iPhone, said Shazam was a natural fit for its Apple Music streaming service. “Apple Music and Shazam are a natural fit, sharing a passion …

NPR reports: Hailed as music’s biggest night, the 60th Annual Grammy Awards will return to New York City, taking place at Madison Square Garden Jan. 28. Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s crossover smash “Despacito” was well-received by the Academy; after taking home four awards at the 18th Annual Latin Grammys held earlier this month, the track has been nominated in …

A coalition of 200 top-selling recording artists and entertainers have signed onto a letter calling on Congress to act on gun violence. From Billboard: As leading artists and executives in the music industry, we are adding our voices to the chorus of Americans demanding change. Music always has been celebrated communally, on dancefloors and at concert halls. But this life-affirming …

Warner Music has formally surrendered in its years-long battle to retain the copyright to Happy Birthday To You. Via the New York Daily News: The universally beloved, though lyrically limited, song, “Happy Birthday to You” will soon be available for free to filmmakers and the like, thanks to a music publishing company’s decision to back off fighting a judge who …

David Bowie’s just-released album Blackstar will debut at #1 on Billboard’s album chart next week. It will be his first topper on that chart. Billboard reports: The set, which was released through ISO/Columbia Records on Jan. 8 (Bowie’s 69th birthday), could sell perhaps 130,000 albums in the week ending Jan. 14, according to industry forecasters, and debut at No. 1 …

Long-awaited news for mop-top fans via Rolling Stone: The Beatles have announced they’ll activate their famous catalog on every on-demand streaming service, from Spotify to Apple Music, as of midnight on December 24th and the record business has one overwhelming reaction: What took them so long? “It’s surprising they didn’t do it this time last year,” says Terry McBride, manager …

Some time last night Adele’s third album, 25, surpassed N-Sync’s 2000 release No Strings Attached to break the all-time single week sales record since the industry began using SoundScan in 1991. By the Thursday night end of the sales week, 25 is expected to have sold nearly three million copies versus the 2,416,000 copies sold in the first week of …

NPR has interviewed actor Colin Hanks (son of Tom Hanks) about his new documentary about Tower Records. An excerpt: “Tower sort of helped pave the way for your identity,” Hanks says. “For lack of a better phrase, music makes people, sometimes, where you sort of latch on to music as a way of identifying yourself or your tribe. I got …

Wired recaps: After years of being directly next to the leading man conversation, Nicholas Hoult is making a play in 2015 to be the conversation. He was excellent in Mad Max: Fury Road and in the last quarter of 2015 he’ll be front and center in three movies, one of which is Kill Your Friends. Friends is based on the …

Last week the research company MusicWatch published a report which claims that 48% of Apple Music subscribers are no longer using the service even though the initial three-month free period has not yet expired. Apple, quite naturally, is disputing that claim. Motley Fool reports: Earlier this month, the consumer-electronics leader revealed that there were 11 million users of Apple Music, …

Yeah, I got suckered into this scam back in high school and you probably did too. NBC News reports: The music died for Columbia House on Monday when its parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. As anyone with a dusty Hootie & the Blowfish album probably knows, Columbia House became popular in the 1990s as the business that …

Yesterday Apple unveiled Apple Music, its long-awaited streaming music service. Via Gizmodo: The basics: Apple Music doesn’t appear to have a free vibe, although starting June 30th, everyone will be offered a free three month subscription. Like everything other service out there, the premium price will be $10 per month. There’s also a $15 per month family plan for up …

Oscar, Grammy, and Golden Globe-winning musician Trent Reznor is helping Apple with the launch of their streaming music service. The new music app, which is a collaborative effort between Mr. Reznor and other Apple and Beats employees, including Jimmy Iovine — who founded Beats with the hip-hop star Dr. Dre — will feature the streaming music service with many of …

Spotify is expected to sign a $1B licensing agreement with Universal Music to cover streaming royalties over the next two years. The $1 billion number — equal to the global revenue generated by all companies in the fast-growing streaming sector in 2013 — underscores the extent to which Spotify and other streaming services will drive digital revenue for the world’s …

Via the Los Angeles Times: A federal jury found Tuesday that the 2013 hit song “Blurred Lines” infringed on the Marvin Gaye chart-topper “Got to Give It Up,” awarding nearly $7.4 million to Gaye’s children. Jurors found against singer-songwriters Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke, but held harmless the record company and rapper T.I. The verdict capped a trial that lasted …

The children of the late Marvin Gaye are suing Robin Thicke for the profits of Blurred Lines, which has sold 15 million copies, earning $5M each for Thicke and its songwriter Pharrell Williams, who testified yesterday as the trial ended. Williams said after the song was released, he saw similarities between “Blurred Lines” and Gaye’s work but said that wasn’t …

“About the Sam Smith thing. Let me say I have never had any hard feelings toward Sam. All my years of songwriting have shown me these things can happen. Most times you catch it before it gets out the studio door but in this case it got by. Sam’s people were very understanding of our predicament and we easily came …

Last week Swift pulled her entire catalog off of Spotify at the same time that she became the only artist to score a platinum album in all of 2014, a feat that many industry observers noted as yet more grim evidence on the state of the music business. Anyway, here’s today’s follow-up to Shake It Off, the smash first single …

Taylor Swift, the nation’s top selling artist, yesterday pulled all of her music off Spotify in one of the biggest moves in the long-simmering war between musicians and streaming music services. The decision means that a large number of fans will have only one option to hear Swift’s new album, “1989,” and that’s to buy it, which hundreds of thousands …

Stereogum writer Tom Breihan explains: Cake frontman John McCrea is one of the many artists railing against streaming services like Spotify and the way they only pay a pittance in royalties to artists. He’s put together a nonprofit called Content Creators Coalition, and last night, David Byrne headlined a CCC concert at New York’s Le Poisson Rouge; it also featured …