Bits & Bytes 7/20

INFLUENCING EMERGING MUSIC TECH CULTURE

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THIS WEEK IN MUSIC x TECH

JULY 20, 2015

I saw an interesting piece on what all of the major streaming platforms are paying artists. Although it breaks down to fractions of a cent, Tidal is paying at the highest rate per stream. But the real issue that keeps coming up for me is YouTube. YouTube has become the largest platform in the world when it comes to finding and sharing music, but they are paying the least on a per stream basis to the artists. 

Is Google using its leverage to basically rip off artists and the industry as a whole? Google is one of the most high profile platforms in the world, but yet somehow they are not paying artist for their streams. It doesn’t seem right- legally or fundamentally. 

Google laid low during the release of Apple Music, waiting to observe the strengths and weakness behind Apple’s streaming platform. Just last week, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki finally started talking about YouTube’s paid streaming service, Music Key. Although there still aren’t many details about the service, I hope Music Key will see Google beginning to genuinely support artists, and moving away from its current, flawed model. The co-founder of Grooveshark was found dead on Sunday at his home in Florida. My heart felt condolences to his family and the Music Tech world, losing a true disruptor and innovator. - Jesse K // CEO, Nue Agency 

With major streaming companies coming under fire from labels, Audiomack has become a viable platform for hitmakers by playing nice with everyone. In a small office just south of Houston Street in New York, a small team is filling the gap. Audiomack is a music streaming site, but unlike Spotify or the new Apple Music, they don’t aspire to offer a full catalog. Instead, the four-year-old company focuses on hip-hop you haven’t heard yet. The kind of songs that become genuine, surprise hits. 

What if musicians - tired of having their music used to grow subscriber numbers for streaming services - pulled their music from these services? The Reddit Revolt may be a harbinger of things to come for the music business. 

NYC's subway riders hear a high-pitched beeping sound every time they swipe their metrocards. James Murphy wants to change this by replacing it with a melody. And Heineken is helping him make this happen. Check out this cool video clip!

In the hyper-competitive world of streaming music services, personalization and intelligent suggestions reign supreme. Today, it's taking that one step further with Spotify's personalized weekly playlist for each user. 

Jingle Punks is the world’s top commercial music publishing organization and has been composing, playing, distributing, and licensing music for the past seven years. Check out the operation these jingles are being created with. 

Eventbrite has released a study detailing the value of music discovery. Findings show that fans that buy concert tickets are worth more, spending nearly 20x as much on music than non-ticket buyers: $276 compared to $15.

Connecting artists to fans without the middleman has long been the holy grail of the new music industry. 

Bkstg, a new player with substantial pedigree, raises $20M for free direct to fan app that let's artists keep their data.