Monday July 21st,
Good morning! Enjoy the weekend? While you were out on the grind and enjoying life last week, you might have missed some stories.We know. You're busy. No problem. Here's a breakdown of everything you need to know in the worlds of music and tech:
STREAMING & SUBSCRIPTION
Amazon's unveils all you can read Kindle Unlimited via The Verge
Provides over 600,000 ebooks for $9.99/mo
Popular series such as Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings available
Described as "like a Netflix for books"
CULTURE
Beyonce leads MTV VMAs w/ 8 nominations via
Noms include Video of the Year for "Drunk in Love"
Other leaders; Eminem and Iggy Azalea w/ 7 each
Nominations announced through MTV's Snapchat account
TECH
Samsung Launching Premium Headphones Line via Tech Crunch
Part of 'Level' audio line (includes speakers and ear phones)
Available now on Glit and Amazon
Prices range from $148-349 for products
What Kindle Unlimited Means for Authors via
Will use Kindle Direct publishing - lets you upload book in minutes
Must give Amazon exlcusive; can't sell your book anywhere else
If readers read 10%+, you will receive royalties
Paul McCartney rereleases classic albums as apps via NME
5 Wings and solo albums will all receive own app
Includes special features
All apps are cheaper than iTunes album price
Report: iTunes Users Spend As Much on Apps as Music via Mashable
Overall money users spend in iTunes decreasing
Music and Movies sales decreasing; app sales sharply rising
Mashable speculates this as another reason for Beats deal
Shazam adds Rdio Full Song Streaming via
Subscribers to Rdio can play full song once identified
Users will not have to leave Shazam app
Also includes stored 'playlist' feature on Rdio to save all searches
Pharrell to curate NBA2k15 soundtrack via Billboard
Pharrell: "I couldn't believe my name got tossed into the hat!"
LeBron and Jay Z the last two to curate soundtracks, respectively
Soundtrack to be released later this summer
Google's Play store its fastest growing revenue segment via Music Week
Revenue for this segment increased by 50% in last year
Makes up about 1/10th of Google earnings
Projections suggest Play store will catch iTunes app store by 2018 (via Quartz)