Bits & Bytes 7/27

INFLUENCING EMERGING MUSIC TECH CULTURE

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THIS WEEK IN MUSIC x TECH

JULY 27, 2015

Breaking news - labels are now considering taking all music videos off of Youtube! This comes after Forbes reported that Youtube is “now bigger than individual cable networks.” Also, it seems like Spotify is making all the right moves these days. From releasing their personalized "Discover Weekly" playlists, to teaming up with Beatport.  With recent reports that Apple Music is underwhelming, it seems like Spotify is shaping up to be the lead contender.  And to be honest, I’m enjoying playing with Apple Music but I’m still not convinced. Regardless, we're going to be seeing a lot more action with Youtube and now Soundcloud on the horizon of this streaming battle royale.

Yahoo and Live Nation’s partnership will continue, but they're reducing the amount of shows broadcasted to only 3-4 a week. Most of the shows were gaining an average of 324k views, so why are they scaling back? The potential for creating revenue through streaming concerts is there. Remember, Grateful Dead farewell concerts just shattered PPV records with 400k subscriptions. Last but not least, if you’re like me, you’re as entertained by this Meek Mill & Drake beef as I am! I mean, Drake has a ghostwriter? Honestly, the notion that artists write all of their own lyrics is an illusion. Why was there less backlash when we met Rihanna's writer for BBHMM? We’d like to believe they're crafting their tracks, but lets be real. Top talent have access to best in music, to help take their art to the next level. Great, timeless music, is a team effort. 

- Jesse K // CEO, NUE Agency 

Moving playlists from Spotify to Apple Music isn’t as straightforward as it should be. Apple doesn’t offer an importer, so you’ll have to use a workaround. There are a couple of fiddly methods – one involved two apps and one that requires you to get down and dirty with JSON. Then there's the far simply Move to Apple Music. 

Six months after Snapchat launched its publisher portal Discover, the mobile messaging app has dropped two media companies in favor of ones that would appear to appeal more to Snapchat's young audience: Yahoo & Warner Music for iHeartRadio & BuzzFeed. 

Senator Al Franken sent a letter to the Dept. of Justice & the Federal Trade Commission calling for an investigation into Apple’s App Store, saying Apple unfairly takes a 30% cut of Apple Music competitors’ subscription revenue, forcing competitors to charge more. 

"We live in a society now where everybody just expects everything to be for free, but you don't get a house for free; you have to pay somebody to build it." Madonna, Tidal's co-owner, defends the streaming music service and explains they are working out a lot of kinks. 

Record labels are considering pulling all music videos off  YouTube because its become the free music service of choice for so many.  They're are upset over the lack of revenue and the anemic pace of Google's efforts to add paid tiers and better monetize the service. 

Spotify has just inked a new music

 streaming & video partnership with electronic music streamer Beatport. It’s a non-traditional move for Spotify to partner with a competing streaming platform, but it’s one that has major potential to benefit both sides. 

Internet radio company Pandora has finally launched its Sponsored Listening product for all advertisers. 

Sponsored Listening

 is a reward-based ad product that lets users on the ad-supported “free” service remove ads for an hour by actively engaging with a brand.