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Weekly Playlist | New Adventures In Spotify Volume 43

a weekly blend of deep tracks, hidden gems, classic tunes and new releases

SiriusXM to Launch ‘The U2 Experience’ Exclusive Channel on June 1

SiriusXM announced today that U2 will launch an exclusive, limited-run SiriusXM channel, The U2 Experience, on channel 30 beginning Friday, June 1.

The U2 Experience will showcase music from the band’s more than four decade long career, including tracks from their latest album Songs of Experience (Interscope) – ranked #6 in the Global Top albums of 2017, epic rock anthems, historic performances, and rarities. SiriusXM subscribers will also hear exclusive stories from Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen, and U2’s long-time sound engineer Joe O’Herlihy, who has helped shape the remarkable sound of U2 throughout the decades since he first saw them perform in September 1978 at the Arcadia Ballroom in Cork City, Ireland.

SiriusXM to Feature Beach Boys Channel All Summer

SiriusXM announced today that The Beach Boys, the groundbreaking and GRAMMY Award®-winning American rock band, will launch an exclusive full-time summer-long SiriusXM channel, Good Vibrations: The Beach Boys Channel, on Thursday, May 24.

Good Vibrations: The Beach Boys Channel gives SiriusXM listeners a channel that, for an entire summer, will evoke sunshine, surf, cool cars, and good times. The channel will feature not only the band’s hits and rarities, it will also include guest DJs and stories from original band members Brian Wilson, Mike Love and Al Jardine, along with longtime keyboardist and vocalist Bruce Johnston, guitarist David Marks, and percussionist John Stamos, all discussing song inspiration, their careers and lives on the road, memories of founding members Carl and Dennis Wilson, and, of course, a whole lot of fun, fun, fun.

Sound Royalties Launches Brand New ‘Edge’ Funding Program for Distributors to Help Fund Indie Labels

Specialty music finance company Sound Royalties introduced a ground-breaking new financial product to enable distributors to acquire additional content and provide advances to existing labels with the funding being provided by Sound Royalties’ through the new Edge Funding Program.

For decades, the music industry has been fueled by revenue advances. As the industry has evolved, the ability for independent labels and content owners to secure advanced funding has diminished. The revolutionary Edge Funding Program serves the music community on two levels. For independent labels the program will allow Sound Royalties to work with music distributors to forecast and provide no-interest advances to indie labels with manageable terms.

Issue #419: Unbundling The Song; What Elon Musk Got Wrong About the Music Industry

Unbundling The Song: Inside The Next Wave Of Recorded Music's Disruption — www.forbes.com
Napster and iTunes ungrouped albums into individual tracks for sale and exchange; streaming platforms like Spotify regrouped these tracks into the newly-ordered format of a playlist. In the unbundling forces underlying music’s technological disruption, the song itself is next.

What Elon Musk got wrong about the music industry — venturebeat.com
This week, Elon Musk weighed in on a much debated question: Are artists getting ripped off by big streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music? He says yes.

Why Can’t Anyone Figure Out How To Make A Social Music App? — www.tubefilter.com
Amid all that conversation about “This Is America”, which took place seemingly everywhere online and beyond, it’s a good time to ask what it might take to create a social-media app that adequately convenes and collects our conversations about one of our central obsessions, music.

Douban FM is Fighting the Music Streaming Wars with Innovation and an Artist-First Approach — radiichina.com

The streaming wars might be fought by titans, but there is also a team in this space that puts its focus on artists, diehard fans, and users who might want to learn about music made with a bit less superficial shine.

Royal wedding performers enjoy streaming boost — www.independent.ie
Teenage cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason has enjoyed a massive increase in global streams after his moving performance at the royal wedding, Spotify has said.

Great Escape: How Streaming Helped Organizers Put Forth the Best New Music — www.billboard.com
Great Escape’s talent booker explains that indie music was once in vogue, but the popularity of streaming has changed that call for genre-specific events.

Did Tidal Really Fake Kanye And Beyoncé's Streaming Numbers? — www.digitaltrends.com
A Norwegian language newspaper claims that it has data that shows that popular high-fidelity streaming service Tidal manipulated listening data for two of its biggest artists, generating bigger streaming payouts for the artists. The evidence posed, if true, is compelling, but Tidal is vehemently fighting the claims.

In the battle for online music, YouTube enters a crowded field — www.washingtonpost.com
YouTube will split its premium service in two, creating a music-streaming service called YouTube Music and another for its original video content called YouTube Premium.

Spotify, Apple Music and The Future Of Ad Supported Streaming — www.hypebot.com
Musicians and labels have long been skeptical of Spotify’s free ad-supported tier, primarily because returns a lower per stream rate than Spotify’s, Apple Music’s or other paid subscription tiers.

How Toronto Became Hip-Hop’s Multicultural Creative Nerve Center — variety.com
Toronto hip-hop and R&B talent pool remains as deep as ever, thanks in no small part to Drake and The Weeknd, but also many newcomers.

‘There will be a number one song that’s 100% AI-written’ — musically.com
The Great Escape in Brighton is one of the UK’s best showcases for new artists, but it’s also a chance for the industry to discuss some of the new technologies that could have an impact on those musicians’ careers.

iHeartMedia Develops Digital-Like Analytics Suite For Broadcast Radio — www.mediapost.com
iHeartMedia Develops Digital-Like Analytics Suite For Broadcast Radio – 05/18/2018

Issue #418: Cardi B Helps New YouTube Music Service; Southwest, iHeartRadio Partner; Peter Gabriel on Spotify

Cardi B to Help YouTube With Marketing Blitz for Music Service — www.bloomberg.com
YouTube will soon debut a revamped music-streaming service to challenge Apple Music and Spotify Technology SA. And the Google division is willing to spend heavily to tell the world about it — including getting hip-hop star Cardi B to help.

One Week Into Spotify's New Conduct Policy: Penalized Artists See Streams Drop, Concerns Continue To Mount — www.billboard.com
In the six days since XXXTentacion’s “SAD!” was removed from Spotify’s playlists including RapCaviar, where it held prominent placement, the track’s streams dropped 17 percent per day in the United States on average.

Southwest Airlines and iHeartRadio team up for free in-flight music streaming — www.dallasnews.com
Southwest Airlines is teaming up with iHeartRadio to turn up the volume on its in-flight entertainment offerings with a new free streaming radio…

Peter Gabriel on Spotify (Finally!) — petergabriel.com

His four self-titled albums, as well as So, Us, and Up. It’s the start of a monthly roll-out of releases which will include the soundtrack albums, the orchestral / song-swap albums, live albums and B-sides and remixes all being made available.

Streaming giants have set their sights on radio, BBC music boss says — www.independent.ie
Streaming giants have “set their sights on radio”, the BBC’s director of radio and music has said.

Cap Verdean and Congolese Music Streaming Platform Muska Launches in Cape Verde and Will Roll Out in 5 Other African Countries — allafrica.com

Cap Verdean music industry veteran Elodie Dasilva, CEO of music label LusAfrica and DRC’s Djo Moupondo of La Clique Musique have come together to launch a low-cost music streaming platform.

Gareth Emery opens up about blockchain streaming service Choon — www.digitaljournal.com
World renowned DJ and producer Gareth Emery chatted with Digital Journal about his blockchain streaming service Choon, which is taking the music industry by storm.

Digital radio brings tight targeting and happy listeners — medium.com

My daughter goes to sleep listening to a children’s radio station on her digital radio, as one example. The programming from Kinderling Kids Radio from Sydney, is safe and age-appropriate…

Spotify Pushes Its Free Tier With Fake Movie Trailers and Witty Outdoor Ads — www.adweek.com

The campaign pays special tribute to Spotify’s ad-supported, free music streaming service and the ability to track down your favorite artists and discover new music.

Jukebox in Your Inbox — rollingstoneindia.com

Streaming services aren’t the only place to discover new music.

'Collecting societies are struggling to keep up with the influx of millions of lines of data.' — www.musicbusinessworldwide.com

We are in the age of streaming – that much is abundantly clear.

Issue #417: How the Music Industry Messed Up Legal Streaming the First Time Around; A Post-Spotify Boom for Music IPOs?

How the Music Industry Messed Up Legal Streaming the First Time Around — motherboard.vice.com
Lessons from the music industry’s initial consumer-hostile reaction to the Napster saga. Going from $16 CDs to unlimited streaming is really hard.

A Post-Spotify Boom for Music IPOs? — www.hollywoodreporter.com
Universal Music Group and China’s Tencent Music are testing the waters for public offerings as analysts forecast a “bullish” outlook for the sector.

Vivendi under pressure to float music 'jewel' to offset Italian problems — kfgo.com

Vivendi investors are eager for an update on plans for a possible listing of its music business, hoping that could bolster the French media group’s value after several setbacks in Italy.

Google's music and video streaming strategy is a mess — www.engadget.com

Google announced a major shake-up of its music and video streaming services.

Ashanti wants to be the artist on every single streaming service — www.cnbc.com
Artists have to produce a lot more content to keep up in today’s streaming music industry, Grammy Award-winning singer Ashanti says.

Spotify hypes freemium upgrades with its largest ad campaign ever — www.fastcompany.com
A new ad campaign focuses on increased personalization, which Spotify says makes its free version better for both users and advertisers.

Janelle Monáe App Erases Every Song on Your Spotify Playlists, Adds Her New Album Instead — pitchfork.com
“Dirty Computers! Feel what it’s liked to be cleaned, and update your playlists with me.”

Artists are so desperate to get onto Spotify's popular playlists, they're emailing the children of a top executive — nordic.businessinsider.com
Spotify top executive Nick Holmstén gets thousands of emails from artists every week.

Skullcandy Launches Emerging Artist Concert Series — www.billboard.com
Starting Friday (May 18), the lifestyle audio brand Skullcandy, Inc. will be hosting a live-streamed concert series, dubbed the Now Feel This series, dedicated to featuring emerging artists.

Potentiam: Revamping the Music Industry Using Blockchain Technology — medium.com
Potentiam started with the idea in mind to give rising musicians, and content creators more access to the music industry and the tools they need to be heard by the masses. The Potentiam platform…

Spotify Ban on Hateful Content ‘Subjective’ and ‘Concerning’: Experts — variety.com

It is probably safe to say that Spotify did not get the reaction it expected on Thursday when the company announced a new policy against “hate content” and “hateful conduct” regarding the artists it chooses to promote — and then announced, via a simultaneously published interview.

The Podcasting Ad Opportunity Is Increasing – And So Are Its Growing Pains — adexchanger.com

The podcast industry is growing, and audio giants want a piece of it.