Powderfinger Promotions
Nurture the urge.
Spotify is pushing to release more original content on the platform. While Spotify is known primarily as a source for music, the company is adding three original music themed podcasts to their streaming service.
The company notes: “With each series, listeners will get an intimate look into music’s most notable, interesting and often untold stories.”
A collection of fifteen notable music organizations have come together to express their dissatisfaction in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
In a letter to congress, the organizations note that the current DMCA safe harbor laws are “failing”. The organizations include the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), SoundExchange and National Music Publishers’ Association. Safe harbor laws currently allow internet services to avoid liability for users who post copyright infringement content on their sites. Presently, users cannot be penalized if they upload copyrighted material.
Searches for illegal MP3 downloads is going to become difficult for people in the U.K.
There are a plethora of websites on the internet that provide free downloads to copyrighted music. When searching for music on Google, websites containing illegal content can sometimes appear within the first page of search results. Not only does this keep musicians and songwriters from being paid for their work – it also puts Google users up for the risk of spam. The user may have been searching for a safe result in the first place. A new change for Google users in the U.K. may put a halt to downloading content without paying for it.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced that Michael Jackson’s album Thriller is the first album to be certified platinum 33 times in America.
The Recording Industry of America is known for keeping track of how many albums are sold within the U.S.. Jackson’s album was released in 1982 and has sold around 33 million copies in the country. This is a new record for the music industry.
For many of us, music is something that can always improve our mood.
Hearing one of our favorite songs can turn our day around and instantly make us feel better. Music has the ability to make us feel immense pleasure, almost like a powerful drug. A new study conducted at McGill University says that music actually affects the same part of the brain as opioids do. Similarly, these chemicals are also activated when participating in activities like eating sweets or exercising.
The study notes that people “consistently rank music as among the top ten things in their lives that bring pleasure, above money, food and art.”
Prince has returned to Spotify after not being on the streaming service for two years.
The release of the music came just hours before the airing of the 59th Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday. The release of the catalogue on Spotify was planned purposely for this time, as the awards ceremony had planned to air a tribute to the late singer.
Since returning, the singer has collected over 1.5 million monthly listeners. Prince’s top song on Spotify is “Purple Rain”, which is currently at 25.4 million streams.
Accessing Prince’s music on online hasn’t always been easy. The demand for Prince’s music online has soared since his death. While going out and buying physical albums is not necessarily a popular activity anymore, Prince’s grieving fans rushed out to stores to retrieve his music after hearing the news of his death. According to Nielsen Music, on the day he died in April 2016, Prince sold 239,000 physical albums.
According to IFPI, streaming is the music industry’s fastest-growing revenue source. Streaming services are continuously looking for new ways to improve and offer the best services to its users.
Google is currently looking to advance, and is planning to merge two of its music streaming apps
Currently, Google owns two separate music subscription service apps, YouTube Music and Google Play Music. Product teams from both apps are working on a way to combine the two apps. No sudden changes for app users will appear soon. However, in the future, a single music-streaming app from Google is likely to appear.
The 59th annual Grammy Awards took place on Sunday, February 12. The Grammys presented awards to several notable artists, such as Adele, who took home a total of five awards.
Artists not only receive great recognition for their music during the ceremony, but what follows after the ceremony is just as exciting. Artists who collect awards often receive a spark in sales following the award show. The positive influence on sales after an artist receives a Grammy is known as the “GRAMMY effect”. The “GRAMMY effect” also takes place after artist’s performances.
“This is for every indie artist,” said Chance the Rapper during his acceptance speech for Best Rap Album at Sunday’s 59th Annual Grammy Awards.
During Sunday’s 59th Annual Grammy Awards, Chance the Rapper won Best New Artist, Best Rap Album, and Best Rap Performance. The rapper now has a total of three Grammy Awards under his belt. The number of Grammys that Chance the Rapper now possesses actually outnumbers the amount of albums he’s sold. Chance has succeeded in winning three Grammys without selling a single album.
This week, it was announced that Facebook hired Tamara Hrivnak, who previously worked as director of music partnerships at YouTube and Google Play.
According to NPR, Hrivnak’s role will be to conduct Facebook’s global music licensing strategy, and form better bonds with the music industry.
Disagreements between Facebook and the music industry have been prominent within the past few years. Many videos containing music are uploaded to Facebook on a daily basis; however, much of the music is not licensed. This has instigated a rift between Facebook and right holders.
