Asia’s fragmented music fanbase and subscription habits may stand between Spotify and its total domination of the region, or at least so its competitors hope. The music streaming service recently launched in the Asian countries of Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. When we spoke to Spotify’s head of new markets in Asia-Pacific, Sriram Krishnan, he was evasive on how extensive the… → Read More
Shazam — the smartphone media discovery app that is expanding from music into TV and advert discovery with the help of chief product officer Daniel Danker poached from the BBC – today announced a partnership with Indian music service Saavn – the self-proclaimed Spotify of India – to add Shazam’s recognition engine to Saavn’s catalog of South Asian music. Although Shazam is already… → Read More
Music streaming may not be making much money right now, but that’s not stopping music streaming hopefuls from trying. The latest development comes from Deezer, which is announcing a series of new services based around its APIs to drive more users to its service. They include an affiliate marketing program; more social and gaming integration; and the ability to port apps made for the Deezer App… → Read More
Spotify today took another small step to tighten up competition in the European market today: it signed a deal with Orange to offer unlimited music services as part of “Orange Young,” a special subscription that Orange has devised specifically for the under-27 market in Switzerland. The tariff also includes unlimited calls and texts as well as mobile data allowances, with deals starting at $20 per… → Read More
Last.fm, an early mover in the streaming music business, is scaling back some of its operations, and putting others behind a paywall, in a bid to cut costs and make more money out of its existing business, the company has announced. → Read More
Another startup is wading into the crowded waters of music streaming today: Radical.FM, a web-based service that combines on-demand streaming and curated radio stations with a platform for artists to create and broadcast their own public playlists. But while companies like Pandora and Spotify build out businesses based on advertising and subscription services, Radical.FM is trying something a… → Read More
Opera Mobile has built its reputation on its internet browser for mobile devices, but it has gradually expanded that remit to cover other services like apps — and now, music. The company has soft-launched a mobile music offering in the Russian market, called Unlimited Music, a subscription-based, download and streaming service that it is trying out first in Russia — a key market for Opera, and… → Read More
What’s the secret to staying fresh, lean and mean when you’re a hot tech company on a fast growth trajectory? A fascinating document brought to our attention today today by Andrew Mager, hacker advocate at Spotify, answers that question in some detail by telling us how the music streaming juggernaut does it: by dividing up its business into small clusters — which it calls ‘squads’ — and running… → Read More
The music streaming juggernaut that is Spotify continues to gain momentum, although today was possibly more of a gentle acceleration than a turbo charge: today the company quietly launched its service live in Ireland and Luxembourg — two markets that may not be known for being music streaming powerhouses but are significant all the same for filling out the startup’s European footprint. (And, of… → Read More
Deezer, the web-based music streaming company that has just picked up $130 million in funding from Warner Music owner Access Industries and Idinvest, is gearing up for another announcement on Wednesday. There, it will lay out more details about what it plans to do with the cash injection — the largest ever for a French startup — and, we have heard, unveil a new user interface and other features. → Read More
Jelli, the crowdsourced social radio platform, is today announcing $9 million in additional funding, in a round led by new investors Intel Capital and Relay Ventures. The round also saw participation from existing investor First Round Capital, as well as individuals including Roger Ames, former Chairman of EMI Music.
Related to the funding news, Jelli also detailed its growth over the past… → Read More
When it comes to music discovery, technology and the Internet opened a lot of possibilities. Yet, and this is what Serendip is all about, music curation by your friends or knowledgeable people are frequently much more valuable than what you could get from an automated service. Today, Serendip is launching out of private beta and is now available for everyone.
The service aggregates all the… → Read More
TriPlay, a U.S./Israeli-based developer of cloud services that lets people consume music and other media across different devices, is today announcing a Series C round of $5 million to take its technology into new and emerging markets in Asia and Europe, and hire more people, including a CMO. The $5 million comes from new investor Kenges Rakishev, a Kazakh businessman who has made millions in… → Read More
The landgrab for music streaming customers is on, and Rdio — the U.S.-based startup from Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis — is joining that race in earnest.
The company today announced that it is now live in Spain and Portugal, just one month after it launched in its first European service, in Germany. The total number of countries where Rdio now works is up to eight… → Read More
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