music streaming services
Sona launches its music streaming platform and marketplace to reward fans for buying ‘digital twins’ of songs
Sona is a new web3 streaming protocol that uses DeFi primitives (decentralized finance basic building blocks) to put the financial power back into artists’ hands with its rewards model, auctions…
Spotify exec says the company will begin testing audiobooks ‘very soon’
Spotify CFO Paul Vogel says the music streaming platform will begin testing and trialing audiobooks “very soon.” The Spotify executive said the company plans to continue to expand its portfolio…
Spotify updates its home screen with new discovery feeds for music and podcasts
Spotify announced today that it’s launching a new Home experience that includes separate feeds for “Music” and “Podcasts & Shows.” Now, when Spotify users launch the app, they’ll notice two…
After dominating the short-video market, TikTok may be considering a music service
TikTok parent company ByteDance filed a trademark application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in May for a service called “TikTok Music.” First spotted by Business Insider, the filing…
Spotify’s new personalized playlist will recommend tracks based on what your friends are listening to
Spotify is launching a new personalized playlist called “Friends Mix” to give users a way to discover new tracks based on the Blends they’ve created with their friends. The streaming…
South Korean content providers raise service fees in the wake of Google’s in-app payment policy
South Korean app developers and content providers are upping their paid subscription and service fees on Google’s Play marketplace due to the heavy 15-30% commissions now required following Google’s policy…
Apple Music’s new concert series will livestream select performances, starting with Harry Styles
Apple is launching a new concert livestreaming series called “Apple Music Live” that will showcase performances from “the biggest stars in music,” the company announced today. The series will kick…
Spotify Stations, the streaming service’s lightweight listening app offering easy access to curated playlists, is shutting down on May 16. The company told TechCrunch that the app and web player…
Amazon is increasing Music Unlimited plan prices for Prime members
Amazon is increasing the price of its Unlimited Music subscription for Prime members, the company announced on its website. The Amazon Music Unlimited plan price is going from $7.99 to…
Spotify is testing a way to promote popular user-created playlists
Spotify is testing a new “Featured Curators” feature that promotes popular user playlists alongside its official Spotify playlists, the company announced on Monday. The new feature is part of a…
Beams wants to turn collaborative audio clips into a social media biz
More fuel for social audio: Berlin-based social audio startup Beams, which is building a platform for sharing and consuming short-form audio recordings — as a sort of bite-sized/deconstructed and/or collaborative…
Spotify partners with Peloton to launch new playlists featured in its Workout Hub
Spotify is partnering with Peloton to launch a new dedicated “Curated by Peloton” shelf within the streaming service’s “Workout Hub.” Starting today, Spotify users will get access to seven rotating…
Amazon Music Unlimited users can now stream spatial audio on any pair of headphones
Amazon announced that starting today, Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers can stream spatial audio with their current headphones on its Android and iOS apps. The company currently supports two forms of…
Ex-Apple designer’s ultra-premium audio hardware startup Syng raises $48.75 million
Audio startup Syng has been building on quite a bit more hype than the average fresh hardware startup, largely because of the team behind it. Founder and CEO Chris Stringer…
YouTube copies Spotify’s ‘Daily Mixes’ with its new ‘My Mix’ feature
YouTube Music is taking another cue from Spotify with today’s launch of a set of personalized playlists that are essentially YouTube Music’s own take on Spotify’s “Daily Mixes.” Each of…
Amazon launches Amazon Music HD with lossless audio streaming
Amazon has a new, high-quality streaming tier of its music service called Amazon Music HD. It’s priced at $12.99 per month for Prime members ($14.99 per month for everyone else)…
Pandora opens up podcast submissions to all creators
The battle for podcasters among music streaming services continues. A day after Spotify announced the launch of its podcast analytics dashboard, Pandora is today expanding its own podcasting efforts with…
Tidal highlights behind-the-scenes personnel with new credits feature
Listen up, youngsters. Back in my day we had a thing called album art. You’d buy a record and just stare at that thing for hours on end. You’d read…
Podcasts, smart speakers soar as social media stalls, based on new survey
The 2019 edition of a popular annual survey shows usage of social media by Americans is stalling while ownership of smart speakers and tablets has soared over the last year,…
Apple expands its reach with free Apple Music on Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless is now offering free access to Apple Music. The music streaming service is available on select Verizon Wireless plans starting on January 17, 2019. Previously, Verizon and Apple…
China’s Tencent Music raises $1.1 billion in downsized US IPO
Tencent Music, China’s largest streaming company, has raised $1.1 billion in a U.S. IPO after it priced its shares at $13 apiece ahead of a listing on the NYSE today.…
European regulators have given the green light to Apple’s December 2017 acquisition of music and image recognition discovery firm Shazam. Apple Music is the second largest music streaming service in…
Apple’s subscription streaming service, Apple Music, rolled out a major (ver. 2.0) release to Android users today, introducing a new design that largely brings the app to parity with its…
