Retail News CRM

Tag: music

  • ACCC checks APRA’s “near-monopoly” on music licences

    ACCC checks APRA’s “near-monopoly” on music licences

    The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) wants to enforce stronger conditions on the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA), after questions have been raised about its transparency.

    The changes could lead to lower fees for businesses using APRA’s music licences Australia-wide.

    APRA holds the performing rights for the majority of music played or performed in Australia. It earns royalties from these rights and sells licences which allow businesses to play this music publicly – with fees paid by businesses being distributed to the association members.

    But the lack of transparency into APRA’s fees and its near-monopoly on music licences in Australia have prompted the ACCC to propose several changes to the way APRA operates.

    “We are… proposing to grant authorisation for a further five years with conditions that require APRA to be more transparent about licence fees and the way it pays royalties to members, in order to mitigate APRA’s market power and its impact on songwriters and businesses,” ACCC deputy chair Mick Keogh said.

    Under the proposed conditions, APRA would be required to publish information about how it calculates its fees; produce a plain-English guide to its distribution policies; publish an annual transparency report with information on rights revenue, operating costs, and payments to members; and to continue the “resolution pathways” alternative dispute resolution scheme set up in responses to a previous ACCC condition.

    These changes have been proposed based on responses gathered by the ACCC during a consultation process, in which APRA members and businesses that use the service expressed concern around the way the association collects fees and questioned its accountability.

    “It’s more efficient for APRA members to collect royalties jointly, rather than every artist having to collect their own royalties and monitor compliance,” Keogh said.

    “However, APRA already has a near-monopoly, and the exclusive provisions it has with artists makes its position even stronger.

    “This raises the risk of higher prices for businesses that play music, and other inefficiencies or restrictions for APRA members.”

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Spotify brings its lightweight Stations app

    Spotify brings its lightweight Stations app

    Spotify users in the United States will have one more alternative app that will allow them to listen to their favorite radio station starting today. Suggestively named Stations, Spotify’s lightweight app was originally launched in Australia last year.

    Although it’s still considered an experiment, Stations is aimed at users to prefer a more streamlined music experience. It’s worth mentioning that while the app was initially available to Android users only, Spotify released an iOS version last month.

    Starting today, Stations is available in the United States on both Android and iOS platforms. If you’re not a premium Spotify customer, you’ll hear ads in Stations, but if you pay for the music streaming service, you’ll get special features and ad-free listening.

    Also, Stations allows users to filter music by genre, decade, activity and more, but the more the app is used, the more in-depth options users will have at their disposal. Of course, the option to customize your own playlists is available as well.

    If you’re living in the US and give the app a try, you can now download Spotify Stations for free via App Store and Google Play Store.

    Lees ook:

  • Apple purges iTunes pages on the eve of its demise

    Apple purges iTunes pages on the eve of its demise

    Apple’s arguably most hated piece of legacy software – iTunes – may be killed today at the WWDC keynote, reported Bloomberg over the weekend, and the interesting part is that it won’t be renamed to something else, but different modules will be taking its place instead.

    The iTunes syncing and download service is a relic of the past anyway, and will be phased out as Apple’s CEO Tim Cook will be announcing a move away from the iPhone as the centerpiece of the company’s strategy.

    The Apple Watch will reportedly gain more independence from the iPhone, the iPad will be getting new software that will aim to close the gap with laptops, and Apple will be pushing its new healthcare solutions, according to the report. Anything but the iPhone.

    The transition might not be finished for a couple of years, but this is the strongest push Apple has made toward the unification of its two platforms. Apple and developers can put more effort into one version of things instead of having to build everything twice.

    With Watch OS 6, the company is eventually going to introduce a dedicated App Store, compartmentalize messaging, and add stock utility apps of the everyday type like a calculator or a voice recorder that will make you keep the iPhone in your pocket for longer while using the Watch.

    One of the slower and more cumbersome to use of Apple’s legacy software, the jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none iTunes will be replaced with apps that now duplicate its functionality. Instead of using it for watching videos, or listening to music and podcasts, Apple’s new Music, TV, and Podcasts apps for the Mac will be taking over. What about shuttling files to and from and managing the phone, though, what iTunes used to do?

    Well, those functions will reportedly be taken over by the new Music app, of all things. Apple even started purging the iTunes accounts on Instagram, Facebook and the like, indicating the ancient software’s imminent demise. Good riddance?

  • HMV stock to be Sold

    HMV stock to be Sold

    The liquidator of collapsed music chain HMV has backed away from a retail sale of the company’s inventory. Liquidator Wong Sun-keung, a partner at accounting firm Vision AS, said the administrative costs of launching such a sale – especially the rent – would take too large a chunk out of the takings.

    While the inventory of the collapsed chain has a ticket value of HK$9 million, a ‘fire sale’ of stock would realise as little as $1 million – before rent and staff costs were taken into account.

    A creditors committee decided at a meeting last week to call tenders for the complete sale of the stock – an estimated 100,000 CDs, DVDs and vinyl records retrieved from stores shut last December and currently stored in shipping containers.

    “We will sell all the remaining stocks in one go,” Wong said.

    “Only if the tender offers were too low would we consider a liquidation sale. But now we prefer to use a tender to sell the remaining stock, because it’s simpler and we believe we can get a better price,” Wong said.

    A liquidation sale of stock became inevitable after two white knight investors walked away last month due to legal issues relating to the continued use of the HMV brand in any new entity.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • A TikTok smartphone is reportedly being developed

    A TikTok smartphone is reportedly being developed

    Amazon created the Fire Phone to promote its services and Facebook partnered with HTC on a dedicated smartphone. Both products turned out to be complete failures, but that isn’t stopping the developers of viral app TikTok from creating their own device.

    Industry sources have claimed TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, is currently developing its own smartphone that’ll arrive pre-installed with the company’s range of apps which also include content aggregation platform TopBuzz and news platform News Republic.

    The smartphone will apparently be created by talent ByteDance acquired earlier this year from Chinese smartphone brand Smartisan. Details about the design and specs haven’t yet been revealed, but the device will most likely focus on the budget segment and teenage users. After all, TikTok is most popular in markets such as India and China, where cheaper devices are the best-sellers.

    It’s unclear at this stage if ByteDance will try to tackle the European and US markets, but if it does so the device could be met with a lukewarm reception just like Amazon and Facebook’s offerings from years ago. After all, why bother buying a TikTok smartphone when you can simply download the app on any other phone?

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Spotify finally adds long-requested feature to its Android app

    Spotify finally adds long-requested feature to its Android app

    To fend off increasingly aggressive competition from the likes of Apple, Amazon, Google, and Deezer, the global leader of the music streaming industry is constantly trying new things, going so far as testing in-house hardware that could allow it to control and monitor your in-car listening patterns.

    It’s therefore pretty mind-blowing (and certainly not in a good way) that it’s taken Spotify this long to add an incredibly basic sleep timer feature to its Android app. After all, the platform has been around since 2008, and users haven’t exactly been shy in expressing their impatience and dissatisfaction with the lack of this handy functionality over the years.

    To get a sense of how badly people wanted to go to sleep while streaming their favorite tunes on Spotify, you only need to do a quick Google Play search. It will take you just a few seconds to discover that there are multiple third-party apps available through the search giant’s official Play Store with the sole purpose of enabling sleep timer capabilities for your favorite music streaming service. The aptly titled “Sleep Timer for Spotify, Music, and Video” has over 500,000 installs to its name, while another “Sleep Timer” app that works with YouTube, Google Play Music, TuneIn Radio and “many more” in addition to Spotify has even managed to break the 1 million download barrier.

    At long last, there’s no need to go through that trouble anymore. The native Spotify for Android sleep timer feature is as simple to use, straightforward, and convenient as you would expect.

    You should easily find it by tapping on the three-dot icon in your Now Playing screen (below the “share” option), with settings for different times when your phone can automatically stop your audio (ranging from 5 minutes to an hour), as well as an option to “go to sleep” after streaming a single track. If you can’t find the feature yet, you should just wait for a wider rollout of the latest Spotify version.

    It’s also worth pointing out that the app doesn’t technically support this functionality on iOS yet, but iPhones come with a Clock app pre-installed that can essentially and effortlessly do the same thing already.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Sony launches cheaper noise-canceling wireless headphones

    Sony launches cheaper noise-canceling wireless headphones

    If you’re in the market for a pair of premium noise-canceling headphones, there aren’t a lot of options in the $300-$350 price range. Two companies have distinguished themselves for bringing top-notch products to audiophiles: Bose and Sony.

    Still, if you can’t afford to pay for a pair of Sony WH-1000XM3 or Bose QuietComfort 35 Series II, a new pair of noise-canceling headphones will be available for purchase for a much lower price.

    Sony’s WH-XB900N offer a more accessible alternative for those who need noise-canceling technology. They cost just $250 and offer similar features as the company’s premium 1000XM3 headphones, plus extra bass (hence the XB model name).

    Design-wise, they feature a foldable design and touch panel controls on the headphone housing. Of course, Sony’s WH-XB900N Extra Bass wireless headphones include a built-in microphone for use with Google Assistant. They also pack NFC (Near Field Communication) and Bluetooth connectivity.

    As far as battery life goes, Sony claims its new headphones should offer up to 30 hours of playback time on a single charge. Also, a charge of around 4 hours will keep the headphones powered all day, which is quite impressive.

    Lees ook:

  • Spotify unveils its first-ever hardware device

    Spotify unveils its first-ever hardware device

    Spotify has been the unrivaled champion of the thriving music streaming industry for a number of years now, but relying entirely on a service under siege by tech giants including Apple and Amazon seems like decidedly risky business. As such, it’s certainly not shocking to see the 2006-founded Swedish company dip its toes into the consumer hardware world with an aptly titled Car Thing device.

    This “thing” does pretty much what you expect, reportedly plugging into your car’s 12-volt power outlet/cigarette lighter to allow Spotify users to control their smartphone playlists and podcasts on the road in complete safety with voice commands only. The Car Thing is essentially a less versatile Anker Roav Bolt powered by an unnamed Google Assistant rival… that’s unlikely to ever see daylight on anything resembling a wide scale.

    That’s right, you can’t actually purchase Spotify’s first-ever piece of hardware, which will instead be offered for free to a “small group” of invited Premium subscribers to help the company “learn more about how people listen to music and podcasts.” While this is all explicitly and repeatedly billed as a test, set to be conducted in the US only in the near future, Spotify is leaving the door open to an eventual expansion of the limited experiment.

    For the time being, the focus is squarely on “becoming the world’s number one audio platform” rather than creating consumer-oriented hardware, but the way future experiences will be developed depends on the “learnings” from this test. In other words, if invited users declare themselves pleased with the Spotify Car Thing, you shouldn’t rule out it becoming a commercial… thing someday.

    Obviously, we don’t have a full spec sheet or list of features for the Car Thing, but we do know it comes with a circular screen, a number of physical buttons, and a “Hey, Spotify” wake word. Intriguingly, Spotify is also teasing upcoming “Voice Thing” and “Home Thing” tests purportedly designed to assess the living room listening habits of the platform’s Premium users.

    Lees ook:

  • New Spotify subscribers get 3 months of Premium Music for Less than a Dollar

    New Spotify subscribers get 3 months of Premium Music for Less than a Dollar

    With a whopping 100 million paying subscribers under its belt, Spotify is unlikely to be worried about rival music streaming platforms from Pandora or Amazon, which have been frequently treating new users to killer introductory deals of late to try to catch up to the global market leader. But you can never be too careful when it comes to the competition in such a crowded industry, especially given the impressive growth rate also reported by Apple Music in the past few years.

    Enter a top-notch new offer for Spotify Premium users who have never tried the service before, including all the usual perks and benefits at a highly unusual $0.99 price. That will cover a full three months of unlimited, on-demand music streaming with no ad interruptions, high-quality audio functionality, and offline listening support as long as you sign up by June 30.

    Once your promotional period is up, you will be charged the typical $9.99 a month to continue using the Premium service, although you can cancel your subscription at any time and go back to the free tier with shuffle play-only support or try out a different platform. The terms and conditions of the new deal are relatively straightforward, and if the whole thing sounds familiar, that’s probably because Spotify has been running similar sales before.

    Just like back then, the extended 90-day trial promotion excludes previous Unlimited subscribers, as well as folks who’ve already taken advantage of 30 or 60-day free trial offers.  Last but not least, students have until June 30 to claim three months of Spotify Premium, as well as Hulu and Showtime, at a measly $0.99 total, followed by the same amazing bundle available for $4.99 each month. Apple Music obviously can’t touch these deals.

    Lees ook:

  • New Apple Music subscribers can get free four-month Plans

    New Apple Music subscribers can get free four-month Plans

    While Spotify has managed to maintain its solid lead in the thriving music streaming industry thanks to frequent deals bundling the service with other popular apps or even free hardware, the steady growth of Apple Music has come largely in the absence of discounts and free trials.

    If you didn’t feel comfortable buying certain headphones or getting certain unlimited wireless plans just to receive gratis access to a library of over 50 million songs for anywhere between 3 and 6 months, Groupon is now offering a sweet and straightforward 4-month deal with absolutely no strings attached. The only condition you need to meet to qualify for this extended trial is to be a new Apple Music subscriber.

    Meanwhile, existing users get nothing, unlike those who subscribed in the past but ditched the platform in the meantime for some reason, which is eligible for a free month of premium music streaming.

    Arguably the best thing about this promotion is that you can choose either an individual subscription or a family plan for your free four-month Apple Music trial, the latter of which naturally offers the best value, supporting up to six members on six separate accounts, each with their own playlists, settings, and preferences. Just remember to cancel your subscription if you don’t want to extend it beyond the promotional period and pay $9.99 a month for an individual plan or $14.99 a month for your entire family.

    You can do that whenever you want, but first and foremost, it might be a good idea to hurry and claim the Groupon deal before it expires. By the time of this writing, more than 25,000 people have apparently already redeemed free family subscriptions, with an additional 10,000+ new users signing up for individual plans at no charge.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • YouTube Music reportedly exceeds 15 million subscribers Recently

    YouTube Music reportedly exceeds 15 million subscribers Recently

    We’ve received an official statement that disputes the reports coming from Bloomberg and Wall Street Journal claiming that Google is struggling to attract paying music subscribers. Here is what a Google spokeswoman had to say about these reports: “YouTube aggressively disputes the WSJ report stating YouTube Music subscription growth has plateaued, countering that healthy subscription growth continued through Q1 of this year.”

    Google’s music streaming service recently went through a rebranding process one year ago, as the search giant has decided to merge Play Music and YouTube Music into one product in order to avoid confusion among customers.

    We’re not sure whether or not the results met Google’s expectations, but Bloomberg reports the company’s paid music services have recently exceeded 15 million subscribers, at least according to two persons familiar with the matter.

    The number of subscribers mentioned includes both YouTube Music and Google Play Music services, as well as some consumers that are still using promotional trial accounts. If Google’s YouTube Music has just exceeded 15 million subscribers one year after its rebrand, it’s way behind Apple and Spotify.

    The former reached 50 million subscribers back in January, while Spotify announced late last month that it now has more than 100 million subscribers paying for its premium service.

    Although Google declined to comment on the numbers, it did say that the number of subscribers to YouTube Music grew 60% between March 2018 and March 2019, which is clearly good progress. It remains to be seen whether or not the company will be able to maintain the percentage with which it grew last year or even boost it a little.

    Lees ook:

  • YouTube Music can now play local files on Android

    YouTube Music can now play local files on Android

    The phase-out of Play Music in favor of YouTube Music has been a long time coming, though Google’s actions towards this goal haven’t been particularly quick or decisive up to this point. However, with the latest update, YouTube Music has gained an important feature that brings it closer to being Google’s one and only music streaming service. We’re talking about the ability to play local files on your Android phone – something so basic, yet so elusive.

    The latest update for YouTube Music has added local music integration to the app. The feature can be found under the “Library” tab and allows you to play music files that are stored on your SD card or the internal memory of your Android device.

    Previous updates to Google’s up-and-coming music streaming app allowed it to be used for playback when opening audio files on your phone, but it didn’t have a built-in local content browser, which is the biggest change in the latest iteration.

    Upon launching the local content browser in YouTube Music, you’ll notice a message that reads, “These songs can be played on their own, but can’t be added to queues or playlists with songs from YouTube Music. They also can’t be cast to another device.” This limitation is rather odd, considering the Google Play Music allows for playlists that seamlessly mix on-device songs with tunes from the cloud. This could change in future updates, or could be a strategy to bolster the streaming subscriber base.

    Another omission that should (hopefully) eventually make it into the YouTube Music app is the ability to migrate your library from Google Play Music.

    The local music browser is not yet available worldwide, and seems to be enabled by a server-side switch on Google’s part.

  • Spotify now has 100 million Premium Global Subscribers

    Spotify now has 100 million Premium Global Subscribers

    Twelve months after it first reached 75 million subscribers, Spotify has today announced that 100 million users now pay for its Premium service across the globe. The news represents year-on-year growth of 32% and has helped push Spotify’s revenue figures up an equally impressive 33% to €1.51 billion ($1.67 billion).

    Including users of Spotify’s ad-supported service, the streaming company now has a total of 217 million monthly active users. This figure is up 10 million from last quarter and 44 million when compared to twelve months ago.

    Once again, Europe continued to be Spotify’s most important market followed by North America and Latin America respectively. In North America especially, Premium subscriber growth was driven by Spotify’s continued partnerships with Samsung, Google, and Hulu.

    Specifically, Samsung agreed to pre-install the Spotify app on millions of its smartphones including the recently-released Galaxy S10, buyers of which receive six months of free Spotify Premium. Google, on the other hand, offered Spotify Family Plan users a free Google Home Mini, a promotion which has since been expanded to both the UK and France due to its popularity. Lastly, Hulu and Spotify recently lowered the price of their bundle offer which has boosted interest.

    By the end of this current quarter, Spotify expects to have between 222 and 228 million users, of which 107 to 110 million should be Premium subscribers. Driving this growth will continue to be promotional offers like the ones mentioned above and India, where Spotify registered 2 million users in the month following its launch.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Music Streaming on Amazon for free using Alexa

    Music Streaming on Amazon for free using Alexa

    If you love music and own an Amazon Echo or another device that uses Alexa as a virtual assistant, we have some good news. Late last week, Amazon announced that those in the U.S. can stream top playlists and stations for free, without having to pay for an Amazon Prime or Amazon Music Unlimited subscription. Instead, a free-ad supported tier of music is available for Alexa-enabled devices.

    Alexa will play for free stations based on a song, artist, genre and era. Playlists like Country Heat, Fuego Latino and others are available without any charge. Amazon says that even without a paid subscription, Alexa will respond to the following commands:

    • Say “Alexa, play the playlist Pop Culture” to stream global pop hits.
    • Say “Alexa, play the Imagine Dragons station” to stream a station that plays music “inspired” by the band.
    • Say “Alexa, play 80s music” to stream a station filled with music from that decade.
    • Say “Alexa, play country music” to stream a station playing that style of music.

    Note that with the free ad-supported service, you cannot request specific songs on demand. You can do that if you sign up for Amazon Prime. The cost of the service is $12.99 per month, or $119 a year. Besides streaming ad-free tunes on demand from your Alexa device, you’ll be streaming Prime Video on your phone, tablet or smart television. You also get free two-day shipping, unlimited photo storage, unlimited reading and free same-day delivery (when available).

    You might also consider Amazon Music Unlimited, which gives you unlimited and on-demand access to 50 million songs. After a 30 day free trial, the service is priced at $7.99 a month, undercutting both Spotify and Apple Music by $2.00 a month.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • YouTube Music free on Google Home smart speakers

    YouTube Music free on Google Home smart speakers

    Google has just announced that its YouTube Music service is now available on all Google Home smart speakers. Starting today, those who own a Google Home smart speaker will be able to enjoy all the benefits offered by the music streaming service, but there’s a catch.

    Only the first tier YouTube Music experience is available on Google Home smart speakers, which means you you’ll have to put up with ads. Still, if you don’t mind getting a free, ad-supported music experience on your Google Home, you just need to say “Hey Google, play techno vibes,” and your smart speaker should do the rest.

    But that’s not all, if you upgrade to YouTube Music Premium for $9.99/month, you’ll be getting even more control when listening music on smart speakers in the YouTube Music mobile app. For example, you’ll be able to request specific albums, songs, artists, and playlists on-demand.

    Also, you get access to easy-to-use player controls, including unlimited skips and song replay.Besides the benefits mentioned above, a YouTube Music Premium tier will also let you background play music through the YouTube Music app while using other apps, and allows downloads for offline listening when you’re on the move.

    To start using YouTube Music on your Google Home smart speaker, simply open Account Settings in your Google Home app, go to Services and select Music. Then, choose YouTube Music as the default music service, or you can choose YouTube Music as the default music service during the setup process.

    Now, the free service is available not available everywhere yet, so here are the first countries that will get it starting today: United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Japan, Netherlands, and Austria. The good news is Google will bring it to more countries soon, so there’s that.