Streaming service Rdio has launched an innovative Artist Program, giving musicians a (potentially) more viable way to make money through streaming. Through the program, artists can make $10 for every fan they bring in to subscribe to the streaming service.
Updated with user review!
Music streaming service Spotify announced this morning that Android users can now download their app for free and use the radio service. Previously, mobile was only available to Premium users.
Keep reading for the details.
Happy birthday to our favorite streaming music service, Spotify! They have now been in the U.S. for a year, and we couldn’t be happier. Do you use Spotify? Why or why not?
Be sure to check out our ATMP Spotify playlist!
Is iTunes going to add a music streaming feature? Read the rumors and leaked information at Music 3.0.
How would iTunes streaming change the music industry?
According to Mark Mulligan (music industry analyst) and the Active Users numbers published on Facebook, Spotify has over 20 million monthly users.
Spotify, however, is saying that they don’t think this number is accurate, and is sticking with its last report of 10 million active users. The Billboard article we found says that these numbers are fairly old, and could have viably risen to 20 million since the report was published.
Why do you think that Spotify would not want higher numbers of active users being reported?
According to Digital Music News, Facebook has confirmed that they will no longer be supporting Facebook Connect to the Grooveshark application due to copyright infringement complaints. The complaints are nothing new to those paying attention to industry news, but it is good to see Facebook taking copyright issues like this seriously.
Not only has Facebook removed access to the app on their site, but they have disabled the ability for Grooveshark users to login using Facebook Connect, which means that the website will surely lose a number of users who do not want to create another account.
DMN shared the above image to show readers what happens when you try to log in to Grooveshark now.
Readers: Do you think Grooveshark will take the necessary actions to become a legal service?
Spotify has expanded its services beyond simply streaming music you would like to hear. They offer radio and apps as well. Recently, we went through the TweetVine app, and today we’re going to show you around The Complete Collection.
The idea behind The Complete Collection is to provide an interactive experience when you are listening to an artist’s music. As an app, they are trying to bring us back to the experience of album artwork and liners that is, for the most part, lost when people are purchasing and listening to their music digitally.
Once you’re in the app, you are shown a group of “Featured Collections.”
I decided to take a look at the A&M/Octone Collection. Once in the Collection, you can choose from all of the albums offered. As you can see in the photograph below, part of the beauty of The Complete Collection is that you can not only see the artwork and notes that the artists included with an album, but you can zoom in to a high-quality image to really take a look at it if you’re interested. The interface works very smoothly, imitating the feel of flipping through the pages of an album liner.
I love that this app shares the album artwork and liner notes with people who might not have seen them otherwise, but another aspect where it really offers a solution is subscribing to artists. Within Spotify, you can subscribe to playlists and albums, but there is no place to just click an artist’s name and subscribe to everything they have done.
The Complete Collection allows you to do this with a Subscribe button placed prominently. This makes it far easier for users to have a playlist with one artist (as opposed to having to add each album or single the musician has released individually).
Leave us a comment if you’ve used The Complete Collection, and tell us what you think of it!
Earbits, the next up-and-comer in Internet radio, is utilizing a business model that many in the music industry look down on: pay to play. Historically, this setup has been found in venues that book bands to play and require that they bring a crowd. Now, Earbits is using it, in that musicians can pay to have their music on the streaming radio, though it’s not quite as simple as it sounds.
Even though they pay, the music that is submitted may not be heard by everyone. For example, if a person skips your track enough times, it will be taken out of rotation. For the listener, this is good, because it means bad musicians can’t get a lot of AirPlay just because they’re willing to pay.
According to Music 3.0, streams and payouts are significantly lower than the leading services (such as Pandora). Read more at the original blog.
Whoops! Metal label Century Media has taken a stance against Spotify, stating that, “in its present shape and form [it] is not the way forward.”
So isn’t it surprising to see albums from this very label up on the streaming service? Apparently it was a mistake on EMI’s part, and they accidentally posted said albums to Spotify. As soon as they realized what they had done, they removed the material and issued a statement, saying they “made a big mistake.”
AT&T has announced that it will start “throttling” accounts once they reach their allotted amount of bandwidth per month. For people who use their smartphone regularly (most of us), even normal use could make you hit the limit. You don’t want to be on a throttled account-reports state that it can take two minutes to load a simple page, making me believe not much else can be accomplished.
For music fans, it’s far worse. If you have started streaming your music using a service such a Spotify, Billboard tells us that, on a regular plan, the most we could listen to is seven hours a day. And that is on the lowest quality. That’s seven hours of music while doing absolutely nothing else (no email, Twitter, videos, etc).
Will this affect any of you?
