NEWS BRIEF: Smule Grabs $12M, MOG Gets FB Bump, Spotify Discounts Won’t Last, NARM & More

Smule, the music app developer behind I am T-Pain and others, has raised another $12 million. The round was led by Shasta Ventures and Shasta partner Jason Pressman has joined the Smule board. Granite Ventures and Bessemer Ventures also participated, (TechCrunch)

• Facebook’s Overhaul Gives MOG a Rocket Ride. (AllThingsD) "The Facebook redesign kicked in just about a month ago, and sure enough, so did MOG’s traffic. It’s now at 160,000 monthly users, up 4x"
• Virgin Media’s Spotify Discounts Will Be Short-Term. (paidContent) How will listener patterns shift when digital streamers retreat from free, as they must to survive?

MORE:

• NARM sets the dates for its annual gathering: Monday, May 7, through Thursday, May 10, at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles,
• Sirius XM Radio reported revenue was up 6% in the 3rd quarter to %763 and the addition 334,000 subscribers bringing their total to 21.3 million subscribers.
• A new album by the late soul singer Amy Winehouse will be released in December, Island Records said Monday.
• ReverbNation is handling free submissions for select slos ar the Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival.
• The three reasons Rocksmith fails as a way to learn guitar. (ars)