While many artists have some serious moral quandaries about driving their fans to YouTube given Google's suspect data practices, Chris Castle here looks at why Amazon is in fact a far guiltier culprit.

Spotify reached a record 2.5 million average simultaneous streams in October of last year, according to Triton Digital’s Top-20 ranking. Pandora stayed steady around 2 million average streams while over all webcast listening grew 12% year of year.

While music discovery has, in many ways, become easier than ever, a new study suggests that there's a limited period of time in the average consumer's life when they're actually finding new music, and at a certain age 'musical paralysis' sets in and the discovery ceases.

The UK based Association of Independent Music (AIM) has announced Ninja Tune MD Peter Quicke as its new chair. Quicke, who has been with London's Ninja Tune since shortly after its inception in the early ’90s, will step into the board appointed role effective immediately.

This year’s ASCAP “I Create Music” EXPO will bring together some of the past year’s most successful songwriters on May 2 – 4, 2019 in Los Angeles.  Panels and panelists announced for the expo include Ariana Grande’s Thank U, Next and Sweetener collaborators Victoria Monet, Tommy Brown and Charles “Scootie” Anderson, who will be on hand for a behind-the-scenes discussion around Grande’s best-known hits.

When opening for a more established artist, it's important to stick to a certain etiquette. The journey from opening artist to main act is full of pitfalls, but by sticking to these five rules, we can help you maximize your success and limit your failures in the opening slot.

For artists, creating original, successful content can be a challenge, but like so many things, systems and guides have been developed which can provide bands and artists with the structure for creating content that is either wholly new, or remixes preexisting elements in a new, unique way.

For many artists, touring is one of the primary ways in which they maintain a living as a musician, making it that much more troubling to learn that many artists who do live shows aren't walking away with all the performance royalties to which they are entitled. Here Ari Herstand explains what artists must do claim this additional revenue.

Joshua Sason, whose Magna Group is one of PdgeMusic's largest investors, has been sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for fraud. A Friday SEC filing accuses Sason of an elaborate scheme to illegally obtain $25 million in shares of penny stock to unload on investors.

Recently a twenty-five year old Dinorsaur Jr. song called "Over Your Shoulder" agitated musical waters when it mysteriously popped out of the blue ta #18 on the Japanese Billboard charts. Here we look at what exactly went on that earned this quarter-century old tune its renaissance.

The law firm representing musician and artist advocate David Lowery and other songwriters has filed a motion for preliminary approval of a settlement that will see self-published songwriters paid as much as $10 million by Rhapsody and it's Napster music streaming service.

In the wake of Gary Clark Jr's recent performance on the coveted SNL stage, talent developer and music business writer Jesse Kirshbaum here takes a moment to reflect on why a powerful and iconic "real life guitar hero" like Clark Jr. still struggles to break into the mainstream of music.

As the reality of data harvesting settles in among consumers, music tech companies are forced to choose where they in the coming privacy war, a where in which honesty and transparency could provide the greatest competitive advantage.

Music licensing platform Songtradr has acquired global music licensing agency Big Sync Music. The combined companies will offer Songtradr clients more access to top tier brands and give Big Sync direct access to Songtradr's massive catalog and propriety technology platform.

Independent music distribution and label services company Symphonic Distribution is extending its services to include a new sync licensing division called Bodega Sync.

Bloodshot records co-owner Nan Warshaw is “stepping away” from her duties at the indie label, following sexual misconduct allegations against her life partner, musician Mark Panick. The allegations came to light in a series of social media posts by singer-songwriter Lydia Loveless, in which she accused Panick of “casual predation” that includes inappropriate comments and groping.

PledgeMusic issued an update late on Friday, but failed to address the core concerns of artists affected by non-payments and the complete suspension of all crowdfunding campaigns almost two weeks ago.

TUESDAY 2.18.19

Music Business News From Around The Web

Updated continuously under the More News tab

MIDiA analyst Mark Mulligan takes a deep dive into Spotify's latest public numbers and finds some areas for real concern. "Spotify is growing its subscriber base markedly more quickly than it is growing its premium revenue," says Mulligan, and that is resulting in declining average revenue per user (APRU).

In this piece Cherie Hu looks at how Spotify's major investments in third party licensing deals and original podcast development are validating investor predictions and causing it to become the Netflix of audio while potentially putting its brand at risk.

For the DJs and bloggers who have to deal with your MP3s professionally, few things are more frustrating than having an artist provide music which is unlabeled and contains no meta-tag. Correctly labeling your music is, as luck would have it, actually not that hard, and here we walk through exactly how to do it.

In this piece, Alex Tiuniaev unveils a new method of examining how we listen to music using something called the Music Experience Quadrant, which places music on a spectrum between emotional vs. rational, and abstract vs. visual.

In a setback in actor and dance innovator Alfonso Ribeiro's battle against game creators, the U.S. Copyright Office has ruled that his “Carlton Dance” cannot be copyrighted.

2.18.19

Music Business News From Around The Web

Updated continuously under the More News tab

This week commentators in the music industry look at what what Billboard's Power 100 list got right and wrong, streaming's significant problem with math, why Ariana Grande's fans are the fans every artist needs, and more.

We've got tips, tricks, and helpful advice this week on how to make the most out of your next music premier, how to make Instagram stories work for you as a marketing tool in 2019, what really matters when it comes to being a successful musician, and more!

Contributors on MusicThinkTank this week shared pieces on how to build and use and email list, the best way to roll out your music, the problematic cliche of the starving artist, and more!

As we furiously backpedal through a crowded seven days in the music biz, we revisit RPM's bankruptcy and debts, Cardi B's deletion of her Instagram account, how identity theft is becoming a new trend in music piracy, and more.