MCN consolidation as Rightster buys Base79 for up to £50m
UK-based multi-channel network (MCN) Base79 is familiar to the music industry, partly through its deal to run the channel of Ministry of Sound – one of the first of its kind when it launched in 2009 –...
View ArticleTim Quirk and Bryan Calhoun team up for new music gamification startup
Two well-regarded figures from the US digital music industry are teaming up for a new startup, Freeform Development. Tim Quirk used to work at Rhapsody before moving to Google as head of global content...
View ArticleSpotify’s VP of Europe Chris Maples leaves for pastures new
Spotify’s European boss Chris Maples has left the company. The ad industry veteran joined the streaming service in April 2011 as its UK managing director and European sales director, before being...
View ArticleBBC Radio 1 explains its video plans for iPlayer
The BBC’s Radio 1 is planning to launch a ‘visual’ space on its parent corporation’s iPlayer service later this year, and controller Ben Cooper has been explaining why and how in a blog post. “Over 40%...
View ArticlePandora signs direct deal with BMG
Pandora has signed a direct multi-year licensing deal with BMG. The deal covers BMG’s catalogue of works that are paid through ASCAP and BMI and the deal terms, for now, just apply to the US (Pandora...
View ArticleHalf of YouTube viewing now happens on mobile devices
YouTube boss Susan Wojcicki gave a keynote interview at the Code/Mobile conference yesterday, with a few nuggets on how YouTube is evolving, and new (old) features it might be getting. One notable...
View ArticleFluence aims to ‘connect curators and creators’
Topspin co-founder Shamal Ranasinghe has returned with a new service: Fluence, which we’ve already seen described as Topspin-meets-LinkedIn. The company puts it another way: “a simple utility to...
View ArticlePatreon now paying out $1m a month to creators
Continuous crowdfunding service Patreon just hit a new milestone: $1m of payouts every month to the musicians, YouTubers and other creators raising money from their fans using its site. “It confirms a...
View ArticleBBC scores recreated with BBC Orchestral Toolkit
TV and digital media producers can now tap in to the BBC’s history of soundtracks, through a new product from Universal Publishing Production Music’s Beeb-branded label. It’s called the BBC Orchestral...
View ArticleFlipboard app becomes a website – with topics and magazines
More than 50 million people read their news using the Flipboard app for tablets and smartphones, with the US startup having explored music through a partnership with SoundCloud. Its big news yesterday,...
View ArticleApps up but music and other content down for Apple
Earlier this week, Apple hailed an impressive quarter for its App Store, with revenues up 29% year-on-year. It didn’t say anything about other iTunes Store content, but yesterday we got an idea why....
View ArticleYouTube’s future strategy: ‘It’s all mobile, mobile, mobile’
We published our interview with YouTube’s senior content exec Robert Kyncl yesterday, but he’s also been talking at more length about the wider strategy of Google’s online video service. It’s almost...
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