December 2020

UK vinyl and cassette sales surge in 2020

29/12/2020

UK vinyl and cassette sales surge in 2020 with vinyl sales worth twice as much as music video streaming platforms, such as YouTube, despite the tens of billions of videos watched every year. New figures released by the BPI based on provisional Official Charts Company data for the year show that alongside continued growth in streaming, which now accounts for around 80% of UK music consumption, sales of vinyl LPs and audio cassettes surged ahead in 2020. […]

EU updates its Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List

24/12/2020

EU updates its Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List which was first published last year which ‘names websites and physical marketplaces outside the EU that are reported to engage in, facilitate or benefit from counterfeiting and piracy.’ The Watch List aims to encourage the operators of these marketplaces to prevent intellectual property infringements and inform citizens on the environmental, product safety and other risks of purchasing from these potentially problematic markets. The Watch List has four […]

Holiday music listening started earlier on Amazon Music

23/12/2020

Holiday music listening started earlier on Amazon Music in 2020 with 3.5Bn streams and 230 million voice requests so far. The Amazon Music holiday programming team has curated hundreds of new playlists and stations such as Christmas Past, Holiday Pop and Feel-Good Christmas. In 2020 holiday listening earlier than ever before with listeners playing seasonal music around the clock and asking Alexa to play holiday music every minute of every day since 1st October. Amazon Music has also surpassed 3.5 Bn […]

Spotify plans to launch in South Korea

22/12/2020

Spotify plans to launch in South Korea with a rollout expected in first half of 2021 according to a recent announcement by the streamer. Since Spotify debuted its first K-Pop playlist in 2014, listeners have streamed more than 180 Bn minutes of the genre and added K-Pop tracks to more than 120 million playlists. In the last six years, the share of K-Pop listening on Spotify has increased by more than 2,000%. Launching in South […]

Listening to Spotify podcasts on Alexa extended

19/12/2020

Listening to Spotify podcasts on Alexa extended in 11 new countries – Germany, France, Italy, Spain, UK, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, India, Austria, and Ireland. Spotify rolled out this feature in the US in late 2019 and has now extended this to more countries to both Free and Premium subscribers. How to setup listening to Spotify podcasts on Alexa Go to the Amazon Alexa App. Open the menu, head to Settings, then Music & Podcasts. If […]

Naim Radio

19/12/2020

Naim Radio is one of three internet radio channels from Naim Records – a part of the top end HiFi firm Naim Audio. The three channels showcase the company’s unique approach to combining an uncompromising attitude to recording quality and a desire to promote less well-known artists. Naim Records “has traditionally given a voice to musicians whose music may not have had the chance to be heard by a wider audience, and continues to do […]

NPR shows available as Spotify Podcasts

16/12/2020

NPR shows available as Spotify Podcasts giving worldwide listeners the opportunity to connect with NPR’s daily source of wisdom and entertainment previously available only to Americans. Every day, millions connect with NPR and NPR Member stations across the US for everything from pop culture podcasts to the nightly news. In 2018 Spotify announced that US fans of NPR would also be able to stream select NPR shows on Spotify, making NPR’s offerings available in one convenient place. […]