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SiriusXM acquires Pandora for $3.5 Bn

23/10/2018

SiriusXM acquires Pandora in an all-stock transaction valuing Pandora at $3.5 Bn to create the world’s largest audio entertainment company. The combined company will merge the largest US audio streaming platform with SiriusXM’s strong in-car presence and have an expected turnover of more than $7 Bn in 2018. The combined company has a market value of about $34 Bn, topping Spotify’s $31.2 Bn and follows an initial purchase by SiriusXM of a 15% stake in […]

SoundCloud upgrades its audio quality

22/10/2018

SoundCloud has upgraded its audio quality for its SoundCloud Go+ subscribers with 256kbps AAC streams available when the original file has been uploaded in a lossless format. Only tracks uploaded in lossless formats such as WAV, FLAC, AIFF, ALAC or a high bitrate will be available for streaming in this higher quality. SoundCloud HQ (High Quality) audio streaming is only available to Go+ subscribers and is in addition to ad-free listening, offline sync and full […]

Apple completes Shazam acquisition

21/10/2018

Apple announced that it has completed its acquisition of Shazam, the song recognition app with a user base of hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music said, “Apple and Shazam have a long history together. Shazam was one of the first apps available when we launched the App Store and has become a favorite app for music fans everywhere, With a shared love of music and innovation, we […]

US Music Modernization Act signed into law

20/10/2018

President Trump signed the Music Modernization Act into law on 11th October 2018. The Orrin G. Hatch–Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act (to give its full title) ‘represents the realization of years of effort by a wide array of policymakers and stakeholders to update the music licensing landscape to better facilitate legal licensing of music by digital services,’ according to the U.S. Copyright Office. The legislation aims to update music licensing and copyright law into the […]

Genius lyrics database now on Apple Music

19/10/2018

Genius lyrics database is now available on Apple Music as the company makes Apple Music its official music player and will share its lyrics on the service. Genius is the world’s biggest encyclopaedia of music, built by artists, scholars, and super-fans working together to go deep inside their favourite songs. Now the encyclopaedia has a soundtrack with Apple Music subscribers who visit Genius able to play any song in full right from the song page, […]

Spotify introduces Spotify for Podcasters

18/10/2018

Spotify has introduced a new beta service, Spotify for Podcasters enabling podcasters to upload their shows and retrieve daily statistics. In a blog post, Spotify has said that they ‘want more people to have access to the tools they need to become great storytellers and have their voices heard, which is why we’re proud to introduce the beta of Spotify for Podcasters. Through this new platform that we’re testing, podcast creators who are hosting their […]

News

BBC to celebrate 100 years of classical music

17/10/2018

This autumn the BBC is to celebrate 100 years of classical music with a landmark season of radio and TV programmes which will end in a specially commissioned work on the First Night of the BBC Proms 2019. The year-long season of programmes will be called Our Classical Century and will contain documentaries and performances celebrating the most memorable musical moments from 1918-2018. The programmes will include: A four-part chronological series on BBC Four introduced […]