Category: Blog

The Record Store Day Numbers Are In

Larry Miller

rsd2

The numbers are in from last weekend’s festival of vinyl and a familiar vinyl champion is at the top of the charts. The White Stripe’s “Get Behind Me Satan” took the crown as RSD 2015’s top seller. Metallica’s cassette tape — yes, cassette tape —  “No Life Til Leather” took second place. Check out the whole chart of top sellers below.

Overall, numbers for Record Store Day 2015 showed a 24.3% increase in Album Sales and 97.2% increase in Singles Sales. Vinyl sales went up over 1,500% from 2014.
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Apple is Trying to Pay Artists for Exclusives, and It Isn’t Working

Larry Miller

Apple might not be very used to this. Following the acquisition of Beats Music, the company has been trying to develop a new streaming service. In what seems like an attempt to keep up with Jay-Z’s Tidal, Apple has been throwing money at artists for exclusive content, but no one is really interested so far. The New York Times Magazine reports that Kanye claims to have turned down a “multimillion dollar partnership with Apple”. According to Bloomberg, Apple “has asked Florence and the Machine and more than a dozen other artists for exclusive deals to promote a revamped Beats Music, and persuade people to ante up for what they’re accustomed to getting pretty much for free.”

Apple might have a lot of catching up to do in the world of streaming, and they’re not being shy about approaching some of the artists that aligned with Tidal, perhaps hoping some will jump ship.

Spotify Valuation Reaches New Heights

Larry Miller

Spotify is kind of a big deal. The streaming goliath recently went back in for more funding and are nearing a deal worth a reported $400 million from Goldman Sachs and the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund. That would place the company’s valuation at a whopping $8.4 billion. That makes Spotify worth twice as much as Pandora, and worth more than the $8 billion offered for the world’s largest music company, Universal.

This news comes as another big landmark for a company that seems to be pioneering what a streaming service can do, and proves that–despite the argument that the cost of a streaming subscription should be lowered — investors believe Spotify’s best days lie ahead.

Soundcloud Cracks Down on Copyright

Larry Miller


If you’re a copyright infringer and you thought your Soundcloud account was safe–think again. According to The Verge SoundCloud has partnered with the same company that helps YouTube scan their videos for copyright infringement. Though it would seem that the goal is not increased litigation. It’s possible that the goal of the partnership copyright holders to get paid even when the media was uploaded illegally. This works by allowing copyright holders to run ads on the illegally uploaded content, thereby monetizing the previously revenue-less upload.