The million-dollar business behind elevator music

Everyone has heard these songs… even if they don’t remember them. For decades, these bossa nova versions of great musical hits have invaded restaurants, offices, elevators and television programs. But where do they come from and who’s behind them?

Unity Over Uniformity: How Coordination Can Preserve the Indie Music Ethos

There’s intense pressure to consolidate, yet a real awareness of the indie ethos and its beneficial influence on the industry as a whole, in part because of independent companies’ ability to nurture very different kinds of artist and community relationships. How can independent companies make the best of both?

Spotify rolls out ‘Countdown Pages’ to artists with over 5,000 listeners

Since launching later in 2023, the feature has only been available to artists chosen by Spotify to test it out. Today it’s opening up to a much broader swathe of musicians: anyone who’s had at least 5,000 active listeners in the last 28 days.

Apple Music launches Top 100 chart for classical music album

Johann Sebastian Bach, take a bow: your Keyboard Concertos are a chart-topping success in 2024! Which chart? A brand new one launched by Apple as part of its Apple Music Classical Service. The rankings are for classical-music albums, drawing on data from Apple Music streams, iTunes sales and Shazam tags.

Splice launches $1,000 competition with chance to work with producer Oliver

To enter, you need to create a sample pack of your own original sounds and loops, and upload them to a file hosting service like Dropbox or Google Drive. There aren’t any restrictions on the number of samples in your pack, and you’ll be judged on quality over quantity.

Armada Music Partners with Warner Music Africa to bring Amapiano to Ibiza

he collaboration arrives amid the rising popularity of amapiano, a house music subgenre that originated in South Africa in the mid-2010s. Spotify recently reported that amapiano tracks generated 1.4 billion streams on the platform in 2023 alone, with a growth rate of 5,668% since 2018.

German recorded music market grew 7.6% in first half of 2024

German labels body BVMI has published its mid-year figures for 2024, and they reveal continued growth for the market there.

NBA basketball teams sued by Kobalt over unlicensed music in social media posts

Each team has been sued separately, though the lawsuits all follow the same template. Each filing insists that the targeted team is “acutely aware” of how intellectual property law works, illustrating that point by listing the trademarks and copyrights the team itself has registered. 

Dyson launches “audio-only” headphones

The home appliance company launches a new pair of premium headphones, this time with a slightly more acceptable design.

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