music streaming
Chronicling how music streaming services work, and reactions to them
Tony Lashley and
music streaming
We already know that by ownership independents account for nearly half of the recorded music market. The reality is that the feeding frenzy in the independent sector is a sign of the majors’ weakness rather than their strength.
Streaming has shattered the barriers to market entry the majors created in the CD age. That trend will only continue.
The... See more
Streaming has shattered the barriers to market entry the majors created in the CD age. That trend will only continue.
The... See more
Bruno Guez • Nothing will stand in the way of independents (and why the world’s first three-person indie unicorn is only a matter of time away) - Music Business Worldwide
Hellman & Friedman 's majority stake in Global Music Rights marks a watershed moment — private equity firms now control three major PROs (alongside New Mountain Capital's BMI and Blackstone's SESAC). Blackstone 's successful acquisition of Hipgnosis Songs Fund further cements institutional investors’ central role in the financialization of music... See more
Music tech ownership ouroboros, 2025 edition
In 1926, the year before The Jazz Singer popularized pre-recorded sound to cinema, theater pits employed 22,000 musicians in the United States; by 1934, there were only 4,100. Fewer musicians’ salaries meant lower ticket prices and more daily showings, and attendance almost doubled. New York City’s Local 802 organized picket lines outside theaters... See more
Worker’s Song | Franz Nicolay
What Does Music Mean to Spotify? An Essay on Musical Significance in the Era of Digital Curation
Asher T Chodosacademia.edu
Abstract: The growing field of “critical algorithm studies” often addresses the cultural consequences of machine learning, but it has ignored music. Te result is that we inhabit a musical culture intimately bound up with various forms of algorithmic mediation, personalization, and “surveillance capitalism” that has largely escaped critical attention. But the issue of algorithmic mediation in music should matter to us, if music matters to us at all. This article lays the groundwork for such critical attention by looking at one major musical application of machine learning: Spotify’s automated music recommendation system. In particular, it takes for granted that any musical recommendation – whether made by a person or an algorithm – must necessarily imply a tacit theory of musical meaning. In the case of Spotify, we can make certain claims about that theory, but there are also limits to what we can know about it. Both things – the deductions and the limitations – prove valuable for a critique of automated music curation in general."
“Today musicians only keep 8% of streaming revenues, but AI will squeeze them further. Four years from now, musicians will only receive 6.4% of streaming revenues (Source: CISAC).” | Source
Detection systems are being embedded across the entire music pipeline: in the tools used to train models, the platforms where songs are uploaded, the databases that license rights, and the algorithms that shape discovery. The goal isn’t just to catch synthetic content after the fact. It’s to identify it early, tag it with metadata, and govern how... See more
The music industry is building the tech to hunt down AI songs
There is currently a general lack of transparency around Discovery Mode . At the market level, it’s unclear who is engaging with the programme, whether the major rightsholders are using it or gain similar bene fi ts through other means, and how other interested parties are affected when it is utilised on a track. These concerns are compounded by... See more
Dan Fowler • Combating the Emergence of a Two-Tier Music Streaming Market: Analysis and recommendations to support a future industry of innovation, inclusivity, and sustainable growth
Daniel Ek, the CEO, is selling $100 million in Spotify stock. This couldn’t happen at a worse time.