December 2018

Spotify settles $1.6 Bn copyright claim

31/12/2018

Spotify settles $1.6 Bn copyright claim brought by Wixen Music Publishing who represent over 2000 songwriters and publishers including Neil Young, Tom Petty and the Black Keys. Wixen Music Publishing had been seeking $1.6 Bn in damages for copyright infringement of more than 10,000 songs but settled out of court for an undisclosed sum which is likely to be significantly less than this as Spotify has not been required to disclose the amount to the […]

HMV Flagship Store, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

HMV closes its Hong Kong stores

30/12/2018

HMV closes its Hong Kong stores giving the growth of streaming and the decline in physical sales as the main reason for the decision to wind up the business. HMV Digital China Group Ltd, the ultimate owners of the stores, applied to the Hong Kong Stock exchange to wind up HMV Marketing Ltd (HMV Retail) on the 18th December 2018. In its winding up petition the company declared that the revenue generated from HMV Retail […]

iHeartMedia and Clear Channel agree demerger terms

29/12/2018

iHeartMedia and Clear Channel agree demerger terms to fully separate the two companies into fully independent businesses as part of iHeartMedia’s restructuring. The separation is expected to occur in conjunction with, and is subject to, iHeartMedia’s emergence from its ongoing restructuring process. Currently iHeartMedia owns 89.1% of Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc.(CCOH) outstanding common stock. “Today’s announcement is recognition that while iHeartMedia and CCOH are both very strong in their respective areas – iHeartMedia is […]

Your year in music with Spotify Wrapped 2018

28/12/2018

Relive your year in music with Spotify Wrapped 2018, a collection of the music and podcasts that formed your personal soundtrack in 2018. Wrapped is a customised, interactive experience based on the music you’ve listened to this year. You can guess, then check, how many total minutes you streamed, explore the number of new artists you discovered, your most-played songs and artists, and your top genres and then share your results to your Instagram, Twitter […]

Japanese charts to include streams and downloads

27/12/2018

Japanese charts to include streams and downloads from 19th December 2018. Chart rankings from Oricon, Japan’s official chart organisation, will add the number of CD sales, digital downloads and streams to produce three new weekly charts: a combined single chart a combined album chart a streaming chart The combined singles chart will be calculated using a points system where a CD single will count for 1 point, 2.5 song downloads will equal 1 point and […]

Major revamp for Poweramp

26/12/2018

A major revamp for Poweramp has been released with a new audio engine, UI and navigation for this popular Android music player. With a rating from 1.25m users of 4.4 out of 5 on Google Play Store it is available to buy for $3.99 with a 15-day free trial before you need to commit to a purchase. Users who have already bought V2 are entitled to a free upgrade to V3. The major new features […]

Reselling ‘used’ digital music declared illegal

25/12/2018

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has found the reselling of ‘used’ digital music illegal. In a ruling handed down on 12th December 2018 it rejected an appeal by Redigi who had created a platform for the resale of legally purchased music files and reaffirmed the original judgement in favour of Capitol Records LLC who had won a $3.5 million settlement in a New York City federal court in 2013. The ruling […]