January 2020

Pandora launches ‘Fluent’ for Black History Month

31/01/2020

Pandora launches ‘Fluent’ for Black History Month to celebrate the contribution that Black artists have made to music around the globe with a new Rhythm and Blues station. According to a recent blog posting, Pandora said that ‘R&B is the great equalizer. It is more than a genre of music. It is a language – one that spans cultures, backgrounds, and generations. It is a thread that connects the black community around the world. It is […]

BMW launches Connected Music streaming solution

31/01/2020

BMW launches Connected Music streaming solution which integrates Deezer, Spotify and Napster services into its Connected Package Professional. The new in-car music streaming solution has been developed for the BMW OS 7.0 infotainment system which is offered as standard equipment in the high-end Connected Package Professional package. The BMW Connected service will be available to customers at no charge for 3 years giving unrestricted use with no additional data or roaming charges when using Connected […]

Listening to albums is in decline

30/01/2020

Listening to albums is in decline with over half of us admitting to listening to fewer albums in the last five years according to a recent survey by Deezer. The survey in January 2020 of 8,000 adults which included 2000 interviews from respondents in the US, Germany, France and Brazil found the following results: Over half (54%) of us listen to fewer albums than 5 -10 years ago Biggest reasons: being too busy and artists […]

Sonos back peddles on ‘legacy’ product updates

27/01/2020

Sonos back peddles on ‘legacy’ product updates having received countless complaints from its customer base on plans to stop updating its older products from May this year. In a blog posting, the CEO of Sonos, Patrick Spence, apologised to customers and offered what amounts to a split upgrading process where legacy kit will continue to receive updates to allow them to coexist and function with other products but will not receive newer features. No details […]

90 day free trial of Amazon Music HD

27/01/2020

You can get a 90 day free trial of Amazon Music HD giving access to 50 million songs in CD Quality (Amazon HD) and ‘millions’ of songs in HiRes (Amazon Ultra HD). After the 90-day period, your free trial subscription will auto-renew and you will pay the full monthly price of £14.99 (£12.99/month for Prime members) Amazon Music HD Individual Plan or £19.99 for the Amazon Music HD Family Plan with the option to cancel […]

The Smart Audio Report Winter 2019 report

Quarter of US adults own a smart speaker

26/01/2020

Quarter of US adults own a smart speaker according to a report from NPR and Edison Research which found that 60 million US adults (24% of the 18+ population) own at least one smart speaker device. The Winter 2019 Smart Audio Report confirmed continued growth in the smart speaker market with the average smart speaker household now having 2.6 devices, up from 2.3 devices per household at the same time last year. The research also […]

UK music streaming tops £1 Bn in 2019

25/01/2020

UK music streaming tops £1 Bn in 2019 recording the fifth consecutive year of growth according to data compiled by the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA). The report on entertainment spending in the UK contains information on music, video and games sales for the year and can be downloaded here. Spending by UK music fans on streaming services exceeded £1 Bn for the first time in 2019 as overall expenditure on entertainment increased to another all-time-high. […]