Random music news for Tuesday, September 25, 2018
Back in the home office for a few days, long enough for the dogs to recognize me again. Here’s what’s going on with music news for September 25, 2018. And there’s LOTS to talk about.
- Weekly Canadian music sales and streams vs. this time last year: Total albums, -19.3%; digital albums, -19.8%; physical albums, -19.0%; CDs, -22.8%; digital tracks, -22.7%; vinyl, +34.8%; streaming, +50.1% (1.461 billion streams last week.)
- Apple has completed its $400 million acquisition of Shazam. That means no more ads on the app.
- This doesn’t mean too much to Canadians given that Pandora hasn’t been available in Canada for years, but SiriusXM has just bought the company for $3.5 billion. This could shake things up a bit, especially when it comes to competing with streaming services.
- Strange that Toyota picked exactly this time to drop Pandora from its dashboards.
- Meanwhile, French streamer Deezer is rolling out a “mood detection” function that could make choosing music and creating playlists easier…
- …and Spotify is testing new “personalized” playlists.
- Okay, I get it. Here’s what Led Zeppelin’s proposed new streaming service would offer.
- No, radio is not dead. It’s still very much alive. See?
- And on the topic of radio, there’s this. Radio people should watch it.
- Dave Grohl’s new job: BBQ pitmaster.
- What’s this talk of a podcasting slump?
- Podcasting seems to be going full steam ahead at Corus Radio, my biggest client.
- Carrie Underwood’s new album, Cry Pretty, sold over 250,000 physical copies in the US in its first week. That’s a pretty solid number in this day and age. But then again, country fans still prefer CDs to streaming.
- Jeremy Dutcher’s Polaris Award-winning album had a nice sales and streaming boost. Some nice press coverage, too.
- And here comes the 50th-anniversary edition of The Beatles’ white album.
- And that’s it for Paul Simon’s touring career.
- A sprayable antenna? This could be a breakthrough for future smartphones.
- Another big festival bites the dust.
- There’s a new Joe Strummer compilation coming this Friday called Joe Strummer 001.
- A French Muslim rapper has been pressured to bail on a performance at the Bataclan Theatre in Paris.
- Cool: A Beastie Boys book tour. (Via Gilles)
- Finally, here’s still more fallout from the recent Ticketmaster expose by the CBC and the Toronto Star.
