Two Interesting News Items from the World of Streaming Music
Two things about streaming music that are worthy of your attention.
Item 1: Spotify to restrict certain albums to its paid tier.
Spotify has been dead against segregating their music offerings, unequivocally stating that all users should have access to all music, regardless if they’re using the free tier or the paid subscription. That stance seems to have come to an end.
According to multiple reports (like this one), Spotify will soon restrict certain albums (read: records from artists with clout) to the paid tier. Wanna hear the new Taylor Swift? Pay up.
Why the change in position? Spotify is preparing to sign a new licensing deal with the major labels after two years being without one. And you just know that they want to clean up as many loose ends as possible so they can finally offer in IPO.
Item 2: Google Play to offer betting sounding audio.
From Engadget:
After seemingly forgetting about Google Play Music for an extended period of time, the search juggernaut has been showing its music streaming app newfound love lately. The newest update across Android and iOS adds options for playback quality (low, normal, high and always high) over WiFi and for downloaded tracks. Previously, you could only adjust quality for streaming over mobile data. As 9to5 Google notes however, the selections don’t say what bitrate each option corresponds to.
