Scandinavian Newspaper giant Schibsted to acquire streaming service Aspiro Streaming service Aspiro (WiMP) is to be acquired by Scandinavian news publisher Schibsted, reports paidContent . The price tag is said to be around $50 million, and the purpose of the acquisition is, writes paidContent to “compete with Spotify on the global stage”. Schibsted, a newspaper […]
Spotify closing in on the US It seems that a Spotify US release is imminent. For real this time. Multiple sources report that Spotify has signed a deal with Universal. Sony Music and EMI are both already onboard, and so only Warner remain and they too are rumoured to be close. Worth keeping in mind […]
Google Music now in live beta The biggest news this week was the Google unveiling of their music cloud service. Just like Amazon’s Cloud Player, the Google service is launched without the backing of any label deals. The Amazon and Google Music services works in similar ways. What you get is a place in the cloud […]
Apple trumps Google in race to the cloud According to wide spread rumours, Apple has now secured licensing deals with two of the four major labels in support of their upcoming cloud service. Sources say that deals with the remaining two are not far behind. As you know, Amazon went ahead and launched their cloud […]
Spotify changes to free cause commotion This week Spotify announced changes to their free plan. Reactions have been split between two extremes that can be summed up as: 1. Pay up and shut up you spoiled brats. It’s hardly expensive, is it? 2. I hate you Spotify. I hate you, I hate you I hate […]
iTunes in the cloud this spring? Both The Music Void and Hypebot report that Apple is hoping to have their long awaited locker service in place in the same release package as the advertised MobileMe re-launch this April. Warner is supposed to be onboard, and UMG and EMI is expected to follow. Observers say that […]
100 million USD funding round puts Spotify at 1 billion USD valuation Reports and rumours of Spotify’s recent fundraising endeavours have circled the Internet this week. Word is that Spotify is raising over 100 million USD. The deal is led by Russian venture firm DST, who has previous investments in Facebook, Groupon and Zynga. Over […]
Apple App rules upset the industry Apple introduced their new in-app subscription service this week, which have caused a lot of commotion in the industry. Basically, Apple says that if you want to charge users for subscriptions using the in-app service, you will have to give Apple a 30% cut. Apple still allows for developers […]