Final refrain for iPod as Apple stops production

SAN FRANCISCO, United States - Apple put out word it is no longer making iPods, the trend-setting MP3 players that transformed how people get music and gave rise to the iPhone.

Late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs introduced the devices nearly 21 years ago with his legendary showmanship flare, and the small, easy to operate players helped the company revolutionize how music was sold.

It packed "a mind-blowing 1,000 songs" the company said at the time, and together with Apple's iTunes shop established a new distribution model for the music industry.

Buying complete albums on vinyl gave way to paying 99 cents a piece for selected digital songs.

Industry trackers and California-based Apple itself have long acknowledged that the do-it-all iPhone would eat away at sales of one-trick devices such as iPod MP3 players.

The trend toward streaming music services, including one by Apple, has made devices designed just for carrying digital tunes around less enticing for consumers.

Apple said in a blog post that the current generation of iPods will only be available as long as current supplies last.

"Music has always been part of our core at Apple, and bringing it to hundreds of millions of users in the way iPod did impacted more than just the music industry," said Apple senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing Greg Joswiak.

"It also redefined how music is discovered, listened to, and shared."

Joswiak said that the "spirit of iPod" lives on in its lineup of products including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and its HomePod smart speaker.

"Since its introduction over 20 years ago, iPod has captivated users all over the world who love the ability to take their music with them on the go," Apple said in a blog post.

"Today, the experience of taking one’s music library out into the world has been integrated across Apple’s product line - from iPhone and Apple Watch to iPad and Mac."

In addition, the Apple Music subscription service provides streaming access to more than 90 million songs, the Silicon Valley giant said.

The iPod endured despite analyst worries that the release of the iPhone in 2007 would destroy demand, since the smartphones provided much more than just digital music.

News of the end of the line for iPod prompted a flurry of sad, nostalgic posts on Twitter.

"Damn... low-key a little sad to see that Apple has officially discontinued the iPod from today," said a tweet fire off from the verified @MrDalekJD account of a UK Gaming YouTuber.

"This thing changed the music game forever. RIP."

Agence France-Presse

Spotify drops paying subscribers in Russia; free service to remain

Music streaming giant Spotify said Thursday its paid subscription service would no longer be available in Russia, as sanctions had made processing payments in the country impossible.

"Due to new restrictions introduced by major payment providers, payment processing is not currently possible for the majority of Premium users in Russia," a Spotify spokesman told AFP.

Paid premium accounts "will be cancelled if a recurring payment fails and the account will then be automatically moved to our free service," he said in a written statement. 

The company said it had also "paused all advertising campaigns running in Russia."

Spotify did not immediately confirm to AFP how many subscribers it expected lose in Russia.

Spotify's free service would however remain available in Russia "to allow for the global flow of information," it said, adding that "arts and news are a powerful force for good."

The Swedish company, which is listed on the New York stock exchange, already announced last week that it was closing its offices in Russia and removing Russian state-sponsored content, such as news outlets RT and Sputnik, from its service.

Agence France-Presse

Taylor Swift’s new song sizzles on YouTube and Spotify

Less than two weeks after releasing her single “Look What You Made Me Do,” which topped the charts in several countries and went viral on YouTube and Spotify, Taylor Swift has unleashed a new song that has garnered a lot of attention as well.

Following its debut at a college football game that aired on ESPN, Swift’s new record, “…Ready for It,” has already garnered over 6.6 million views for its audio-only video at YouTube since its release on Monday.

The song now holds the top spot in Spotify’s Top 200 daily chart for the United States and has also quickly jumped to No. 3 at Spotify’s Top 200 global daily chart just one day after its debut. As of September 4, the song had over 3.5 million global streams on Spotify.

A pulsating pop-dance record that once again makes references to the 27-year-old American pop star’s personal life and string of relationships, “…Ready for It” also takes aim at the on and off romance of Hollywood legends Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor who got married twice.

As impressive as its numbers are, the initial reception for “…Ready for It” is a far cry from the record-setting numbers of “Look What You Made Do” which in a week’s time has amassed over 280 million YouTube views for its music (217 million) and lyric (63 million) videos.

“Look What You Made Me Do” is also the song that currently sits at No. 1 in Spotify’s global Top 200 where it has amassed over 4.8 million streams. The song has also topped the charts in Australia, Czech Republic, Greece, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, Slovakia, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

In the United States, “Look What You Made Me Do” recently debuted at No. 77 in Billboard’s Hot 100 charts. Billboard also reported that the song became the fastest selling download since Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You.”

“Look What You Made Me Do” is Swift’s first record following a year of making headlines for non-musical reasons including a recent high-profile groping court case that she won. The song is addressed to several unnamed detractors who have tried to bring her down.

Both “…Ready for It” and “Look What You Made Me Do” are featured tracks on Swift’s upcoming album, “Reputation,” which is scheduled for global release on November 10.

source: interaksyon.com

Spotify losses deepen despite rapid expansion

STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Streaming leader Spotify said Monday that its losses deepened last year even as the company topped $2 billion in revenue amid the global boom in online music.

The Swedish company founded in 2008 has been at the forefront of the music industry’s turn to streaming, which offers unlimited music on demand, yet it has never turned a profit itself.

Luxembourg-based holding company Spotify Technologies, submitting its annual earnings report, said its revenue jumped 80 percent to 1.945 billion euros ($2.18 billion) in 2015.

The growth rate is significantly stronger than the 45 percent it charted in 2014 and slightly higher than the 74 percent seen in 2013.

“In many ways, it was our best year ever,” the company said in a message to shareholders, describing Spotify as the top driver of growth for the entire music industry.

The company said its revenue from advertisements nearly doubled and that its user base also grew significantly.

Spotify said it had 89 million active monthly users by the end of 2015, up from 60 million a year earlier, of whom some 28 million were paying for subscriptions.

The company’s founder, Daniel Ek, had said in March that Spotify reached 30 million paying subscribers.

But the growth did not erase losses, with Spotify putting a priority on investments at a stage when streaming is increasingly becoming mainstream.

The company’s net losses totalled 173 million euros, nearly seven percent deeper than a year before.

“We believe our model supports profitability at scale,” the company said.

“We believe that we will generate substantial revenues as our reach expands and that, at scale, our margins will improve,” it said.

“We will therefore continue to invest relentlessly in our product and marketing initiatives to accelerate reach,” it said.

Spotify says it offers more than 30 million songs on-demand but has also faced growing competition.

Tech giant Apple last year launched its own streaming service and rap mogul Jay-Z has spearheaded rival Tidal, adding to a market that also includes French-based Deezer and US-based Rhapsody.

Spotify has also faced prominent holdouts including Tayor Swift, Adele and Radiohead who have kept some or all of their music off the service, in part due to objections to its free tier.

source: interaksyon.com

Spotify readies to launch video

NEW YORK — Spotify said Monday it will imminently launch video content as the music streaming leader seeks ways to build an audience in the increasingly competitive sector.

The Swedish company will begin webcasting videos by the end of next week on both Android and Apple system smartphones, a Spotify spokesman said.

The videos will initially be available in four markets — Britain, Germany, Sweden and the United States.

Spotify’s chief executive Daniel Ek had announced the expansion into video in May during an event in New York on the company’s future plans, although he did not give a timeframe and the company has been testing its offerings.

  
Spotify at the time said that it would offer exclusive content from media partners as well as existing production and podcasts.

Media companies involved in Spotify’s video plans include major US networks, the BBC, sports leader ESPN, documentary news site Vice and comedy channel Adult Swim.

The Wall Street Journal quoted Spotify’s vice president of product, Shiva Rajaraman, as saying the primary audience would still be music fans.

The company, the report said, will air original music-themed series but most video will consist of short snippets.

Spotify is the leader of the fast-growing sector of streaming. The company says it has more than 75 million regular users, of whom 20 million pay subscriptions for advertisement-free access.

The company, which is privately held, does not release its earnings but is widely believed to be gambling that it can invest heavily initially and turn a profit later.

Smaller rivals have invested heavily in video as a way to win over customers.

Apple Music, which launched in June, recently offered an exclusive tour movie by pop superstar Taylor Swift.

Tidal, led by rap mogul Jay Z, has gone a step further by exclusively webcasting series without a direct music link including the drug-dealing drama “Money and Violence.”

Online content giant YouTube also recently launched a music streaming site, which lets users toggle between videos and audio-only tracks.

source: interaksyon.com

BBC, Reader’s Digest, Spotify join #AlDub bandwagon

Even the rest of the world is taking a closer look at #AlDub.

No longer confined to the entire country, the phenomenal #AlDub love team of Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza is also beginning to capture the imagination of foreign media.

One day after InterAksyon tried to make sense of #AlDub, BBC News Online, the most frequently accessed news website of the United Kingdom, posted the news story “’AlDub’: A social media phenomenon about love and lip-synching” Wednesday (Thursday, Manila time).

Written by Heather Chen, the piece also tries to put #AlDub in the proper perspective as it offers “everything you need to know about lip-synching, being in love with somebody you have never met and how to break records on Twitter.”

The story includes interviews with TV host and blogger Daphne Oseña-Paez as well as BBC presenter Rico Hizon who confesses to being a fan of the “Kalyeserye” segment of “Eat Bulaga” where #AlDub began as a split-screen love team.

It also cited several local reports, including InterAksyon’s own piece on Maine Mendoza being in the same league as Taylor Swift and Katy Perry as among the fastest growing celebrities on Twitter.

Aside from the BBC, Reader’s Digest is also jumping on the #AlDub bandwagon. Alden and Maine are set to grace the cover of the December issue of the Asian edition of the 93-year-old general interest magazine that originated in New York in 1922.

Like the BBC, Reader’s Digest is also considered an institution and to date, continues to have a strong presence in print media.

The “globalization” of #AlDub does not end there as the popular music streaming service Spotify recently created its own “#AlDub: Happily Ever After” playlist featuring such tracks as Lou Bega’s “Mambo No. 5” which is now known as the entrance theme song of Lola Tinidora (Jose Manalo), Bryan White’s “God Gave Me You” and Alden Richards’ latest hit single, “Wish I May”.

Spotify has currently over 75 million users worldwide.

source: interaksyon.com

Spotify rockets to 15 million paying users

STOCKHOLM, Sweden—Swedish music streaming service Spotify said it now has 15 million paying subscribers, boosting claims that its revolutionary and controversial model can work.

The expanding startup said late Monday it had added 2.5 million subscribers since November amid widespread reports that the unlisted company plans to go public.

“It’s been an astronomic amount of growth in a short period of time,” music industry analyst Mark Mulligan told AFP, adding that various discount packages explained the surge.

He said this does not mean the service will keep up that kind of development, but said: “Spotify did everything it could to get right growth at the right time.”

At the end of 2014, Spotify said it had 60 million users of whom 15 million were paying subscribers, compared to 40 million active users and 10 million subscribers in May 2014.

The streaming service has become a major powerbroker in the music industry since its US launch in 2011, drawing criticism from stars like American pop star Taylor Swift and propelling lesser-known artists into the spotlight.

Spotify’s two-tier service lets users stream an extensive catalog for free with advertising, while those who subscribe pay $9-$12 a month for ad-free music listening.

Mobile and smartphone users, however, have to pay to be able to choose tracks.

Fierce competition

Although the company says 70 percent of its revenue goes to the music industry, it has come under fire for the share that ends up in artists’ pockets.

In November, Taylor Swift pulled her catalog from the service, citing low compensation.

“It’s not something (artist payments) Spotify can directly influence, but they get the blame,” Mulligan said. “Most of it lies with the rights holders, who have a big responsibility to be more transparent.”

Spotify founder Daniel Ek replied to Swift’s criticism on the company’s blog, saying that his company provides an alternative to listeners downloading music online for free.

Monday’s figures confirm previous reports that one in four Spotify users is a paying subscriber—although the company reported $80 million in losses in 2013.

Reports of the streaming provider going public are widespread even though the company has yet to turn an overall profit.

“They wouldn’t be the first loss-making music service to go public,” music startup consultant Bas Grasmayer told AFP in an email, referring to US Internet radio service Pandora which went public in 2011.

With Google’s YouTube Music Key on the market since November and Apple making no secret of its music plans, strong competitors are emerging for the Swedish startup, which declined to comment further on Monday’s figures.

“The market is more competitive than ever,” Mulligan said. “Spotify already has challenged economics, can they compete with Google and Apple? That’s what potential investors will ask themselves.”

Agence France-Presse

With big album on sale, Taylor Swift pulls music from Spotify

LOS ANGELES | Singer Taylor Swift, whose new album is likely to have the biggest opening week of sales in a dozen years, on Monday pulled her entire catalog from online music streaming service Spotify.

Singers and bands, including Beyonce and Coldplay, in the past have delayed releasing albums to Spotify to give retailers an exclusive window to sell their albums, but Swift has taken the unusual action of pulling all of her music from the service.

The action may discourage Swift’s fans who use the service and overshadow the singer’s announcement on Monday of a world tour that is set to begin in May in Louisiana.

Swift and her record label, Big Machine, requested last week that the singer’s music be taken down, Spotify spokesman Graham James said.

Swift wrote in an op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal in July, “Piracy, file sharing and streaming have shrunk the numbers of paid album sales drastically … Music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for. It’s my opinion that music should not be free …”

The Swedish-British company made a public plea to Swift, saying in a blog post, “We hope she’ll change her mind and join us in building a new music economy that works for everyone.”

The company said Swift’s music was on 19 million playlists. The streaming service has more than 40 million users.

Swift’s new album, “1989,” was released on Oct. 27 and it is expected to top 1 million in U.S. sales when figures are released on Wednesday, trade magazine Billboard said.

Big Machine declined to comment on why it asked for Swift’s albums to be pulled from Spotify, a free service that also offers subscription fees to users who want to eliminate advertising.

“1989″ was not available to stream on Spotify but its lead single, No. 1 hit “Shake It Off,” had been.

Streaming music has attracted interest among technology companies such as Amazon.com Inc and Apple Inc as album sales and downloads decline.

The withholding of new music, known as “windowing,” is meant to encourage customers to buy albums and download songs rather than stream them online, which is less profitable.

Artists and record companies have at times been at odds with Spotify over money. The company says that about 70 percent of its revenue goes to record labels and publishers, which then have their own separate agreements with artists.

Big Machine founder Scott Borchetta has been vocal in the past over his dislike about how Spotify and other free streaming services compensate record labels.

source: interaksyon.com

Spotify to ask users to re-enter passwords after cyberattack

SAN FRANCISCO — Music streaming service Spotify AB will ask some of its 40 million users to re-enter their passwords and upgrade their software in coming days after detecting unauthorized access to its internal systems and data.

Chief Technology Officer Oskar Stal said in a blogpost on Tuesday that it has found evidence of attackers accessing just one user’s data, which did not include payment or password information. But as a precaution, it intends to ask “certain Spotify users” to re-enter their log-in credentials, and upgrade their Google (GOOGL.O) Android app.

Spotify said it is not recommending any action yet for users of Apple Inc (AAPL.O) iPhones or devices based on Microsoft’s (MSFT.O) Windows.

The intrusion was the latest to hit a major tech company. In past months, cyberattackers have infiltrated databases and systems at eBay Inc and Adobe, though no financial information has so far been taken, according to the companies. Spotify, which is expected to seek an IPO soon, has more than 40 million active users scattered across more than 50 markets.

“We have taken steps to strengthen our security systems in general and help protect you and your data – and we will continue to do so. We will be taking further actions in the coming days to increase security for our users,” Stal said in his blogpost.

source: interaksyon.com

Miley Cyrus tops Yahoo’s 2013 searches, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis dominate Spotify

LOS ANGELES | Pop singer Miley Cyrus and the trial of boyfriend-killer Jodi Arias dominated Yahoo’s online searches in 2013, the web search engine said on Tuesday, while rapper-producer duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis dominated music streams on Spotify.

Cyrus, 21, generated the most overall searches on Yahoo this year, overtaking reality television personality Kim Kardashian, who topped the list last year.

Cyrus has had an attention-filled 2013, in which she grabbed headlines for her breakup with actor-fiance Liam Hemsworth, danced provocatively on stage at the MTV Video Music Awards in August, and released her new album “Bangerz” in October.

The murder trial of 33-year-old Arias, who was found guilty in May of killing her boyfriend Travis Alexander at his Phoenix-area home, captivated the public over five months with bizarre testimony and graphic sexual evidence, helping it become the most searched news item on Yahoo.

Arias’ trial was followed on Yahoo by the Affordable Care Act and its common name “Obamacare,” which were counted as one search term, as the second most-searched news story, while the Boston Marathon bombing in April came in third.

President Barack Obama was the top-searched political figure, topping ailing Nelson Mandela, the former South African president, at No. 2, and former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin at No. 3.

While Cyrus topped Yahoo’s overall searches, R&B singer Beyonce topped Microsoft’s Bing search engine as the most-searched person, while Kardashian’s first child, daughter North West she had with rapper Kanye West, topped Ask.com’s top celebrity search terms.

Online music-streaming site Spotify also released its 2013 year in review on Tuesday and named Seattle’s rapper-producer duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis as the year’s most-streamed artist.

The pair have seen their career skyrocket this year as their debut album “The Heist” spawned hit singles “Thrift Shop,” “Same Love” and “Can’t Hold Us,” which was the most-streamed single.

Shazam, the music-identifying online app, also named Macklemore & Ryan Lewis as its most “Shazamed” artist, with 11.7 million tags throughout the year. R&B singer Rihanna came second with 8.4 million tags. She was also named Spotify’s most-streamed female artist for a second consecutive year.

source: interaksyon.com