Bluetooth is set to receive a long overdue upgrade. First announced in 2020, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group reports that the new Bluetooth LE Audio standard is set to be updated to enhance auto quality and energy efficiency, ushering in “a new era of smart audio.” Most of the upgrade
Spotfiy has acquired the music guessing game, Heardle. A version of popular New York Times owned Wordle, Heardle challenges users to guess songs based on increasing snippets of music. The game experienced a surge in popularity off the back of Wordle. Following Spotify’s acquisition of Heardle, the game has been
Notorious music streaming service Napster has announced plans to relaunch their business as a platform for cryptocurrencies and NFTs, reports Bloomberg. Napster is infamous for providing free and often illegal mp3 downloads of music to an entire generation of people in the early to mid-2000s. The rebranding comes after Napster’s
The Copyright Royalty Board has voted to set new rates for mechanical royalties for publishers and songwriters, raising the rate to 15.1%, applicable from 2018 through 2022. The U.S statutory board traditionally votes on rates every five years, with the decided upon rate being valid for five years until the
Kieran Hebden, better known as producer Four Tet, has settled his recent legal battle with former label Domino. Hebden confirmed in a social media post on June 20th that the case had been settled, with Domino eventually agreeing to recognise Hebden’s claims. Starting in December 2020, Hebden pursued a case
A new streaming app, Marine Snow, has launched. Unlike other platforms, Marine Snow uses a 90-day rotation of songs, and urges users to interact with each other and the platform to access the music. Users must crack open egg-like capsules in order to unveil songs, or combine ‘shards’ to unlock
Multi-instrumentalist, producer, and vocalist Moby has launched his own label. The Grammy award winner’s imprint is called always centered at night, and looks to exist as a ‘new kind of label’ in service of the creative process rather than algorithmic success. Speaking on what he refers to as the “current,
BeatPort has acquired demo submission platform, LabelRadar. The platform will now form part of BeatPort’s Music Services division. LabelRadar was designed to streamline the demo submission process for both artists and labels. It does this by acting as a sort of middleman, presenting artists’ demos to potential labels and notifying
Apple is discontinuing the iPod after 21 years of distribution. First launched in 2001, the device has largely been credited for changing the way consumers listened to and shared music, ushering in the era of digital sales and eventually, the streaming age. In 2007, Apple launched the iPod Touch, a
Daniel Ek, founder and CEO of Spotify, has announced he plans to buy $50 million in Spotify shares. In a recent Tweet, Ek said: “I’ve always been vocal about my strong belief in Spotify and what we are building. So I am putting that belief into action this week by
