Tag Archives: music-business

Spotify launched in 2008 as a problem solver. Napster, the peer-to-peer music service that allowed users to download songs illegally, was in the rearview, and Apple’s iTunes stepped in to give legitimacy to a new consumption method: buying tracks. Music fans then, like in the decades before — spanning everything …

At this year’s just-concluded SXSW, hip-hop/pop artist Kimmortal was scheduled to play a showcase with other rising acts from Canada. About a month before, though, they heard the event had suddenly been canceled over concerns related to Donald Trump‘s escalating threats toward Canada, including tariff hikes. That meant Kimmortal, an …

In 2007, Kate Nash released a hit song about a gradually decaying relationship. Until Nov. 21 of this year, the lyrics to “Foundations” might as well have described the pop singer’s own worn-out connection with the live music industry, whose high production costs were literally putting her in debt. So …

Streams for Britney Spears‘s catalog rose about 24 percent this week amid the release of her much-talked-about memoir The Woman in Me, according to data from Luminate. Streams had begun to steadily climb last week when details in the book — notably Spears’s claims that she had an abortion after …

The recording industry may slowly be waking up to the fact that some of its most important creators are wildly undervalued — one sign is the first-ever Songwriter of the Year Grammy, which Tobias Jesso, Jr. recently won for his behind-the-scenes work with Adele, Harry Styles, FKA Twigs, Omar Apollo, …

As little as 10 years ago, getting a deal with a major record label was the ultimate dream for a hopeful artist. While the hype still resonates, the landscape of today’s music industry has largely centered on the decline of the prestige and dominance of powerhouse labels. The trend of …

When Carl Wilson died of cancer in 1998, his sons Jonah and Justyn became heirs to their father’s estate. That meant joining with surviving Beach Boys founders Mike Love, Brian Wilson, and Al Jardine to vote on key business decisions, from archival releases to commercials. It wasn’t easy. “The dynamic …