Spotify agrees to let artists keep new albums off its free tier

One of the biggest points of contention between music streaming giant Spotify and the record labels that provide it with songs is the service's free tier. Regardless of whether you pay for a subscription or not, Spotify users have access to the same...

Universal Music Group is reportedly done with streaming exclusives

Apple Music and Tidal have tapped into exclusive releases to gain the upper hand on Spotify over the last year, but it appears one major record label may have had enough. Frank Ocean released his long-awaited follow-up to 2012's Channel Orange on App...

iHeart and Universal are partnering for VR concerts

iHeartMedia and Universal Music Group are teaming up to take music into virtual reality. From the sounds of it, this isn't going to be just a music visualizer a la what game developer Harmonix is doing. Nope, this will work to "leverage" the strength...

Apple reportedly has two labels signed for radio service, may reveal it at WWDC

Apple reportedly has two labels onboard for radio service, may launch June 10th

Apple's long-rumored internet radio service didn't materialize as quickly as some thought, but we're getting a sudden rush of hints that it may be close at hand. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal both claim that Apple has just signed a music licensing deal with Warner, giving it two out of the big three labels it needs to start streaming -- Universal being the first, Sony being the holdout. Despite lacking one of the necessary deals, Apple is reportedly optimistic that it could unveil the radio feature as soon as WWDC. We're not counting on any music news from Apple execs when they take the stage next week, but it's good to be prepared... you know, just in case.

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Source: New York Times, Wall Street Journal

Amazon rumored clinching major labels for cloud music rights, iTunes Match feels the heat

Amazon Cloud Player

When we last checked in, Amazon was thought to finally be pushing for full music rights in its Cloud Drive and Cloud Player services. It might be a smooth operator at the negotiating table: subsequent tips to CNET maintain that the top four major labels (a currently-independent EMI as well as Sony, Universal and Warner) have all signed deals that will let Amazon offer the same scan-and-match music downloads and streaming as Apple's iTunes Match. The pacts would let Amazon offer access to every song a listener owns without having to directly upload each track that wasn't bought directly from Amazon MP3. Aside from closing a conspicuous gap, the deal could end a whole lot of acrimony from labels who were upset that Amazon preferred a free-but-limited service over having to charge anything. The online shop hasn't said anything official yet (if at all), but any signatures on the dotted line will leave Google Music as the odd man out.

Amazon rumored clinching major labels for cloud music rights, iTunes Match feels the heat originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 16 Jun 2012 12:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon reportedly adding music rights to Cloud Player, could close gap with iCloud

Amazon reportedly adding music rights to Cloud Player, could close gap with iCloud

Amazon's Cloud Player app just made its way to the iPhone and iPod touch, but the company's web-based music service still lacks the license deals that make Apple's iCloud a more seamless experience. While iCloud scans a user's hard drive to match songs and stream them from iTunes, Cloud Player requires listeners to manually upload copies of their music to the cloud. According to CNET's "industry sources," Amazon is looking to close that gap by inking agreements with major labels and has already made deals with EMI and Universal Music Group. This story is still very much in the rumor phase, but obtaining those licenses certainly sounds like a logical step for a service meant to make enjoying files across several devices easier.

Amazon reportedly adding music rights to Cloud Player, could close gap with iCloud originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jun 2012 12:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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