Leo Fender, father of the Stratocaster, did not play the guitar. “But he was one of the world’s best listeners,” says Andy Mooney, the chief executive of Fender Musical Instruments — a company that, true to its founder’s legacy, is more adept at hearing and understanding its audience than anything …
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In 1989, Bruce Pavitt, the founder of the Seattle label Sup Pop, hatched a plan to boost the profile of several of his bands, including a pre-fame Nirvana. “During the pre-internet 1980s, it was difficult for struggling regional bands in the United States to achieve any national media attention,” he …
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The iTunes brand is no more. Nearly two decades after introducing the world to the digital store-library hybrid, Apple announced at its annual global developers conference on Monday that it will shutter the iTunes software this fall, replacing it with three standalone programs for music, television and podcasts. While core …
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Spotify is quietly moving further into original video, dropping on Monday a new series about the hip-hop industry called “The Break” — which plays from inside RapCaviar and other signature playlists on the music-streaming service’s platform, living among songs rather than other videos. It marks the latest push from the …
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When was the last time a mere music distribution service — think iTunes, Best Buy and Tower Records — asked its customers to get political? That’s what Spotify is doing this week in sending users notifications and custom, state-specific playlists asking them to vote in the U.S. midterms. On Tuesday, …
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UPDATE:On September 24, Apple announced its complete acquisition of Shazam. *** It was nearly a year ago that Apple announced its plans to buy the popular music-identification company Shazam — plans that have largely been stalled because of an European Union investigation. After several months of inquiry, however, the EU …
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UPDATE: U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mosman has dismissed a lawsuit filed against Coachella’s organizer Goldenvoice, Billboard reports. The suit alleged the California festival’s restrictive radius clause, which prevents Coachella-booked acts to perform at any other North American festival from December 15th through May 1st, violated anti-trust law. The suit …
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After some 20 years of stumbling through the digital era, the world’s biggest record labels are finally poised to get richer, thanks to Spotify’s plan to go public. The music-streaming giant, which has 159 million monthly listeners and 73 million paid subscribers, filed for a modified initial public offering Wednesday, …
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