According to a new report from music analytics firm Next Big Sound, consumers streamed more than one trillion songs during the first six months of this year. The report acquired data from Pandora, Rdio, SoundCloud, Spotify, Vevo, Vimeo and YouTube. While digital downloads and CDs continue to experience a decline, streaming music generated $1.87 billion last year. Streaming music is clearly on the rise (Next Big Sound cites only 450 billion streams for all of 2014), yet companies are still looking for opportunities to profit. Continue reading Music Fans Have Already Streamed One Trillion Songs in 2015

In the wake of Taylor Swift’s stand against Spotify, a number of music companies are considering pulling their artists’ songs from YouTube and free music services. Global Music Rights (GMR) demanded that YouTube stop playing some 20,000 songs from its artists, including music composed by John Lennon, the Eagles, and Pharrell Williams. Sony is also considering pulling the music of its artists such as One Direction, Calvin Harris, and Carrie Underwood from Spotify. Continue reading YouTube, Online Music Services Face New Wave of Opposition