Music Publishing News Roundup 7.14.15: Spotify Discover • Grooveshark • YouTube’s Paid Service
Grooveshark co-founder Josh Greenberg was discovered dead at his Florida home on Sunday. Police say there are no signs of drug use or foul play.
His mother reported that Greenberg had no known health problems and was faring well after Grooveshark, the streaming service he and Sam Tarantino founded in 2006, shut down due to litigation with major labels about copyright infringement. Greenberg was only 28 years old.
YouTube has forcibly signed up content creators for their soon to be launched paid streaming service. By communicating that these videos that make up 90% of YouTube’s views will not be monetized unless they sign up, YouTubers have been taken along for the ride into the first of it’s kind video-based paid subscription service. Though they don’t plan to halt their focus on free content, YouTube is pushing for paid streaming to be successful in that subscribers will have access to ad-free videos, have the ability to store videos for viewing offline, and have videos play in the background on mobile devices.
Spotify’s new “Discover Weekly” feature compiles tailor made playlists based on personal tastes of listeners. In line with Apple Music’s “For You” component, Spotify’s new heavily personalized element uses data of the individual listener and combines that with what fans of similar music listen to. The two-hour long playlists update every week and follow the idea of “having your best friend make you a personalized mixtape every single week,” including deep cuts as well as more popular items.
