Liv Buli’s Weekend Reading List: Apple’s Subscriber Count, Pandora + Ticketfly = Win-Win-Win, Ehhh Deezer? This Week in Music and More
Another work week is over and its time for a bit 'o buli, as in Liv Buli, who as Data Journalist for Pandora's Next Big Sound has the best job title ever. As she does most Fridays, she's stepped away from the stats to share her what she found interesting this week.
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So the short week flew by, huh? Before embarking on the weekend’s adventures, I’d love to steal a few minutes of your time if you don’t mind.
Let’s start with what is always, inevitably, without fail, a giant spectacle: The Apple event. Disclaimer, I didn’t watch (ain’t nobody got time for that), but I was unable to avoid events unfolding over Twitter. Seems like most people really dig the matte black iPhone and are panicking about how to charge their new wireless headphones, but here’s what caught my eye — their subscriber numbers.
Apple Music now counts 17 million subscribers (up a few million since June), and they’ve secured roughly 70 exclusives since the service launched. Touting this number indicates that Cook has no intention of backing off the strategy - Lucien Grainge might have something to say about that.
Announced this week — the news that Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries (also owns no less than a 100% stake in WMG) has taken over control of Deezer. Could be a lot of noise about nothing (the formerly French service has been fighting an uphill battle since a failed IPO last year), but could also signal some interesting moves given the tie to one of three majors. Stay tuned.
As they prepare to IPO, it has become clear that Spotify is in some pretty intense negotiations with the labels.
Glenn Peoples takes a stab at breaking down Pandora’s reasoning behind the acquisition of Ticketfly, and the move towards ticketing.
Emily Blake follows in the footsteps of Beyoncé and Nicki Minaj and gives a little shout out to Young M.A. for her performance on the Pandora Trendsetters Chart.
And unless you’ve been hiding under a rock all summer (which I wouldn’t blame you for if that rock was air-conditioned) you’ll know that The Chainsmokers have been on hot fire????, so I took a look at what this meant for artists like Daya and Halsey who have been working with them. All good things.
Not to mention that writing this was a total flashback to the era of #SELFIE, and this piece I wrote back then. Still relevant.
And check out that graph!
The trajectory of viral. Graphic Courtesy of Next Big Sound.
I’ll leave you with this special edition of Carpool Karaoke with Tim Cook in the passenger seat. Definitely less awk than the Britney episode.
Happy weekend!
