Tag: spotify press release

V103/Atlanta's Frank Ski Understands The Power of Leveraging Skillsets

Always love the fact that Frank Ski has used/uses his leverage to do the most in the industry while on the radio. Ski has several hits under his belt over the years that he participated on including "Doo Doo Brown," "Wobble," and the 1992 Track "Whores in This House" a huge club hit that has now been sampled by Lil Wayne and Gucci. Frank verified with Radio Facts that he cleared the sample and he is excited about the release. Ski is also about to become a father again. Congrats.

Latin Grammy winner Daddy Yankee just won another award on Monday, Oct. 29. Daddy Yankee was presented by the official adjudicator for Guinness World Records, Kimberly Patrick, the certificate for his achievement as the first Latin artist to reach No. 1 on Spotify’s global chart. He also received seven other titles for the success of his and Luis Fonsi’s hit song “Despacito.” In addition, Yankee also received two more titles for two records on the Street Talkin Latin Rhythm Airplay charts. Yankee now holds the record for the most No. 1 on the charts with 17 entries since 2005. He also holds the record for the most titles charted, with 68 in total. The Puerto Rican is known for songs like “Gasolina,” “Dura Dura,” and “Shaky Shaky.” Here’s a list of all the records Daddy Yankee has set:

• First Latin artist to succeed in No. 1 on Spotify’s Global Artist chart
• Most No. 1 singles on the Streets Talkin Latin Rhythm Airplay chart
• Most titles charted on the Streets Talkin Latin Rhythm Airplay chart
• Most seen video online (for "Despacito")
• Most seen music video online (for "Despacito")
• Most seen music video on YouTube (duet) (for "Despacito")
• Most weeks at No. 1 within the USA (single) (for "Despacito")
• Most favored video online (for "Despacito")
• First YouTube video to obtain 5 billion views (for "Despacito")
• Most streamed monitor worldwide (for "Despacito")

Spotify has partnered up with Google Home to give their U.S. subscribers with the Premium for Family plan free Google Home Mini device.

The streaming service announced the giveaway on Tuesday, Oct. 31. The new promotion will begin Nov. 1^st and continue till the end of the year, Dec. 31^st, and will be available for current and new master account holders. The Google Home Mini device would only be available to the Premium Family plan master account holder. Spotify Premium for Family plan allows up to six members in a household to create personalized Spotify accounts for $14.99 per month. Each family member can enjoy unlimited access to music and offline playlists. With the rise of smart speakers, this would be a strategic move for Spotify. The new Google Home partnership would allow its users to be able to use the smart speaker’s Voice Match function. This function would be able to identify the different users and offer them their own personalized experience. This new partnership with Google is Spotify’s latest. It follows integration deals with Waze and Google Maps. Both companies’ biggest competitions in streaming and smart speakers’ sales are Apple and Amazon. This deal and partnership make sense to help with their shortcomings.

The Google Home Mini speakers retail for $49.

The deal is a limited offer. So, if you want to get one, sign up tomorrow. All you need to do to claim your gift is to follow the instructions on spotify.com/us/family.

A Spotify senior director and head of music culture & editorial is leaving the company after five and a half years. Doug Ford was the top executive in charge of playlisting. Ford joined the streaming service back in May of 2013. He oversaw recruiting and managing playlist teams across different genres. Ford also established “The Syndicate,” the strategy behind Spotify’s most popular playlists, including RapCaviar and New Music Friday. His departure from the company is not the first of the year. Many other high profile executives have left the streaming service this year. This includes chief marketing officer Seth Farberman, marketing execs Dave Rocco and Angela Watts, global head of creator service Troy Carter, head of music culture George Ergatoudis, global head of artist and industry partnerships Mark Williamson, and global head of hip-hop and curator of RapCaviar Tuma Bass. And earlier this week, the company took its new playlisting tool live. The new tool allowed indie acts with Spotify for Artist accounts the ability to submit unreleased music for consideration on Spotify curated playlist.

[caption id="attachment_203226" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Emmanuel Zunz[/caption] With the extensive reliance of the music industry on streaming's profitability, artists and streaming companies have more industry clout than ever. This new landscape has produced a large number of effects, from rappers getting unheard of contracts to streaming giants like Spotify allowing artists to bypass labels entirely in distribution. In this new landscape, new 'label hybrids' are seeking to capitalize on these trends, carving out niches for themselves in a landscape long dominated by major label monopolies. These new endeavors blur the traditional lines between publisher, distributor, royalty accountant, and other functions in order to promise a more flexible alternative to the traditional label model. OneRPM, for example, has taken this kind of model in international markets, securing higher revenue shares for clients and strong market shares in Latin American countries. Emmanuel Zunz, CEO and founder of OneRPM, markets itself as a more cooperative partner with artists minus the bureaucratic ties that characterize older artist-label models: "We have a video production studio in New York City to [create] content. We’ve signed artists, so we’re a label. We’re diversified, but people look at our website and say, “Oh, they’re just another CD Baby or TuneCore-type company.” That’s the interface we have right now and what we’re communicating. By the end of this year, we’re going to have a different experience, one that accommodates different types of customers. We also have non-music YouTube channels and our website does not communicate to them. If somebody wants production support, we give it to them. ONErpm Studios is a separate company, and if you are part of our network and have a certain amount of subscribers, you can use our facilities for free. We’re basically copying the YouTube model within our network." Whether such a novel type of company can succeed in the constantly changing music landscape has yet to be fully seen, but surely we will continue to see new experiments come to the fore and challenge traditional label models.