Paid music streaming services to have bigger impact on Billboard charts in 2018

With paid streaming services changing the music landscape, it’s not surprising to us that Billboard is changing its ranking system to reflect this new reality. The streams from paid subscription services like Amazon Music and Apple Music as well as those hybrid paid/ad-supported services like Spotify and SoundCloud will have a bigger influence on Billboard’s charts in 2018.

According to a post on Billboard’s site, “Beginning in 2018, plays occurring on paid subscription-based services (such as Amazon Music and Apple Music) or on the paid subscription tiers of hybrid paid/ad-supported platforms (such as SoundCloud and Spotify) will be given more weight in chart calculations than those plays on pure ad-supported services (such as YouTube) or on the non-paid tiers of hybrid paid/ad-supported services.”

Microsoft shutters Groove streaming music service, sends customers to Spotify

Never shy about killing off unprofitable businesses, Microsof has decided to end its Groove streaming music service and is now sending Groove customers to market leader Spotify. Microsoft will shut down its Groove Pass music streaming service on December 31st and will no longer sell music or provide a music streaming service (It will, however, continue to sell TV shows and movies). Hit jump for details.

Click to read more ...

Spotify’s new personalized playlist is a blast from your musical past

Spotify wants to hit you with a wave of nostalgia with its new personalized playlist aptly called Your Time Capsule. It’s a throwback playlist tweaked to suit your taste. Mine has 55 songs that feature a healthy mix of late ‘90s and early 2000s hits that have me singing along to everything that comes up. The algorithm is spot on, which has always been a strength of the music streaming service. Your Time Capsule makes use of Spotify’s new Now Playing look, which you might have seen in the Today’s Top Hits playlist. The cover art of what’s playing takes up your entire screen as seen above.

This playlist is available for all Spotify users above the age of 16 in most countries. If you want to get your own playlist, you can generate this through this link.

Source: The Verge

Spotify tries out new video strategy after head of Original Video leaves company

In case you didn’t know, Spotify has experimented with video in the past. It even tried creating an original video series called Traffic Jams. But this approach hasn’t worked from the music streaming service. And with Tom Calderone, head of Original Video, leaving the company, people assumed the service was dropping video altogether. But it looks like they are taking a different approach. As Complete Music Update reports, a spokesperson from the company says they plan to build video content into its most successful playlists and will be linked to new music releases.

And we get to see that with the new single from Sam Smith. The new song “Too Good at Goodbyes” gets a video of Smith singing to the camera. Aside from that, the other songs in the playlist show cover photos of Smith’s other albums while the music plays. While the video can be played on both desktop and mobile, the cover art effect is obviously limited to mobile. Will we see music videos premiere on the service? Maybe or maybe not. Spotify hasn’t been aggressive with video or it just hasn’t caught on, especially with the service working more like a radio than a video platform. Will it work this time? We can’t say just yet.