Beats 1’s “flagship” DJ Zane Lowe has confirmed that his first interview on his new show on 30th June will be Eminem. He’s posted photos so we can presume it’s […]
Tag: interviews
Posted inAnalysis, News
Rdio CEO talks radio, Spotify, indies and freemium (interview)
Anthony Bay is guffawing down the phone line from San Francisco, after Music Ally uses the traditional British phrase “fighting like cats in a sack” to describe the current state of the music industry.
“Cats in a sack? I’m going to use that myself!” says Rdio’s CEO, before applying the metaphor to his own company. “Well, we are a cat sitting outside the sack watching the bag, and the claws coming through it from the inside, and thinking ‘thank goodness’.”
Bay is currently one of the most entertaining interviewees in the digital music world, perhaps because of that distance from the industry’s key squabbles.
Rdio has never said how many users it has – leading most observers to conclude it has relatively few – but since its launch in 2010 it has punched above its weight in areas like design and social features, while in recent times Bay has used his underdog’s freedom to speak candidly when asked about rivals and the wider rows around streaming music.
Posted inNews
Rudimental to launch app powered by Disciple Media
Earlier this week when we interviewed British artist-apps startup Disciple Media, the company said it wasn’t ready to name any of its pipeline of clients. A few days on, clearly […]
Posted inAnalysis, News
Sonos CEO talks Apple Music and home listening (interview)
“What we’re really excited about is the acceleration into streaming, with streaming radio and paid on-demand. Finally it’s happening! It took a while…”
It’s no wonder that John MacFarlane is excited about the growth of Spotify, the launch of Apple Music and the bustling industry of streaming services competing with both: he’s the chief executive of Sonos, whose wireless hi-fis and speakers are one route into the living room for those services.
MacFarlane is a keen observer of the streaming market, which he describes as “a world of islands” in terms of the speed at which different countries have embraced the various streaming models.
“If you lived in Sweden, you would have thought paid on-demand has already happened because of Spotify. If you lived in the US, you wouldn’t know what paid on-demand is, and you would be listening to Pandora,” he says.
“Apple Music is the first shot heard around the world that breaks those barriers down. It will launch across Europe, and they’ll put a lot of effort into paid on-demand in the US. It’s all good news for Sonos, because the miracle is to marry on-demand with being able to play it in your home.”
Posted inNews
Daniel Ek on Taylor Swift, Neil Young, Apple and why the music industry has to “embrace ubiquity”
So you wait months for a Daniel Ek interview and then two show up at once. He’s on the cover of the latest issue of Billboard – conveniently published mere […]
Posted inNews
YouTube’s future strategy: ‘It’s all mobile, mobile, mobile’
We published our interview with YouTube’s senior content exec Robert Kyncl yesterday, but he’s also been talking at more length about the wider strategy of Google’s online video service. It’s […]
Posted inNews
Steve Albini: old copyright model will go way of public smoking
A keynote interview from musician and producer Steve Albini at the Primavera Pro conference in Barcelona got a wide airing this weekend, not least for his suggestion that existing copyright […]
Posted inNews
Streaming money not too tight for Mick Hucknall to mention
A number of artists have expressed worries about their streaming income, but Simply Red’s Mick Hucknall appears to be, ahem, holding back the fears. In an interview with Music Week, […]
Posted inNews
Evernote boss talks ‘cognitive ergonomics’ and freemium
Evernote doesn’t do music: it’s a service for storing your notes, reports and lists, and sharing / collaborating on them with co-workers. But its CEO Phil Libin’s latest interview may […]
Posted inNews
New Vevo boss: ‘There is so much more that we can do with it’
As predicted, former BBC and Intel executive Erik Huggers is the new CEO of Vevo, replacing founder Rio Caraeff who departed at the end of 2014. In an interview, Huggers […]
Posted inNews
Kobalt: ‘The attitude that we should kill streaming is a huge mistake’
Kobalt CEO Willard Ahdritz has been a vocal supporter of streaming services, and his latest interview with Billboard doesn’t change that. “This attitude that we should kill streaming is a […]
Posted inNews
David Lowery: ‘It’s not that we’re against the coal mine…’
Musician and digital activist David Lowery has given an interview talking about his campaigns for artists and songwriters to be better rewarded for streams of their work. “I’m seen as […]
