Spotify’s “This is:” Playlist Series Is A Hidden Gem

A service known for its carefully curated playlists, Spotify’s ‘This Is’ playlist series, each one focusing on a different legendary artist, often slips under the radar, but the series does an important service for fans and is one of the better products to emerge from the streaming revolution. _______________________ Guest…

Is The End Of The MP3 Era Nigh?

While MP3s have been falling by the wayside of music consumption for some time, there are new reports out that Apple is planning to shorten its timetable for killing off the MP3 download component of its iTunes Store. ________________________ Guest post by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0 Reports are that…

Social Listening Tips For Artists

Social listening, the process of monitoring digital conversations around your music as you release it, can help give artists insight into how your fans feel about your work, as well as helping to boost your engagement and, potentially, revenue. ___________________________________ Guest post by Ta’Rikah Jones of the Symphonic Blog Your…

Who Needs Shazam? Google Assistant App Adds Song Recognition

Google has added song recognition to its Google Assistant app across all platforms. Ask Google Assistant “what song is this?” or “what song is playing?,” and it shows the song’s name, the artist, lyrics, and links to YouTube, Google Play Music and Spotify. Move over Shazam… Music recognition had previously…

Top 10 Tips For Aspiring Music Bloggers

For those who have a passionate interest in music and the music industry, being a music blogger and can be an enjoyable and productive way of channeling this interest, although it presents plenty of challenges along the way as well. _________________________ Guest post by Rachel Summers If you’ve got a…

8 Songs For The Reverb Hall Of Fame

When it comes to creating music, reverb is an incredibly powerful and evocative tool, with incredible flexibility. Here we celebrate eight genre-spanning works works that employed reverb to its maximum potential. ____________________________ Guest post by Leticia Trandifir of Landr Journal Reverb is vital. It’s such a useful audio effect because…

15 Most Powerful Independent Curators On Spotify

While labels, blogs, networks, and of course Spotify itself are known to have a lot clout when it comes to playlisting culture, we here look at several independent individuals, and the sort of power they wield when it comes to playlists and playlist followers. __________________________ Guest post from the Slotify…

Tom Petty’s Music Genome And His Legacy-Defining Traits

Following Tom Petty’s passing on Monday, numerous obituaries and remembrances have been released, often similarly describing his music as a ‘soundtrack for the road." Here we look at some of the traits most common to Petty’s music and which helped to make it so compelling. ___________________ Guest post by Glenn…

A Look Inside The ‘Despacito’ Hotstreak

The unquestionable ‘song of the summer’, we here look at how the groundwork for Despacito’s nineteen week run by the many years of mixing Latin Caribbean, and African music, as well as an earlier hit by the Biebs himself. _________________________ Guest post by Glenn Peoples, Music Insights and Analytics at…

Hip-Hop Now Officially Dominates Music

Although its popularity has been known for some time, R&B/hip-hop has finally risen to become the most popular genre of music among consumers since Nielsen began track the in industry back in 1991. _______________________ Guest post by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0 It’s been a long time coming, but hip-hop…