LiveXLive Acquires Slacker Radio For $50 Million, Names Revolt TV’s Andy Schon President

Live concert streamer LiveXLive has acquired music streamer Slacker Radio and named Revolt TV co-founder Andy Schon as president. The merged companies create a potentially competitive streaming music service that combines live converts, music video, on demand streaming and personalized online radio. ___________________________________________________ Live concert site LiveXLive has acquired music…

Live Music Streamer LiveXLive Acquires Social Video App SNAP Interactive For $34 Million

Premium live music video streaming network LiveXLive Media has entered into a merger agreement to acquire SNAP Interactive, a provider of live video social networking and interactive dating applications. ____________________________________ Today’s acquisition of SNAP interactive by LiveXLive will allow the live music video streaming platform to add group video chat…

Ex-Maker, MySpace Music, MTV Exec Courtney Holt To Head Revamped Spotify Video Effort

Former Maker, MySpace Music and MTV executive Courtney Holt is finally moving his career past the letter "M" to head revamped video efforts at Spotify. The news comes on the same day the music steamer announced bundled discounts with video streamer Hulu. ______________________________________ Courtney Holt has been hired as Head…

Spotify, Hulu Partner For Discounted Premium Streaming Bundle

Spotify is partnering with Hulu to offer premium music and video streaming services bundled at a discount price. College students will be the first to save, but the music streamer says it will expand bundles with Hulu to the broader consumer market. ___________________________________________________ Spotify and Hulu have partnered to offer…

BandLab Acquires, Rebrands DJ Live Streamer Chew.tv

After struggling financially for months, DJ community and live streamer Chew.tv has been acquired by Singapore based social music creation platform BandLab. The service will rebrand as "Chew by BandLab." Described as a "Twitch for DJ’s," Chew.tv has attracted a community of over 25,000 DJs at all stages in their…

Battling Ticketmaster Lawsuit, Songkick Struggles With Skeleton Staff

Things are looking grim for Songkick. The ticketing company was forced to drop the majority of its staff, and has its fingers crossed to win a fast-approaching lawsuit against Ticketmaster in hopes of being able to complete its existing contracts. _______________________ Guest post by Dave Brooks of Amplify Ticketing company…

Using The Lean Start Up Method For Music Promotion?

The lean startup method, designed in as means of presenting an idea to a consumer to determine the minimum viable product. Here we look at whether this startup technique could be applied in the music industry for music promotion. ________________________________ In this latest from MusicThinkTank, Maikol Petersen delves into whether…

Federal Regulators Eye Spotify Direct Stock Listing Plan

Spotify’s plans to skip a traditional initial public offering is reportedly facing scrutiny by federal regulators. According to a report in Bloomberg, senior Spotify executives met with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission officials last month who were seeking more details on Spotify’s plan to bypass the conventional IPO as they…

Co-Founders Case Against TuneCore To Move Forward, says Judge

A case brought by two co-founders of TuneCore against the indie digital music distributor has merit and will moved forward, a U.S. District Court ruled late last week. The plaintiffs allege that that they have not received promised cash and/or stock options for more than 10,000 hours of work. Tunecore…

This Man Is The Secret Weapon That Investors Believe Will Save SoundCloud

News came late last week that SoundCloud had been saved, for now, by an emergency $169.5 million cash infusion. Co-founder Alex Ljung would step aside to make room for new CEO Kerry Trainor. But how can the new exec turn the deeply unprofitable music streamer around? Fortunately, he has a…