Here’s a surprising one for you: despite the popularity of legal music streaming (you know, services like Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube) more people than ever before are consuming music illegally. That’s right—piracy never went away, and it’s only growing.

Bandcamp, the small but mighty online music platform and store that caters mostly to indie music fans, had a profitable 2017. Last year the company saw double-digit growth in sales across the board—in digital albums (16%), artist merchandise (36%), CDs (18%), vinyl (54%), and, whoa, cassette tapes (41%)—according to …

In America, the most efficient way to learn about the popularity of a song or album is to check out the Billboard charts—but the truth is, they’re not terribly accurate.

Big Brother is here! Spotify is preparing to command control over all your music listening choices.

Even the most popular musicians can be tempted into buying fake Twitter followers.

As K-Pop fans stateside and, well, in many other countries outside of the genre’s native Korea, will tell you—access to K-Pop could use some major improvement. YouTube is great and all, but it’s not so easy to find stuff! International licensing laws and regulations have inhibited where your favorite groups’ music is…

YouTube, the world’s largest video platform, loves supporting musicians, as long as they never say anything critical about the corporation.

The future is here: Bitcoin and other various cryptocurrencies are securing a place in music.

Make no mistake—Spotify is only interested in selling you Spotify.

Could the future of the music industry be distilled down to...applause?

The new year’s all about renewal, taking inventory of all the shit you did poorly last year and want to improve upon. Maybe you want to work on your personal health, take up yoga, unfollow a bunch of accounts on Twitter? Suppose you want to get into more obscure or unique music? If the latter is your motivation, boy,…

Earlier this morning, Axios reported that Spotify, the Swedish streaming monolith, filed for IPO (Initial Public Offering) documents with the Security and Exchange Commission at the end of December 2017. Their report speculates that the company is potentially eyeing a Q1 direct listing for their IPO, which means …

The future of music is going to be boring. Streaming may lift all boats when it comes to overall music industry revenue, but it also appears to constrict the basic idea of music ownership. On Wednesday, Billboard reported that Amazon Music is phasing out the option for users to upload their own .mp3s—basically, any…

Every streaming service has its thing: Spotify’s got RapCaviar, Apple Music has its exclusives, Tidal has Jay-Z’s catalogue and Lemonade. Then there’s Amazon Music Unlimited, the strange, neglected younger sibling of the streaming world. The service—which is different from Prime Music—celebrated its first birthday…

This morning Buzzfeed confirmed Apple is in the midst of purchasing Shazam, the music recognition app, for a reported $400 million. It proves that while Apple lags behind Spotify in terms of subscribed users (140 million to Apple’s 30 million,) the company is not ready to ceed space in the world of music. Also…

In July 2017, Tuma Basa, the global head of hip-hop at Spotify, declared the “gatekeeper era” a relic of the past. “My job is not a bouncer to keep people out or to kick people out, it’s to get people in,” said Basa to Billboard. “It’s to get the right people in and to keep the party popping.” That’s an odd…

In 2011, Google created Google Play Music, the company’s first attempt at a paid streaming music service. That’s four years before Apple Music was introduced and certainly predates Spotify’s position as a known music industry force. Perhaps they were too early: No one really cared. In 2014, Google shifted focus to…

Last year, Digital Music News reported that Apple was considering shutting down the iTunes music store within the next couple of years. Eighteen months later, the iTunes store remains open and Digital Music News is once again reporting its demise, this time slated for 2019. The story cited multiple unnamed sources…

After more than a decade of declining sales due to overpriced CDs in the ‘90s, the post-Napster spread of illegally torrenting and downloading music, and the shift away from digital music stores, the music industry appears to be bouncing back. Much of that success can be attributed to the streaming industry.

Earlier this year, controversy swirled around accusations of Spotify populating popular mood playlists with “fake artists,” quite literally music made by studio musicians and not active, real deal acts. The allegations stem from a Vulture story which cited a 2016 Music Business Worldwide piece about Spotify stuffing…