Why Amazon Music is Making a Merch Push; LyricFind, Kanjian Music Team Up; Apple Music 'Saylists' Help with Speech Issues

Amazon is integrating merchandise more deeply into Amazon Music, the company’s music streaming app.

LyricFind, the global pioneer in lyric licensing, announces a partnership with Kanjian Music, China’s leading music services company. Kanjian will become LyricFind’s sole sales representative in China.

The project, from Warner Music, aims to use lyrics to help young people learn tricky sounds.

The international recorded music market expanded by 7.4 percent last year while much of the globe was on lockdown and live, in-person music was not available.

Spotify announced three original comedy podcasts, including a scripted show from “Saturday Night Live” alum Fred Armisen.

Streaming is a classic natural monopoly, in which fixed costs (the price of servers, web developers, and especially rights to music) vastly exceed the marginal costs (the price of sending one song over the internet).

Why Spotify’s launch is a win for the listeners and musicians in Pakistan.

NetEase Cloud Music and Merlin have extended their strategic partnership in China to include a wider range of cooperation.

Audible Reality — an audio app for iOS and Android — launched last August with its patented ‘Vibes’ which allows listeners to control how they experience music, scrolling through AR’s preset Vibes or artist created Vibes, much like Instagram filters, adjust the pictures you take.

The Brussels-based organization IMPALA – which represents independent music companies – recently debuted a ten-point plan aimed at making the most of streaming, and addressing a need to grow the market in a way which fairly benefits stakeholders in the recorded music business.

Sony has been innovating in the world of immersive audio for a while, but just stepped it up a notch with their 360 Reality Audio Speaker.

Super Bowl LV television viewership was down, but video streaming the game set new records.

Sony Music Publishing will provide its services to Gallo Music Publishers’ extensive catalogue of songs and create new opportunities for its compositions on an international scale.

YouTube’s new copyright tracking tool, Checks, will help creators spot and sort out copyright claim disputes before they ever publish the video. This will help creators earn as much ad revenue as possible.

Recently, artist Gary Numan gave an interview to Sky News during which he talked about streaming royalties, and specifically about a small cheque.