SiriusXM Must Decide What to Do With Pandora; Qobuz Debuts Today; ‘Green Book’ Soundtrack Passes 1M Streams

With Merger Complete, SiriusXM Must Decide What to Do With Pandora — www.digitaltrends.com
The merger between SiriusXM and Pandora, which has been in the works since September of 2018, is now complete. This means that 2019 will be the year that the combined entity will have to figure out how to make the most of the two audiences. Here’s how it plans to do it.

Hi-res streaming service Qobuz launches in the US today — musically.com
Music-streaming service Qobuz will go live in the US today: a launch that the company has been teasing for several months.

‘Green Book’ Soundtrack Passes 1 Million Streams — variety.com
The official soundtrack to “Green Book” has surpassed one million streams on global music streaming platforms.

Deezer chooses Sam Fender and Lewis Capaldi for ‘Next’ promo — musically.com
Deezer has announced the next swathe of artists who’ll benefit from its ‘Deezer Next’ promotion in 2019.

Spotify Spends Big On Podcasts, But Ad Revenue Has A Long Way To Go — www.forbes.com
Spotify is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on podcast-related acquisitions. But the primary source of revenue in podcasting is advertising, and podcast ad revenue has a long way to go before it catches up to streaming music.

How India’s Millennials, Smartphones and Spotify’s Entry will Awaken the Music Industry’s ‘Sleeping Giant’ — www.entrepreneur.com
It is clear that every music streaming platform sees India as a golden ticket to growing tenfold. So much so, that streaming services like Spotify will likely come into the Indian market with a limited catalog with the goal of taking on market share holder Gaana.

‘Spotify Teardown’ Is the Book Spotify Didn’t Want Published — www.rollingstone.com

Researchers behind the controversial new book into Spotify’s operations chat with Rolling Stone about their most surprising findings.

Warren Haynes & Stefani Scamardo Announce Valentine’s Day Special On SiriusXM Jam On — www.jambase.com
The husband-and-wife pair of Stefani Scamardo and Warren Haynes will host a “Valentine’s Day Love Set” all day on February 14 via SiriusXM’s Jam On featuring Phil Lesh, Dave Matthews, Mike Gordon and more.

Why Don’t We have Perfect Sound Yet? — audiophilereview.com
Steven Stone looks at reasons why we aren’t yet in sonic nirvana…

The album is in crisis: Streaming services, artists’ preference for singles have put the format under threat — www.firstpost.com
Older consumers with a personal fondness for romantic balladeers and people who are buying music for their children are the only ones purchasing albums anymore. Most listeners have migrated to Youtube and audio streaming services

Amuse To Utilize Machine Learning To Calculate Royalty Advances — www.hypebot.com
Royalty advances are typically an unpredictable shot in the dark about what an artist is worth, with publishers seeking to keep it as low as possible, while artists work to squeeze as much money out as possible. In hopes to remove some of the polarizing ambiguity from this process, Swedish…