News Spotify allows Free Tier streaming on Connect-enabled speakers An update to Spotify’s Developers Kit lets hardware partners offer Spotify's Free Tier
News The A&R Awards 2018: All the winners Simon Cowell, Steve Mac, Jamie Oborne, Garry Blackburn, Atlantic Records and more pick up awards
News Theda Sandiford upped to SVP, International Commerce & Digital Marketing at Republic, Island, Def Jam Sandiford previously served as Vice President of Commercial Partnerships, Streaming at Universal Music Group
News Independent festivals contributed over £1bn to UK economy in last 3 years – report Association of Independent Festivals publishes special 10-year report at Festival Congress
News Apple has a new head of Music and services in Australia – Rebekah Horne Exec negotiated MySpace's first deals with the music industry in the UK and Australia
Analysis News Profits, payments and podcasts: 5 takeaways from Spotify’s Q3 earnings call Platform confirms it's going to charge artists and labels for tools in the future
News India’s JioMusic to rebrand as JioSaavn after $1bn merger – report Saavn's entire catalog will reportedly be made available on JioSaavn
News Jake Gosling signs with Absolute for Goldun Egg label Songwriter and producer Gosling has collaborated with Ed Sheeran, One Direction, Shawn Mendes and more
News Concord Music hires Rebecca Berman and Michael Nance as joint SVPs of International Nance and Berman will focus on expanding Concord Music’s global infrastructure
News Sony Music hires Sol Rashidi as Executive Vice President & Chief Data Officer Rashidi was previously Chief Data and Cognitive Officer at Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines
News Transgressive Publishing & Warner/Chappell ink publishing deal with Foals Foals have previously released four Top 10 records and are currently recording their fifth album
News Spotify wants to buy back up to $1bn of its stock The repurchase program expires on April 21, 2021
News Universal becomes first major to license Africa’s biggest streaming platform, Boomplay Boomplay is jointly owned by two large-scale Chinese companies
News Live Nation sells 85m tickets in 2018 so far, posts record quarterly revenue of $3.8bn The company says that it's on track to sell 90m tickets this year
News Downtown buys independent UK music publishers Salli Isaak Music and Salli Isaak Songs The companies are home to hit songwriters Jimmy Napes and Paloma Faith
News LADbible teams up with Universal Music On Demand to launch emerging artist video series LADbible has a 62m+ social following
News Global buys leanStream’s digital audio sales division, launches DAX Canada Global adds Toronto to its list of office locations