LONDON (AP) — The European Union leveled its first antitrust penalty against Apple on Monday, fining the US tech giant nearly $2 billion for unfairly favoring its own music streaming service by forbidding rivals like Spotify from telling users how they could pay for cheaper subscriptions outside of iPhone apps.
Apple muzzled streaming services from telling users about payment options available through their websites, which would avoid the 30% fee charged when people pay through apps downloaded with the iOS App Store, said the European Commission, the 27-nation bloc’s executive arm and top antitrust enforcer.
“This is illegal. And it…
Billboard, Music Business Worldwide, Variety, Music Ally, Digital Music News, and other outlets covering the music business, music marketing, and music tech are increasingly putting some or all of their content behind a paywall.
But Hypebot’s coverage of the New Music Business, Music Tech, and Indie Musicians is always 100% free.
This is not a criticism of these platforms. They are doing what they must to survive in the face of the same obstacles that will see more than a third of all US newspapers go out of business before the end of 2025.
But Hypebot, launched 19 years ago…
Self-titled albums are the traditional way for a musical act to introduce themselves. Here I am, they say — here’s where it starts. So what are we to make of Bleachers’ new album, their fourth and self-titled?
It signals that “Bleachers” is a rebirth of sorts. Singer-songwriter Jack Antonoff — the accomplished multi-instrumentalist, Grammy-winning super-producer and New Jersey cool kid — offers a mature, kaleidoscopic 14 tracks, with turns into softer directions and styles.
If Bleachers in the past was all angsty attitude, barreling down the Garden State Parkway with a middle finger through the sunroof, this time Bleachers is…
Gregg Alexander’s music career could have taken a much different path if he didn’t have a very bad night in Detroit 30 years ago. The reclusive singer/songwriter and leader of the New Radicals recently revealed that his band’s signature 1998 debut single, the up with (positive) people anthem “You Get What You Give,” almost didn’t make the grade thanks to an equally catchy song he ended up handing off.
“I had a moment of annoyance that I couldn’t go to the house clubs in Detroit. So he reached for the acoustic guitar in the back, channeling his emotion into a…
