Music Biz Monday // 7.1

Every Monday, we’re sharing the latest news and information for the music industry and technology worldwide.

Get your learn on and stay in the know with Symphonic’s Music Biz Monday!

Spotify is Closing the Upload Beta Program. Here’s What Artists Need to Know:

Almost a year ago, Spotify started to beta test a feature that lets independent artists upload their music directly to Spotify. Today, they notified participating artists about the decision to close the beta program, along with how they can help them migrate their music to other distributors over the next month.

\\ Read more on Spotify For Artists //

When You Listen, They Watch: Pre-Saving Albums Can Allow Labels to Track Users on Spotify

Users who “pre-save” an upcoming release to their Spotify accounts may be sharing more personal data with the act’s label than they realize.

To pre-save music, which adds a release to a user’s library as soon as it comes out, Spotify users click through and approve permissions that give the label far more account access than the streaming giant normally grants them — enough to track what they listen to, change what artists they follow and potentially even control their music streaming remotely.

\\ Read more on Billboard //

This List of Woman and Non-binary-Run Music Organizations Is the Future of the Industry

It’s news to no one that men remain overrepresented in music. Book More Women has harnessed festival posters as a powerful tool to illustrate the skewed demographics of the festival circuit, where male-fronted bands and solo acts typically comprise around 65 percent of the bill. A recent University of Southern California Annenberg Inclusion Initiative study of 700 popular songs from 2012-2018 found that only 21.7 percent of the artists, 12.3 percent of the songwriters, and a staggering 2.1 percent of the producers behind those songs were women. These inequalities reverberate into record label ownership and management: According to stats cited by advocacy group Women in Music, just 15 percent of labels are majority-owned by women.

\\ Read more on ADHOC //

Here Are the Complete Submission Deadlines for the Upcoming 2020 Grammy Awards

The Recording Academy has announced some important dates and deadlines relating to the next Grammy Awards.

The 62nd Annual Grammy Awards will take place on January 26 of next year. As expected, it will also happen once again at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

\\ Read more on Digital Music News //

Still Lacking Key Features, YouTube Music Unveils ‘Smart Downloads’

YouTube has finally caught up to its music streaming competitors – at least somewhat.

Google’s third attempt to break into the music streaming market – YouTube Music – has expanded Offline Mixtape. The feature will now include an option dubbed ‘Smart Downloads.’

Offline Mixtape is a 100-song playlist that is automatically populated based on your listening history. At present, Smart Downloads only works for subscribers on Android.

\\ Read more on Digital Music News //