Music Biz Monday: YouTube Changes Verification Program, Bandsintown Updates Artist Portal, + more

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!

YouTube creators may lose verified badges as company makes verification program even stricter

YouTube is rolling out changes to its verification program for creators, making it tougher for growing channels to earn a checkmark beside their name and removing verification badges from people who don’t meet the heightened criteria.

YouTube’s current system allows anyone with more than 100,000 subscribers to be verified. Now, YouTube is emphasizing verifying prominent channels that have a “clear need for proof of authenticity,” according to the company. This includes traditional YouTubers, musicians, comedians, and artists, among others.

\\ Read more on The Verge //

Bandsintown Rebrands Artist Portal, Updates With Geo-Targeted Messaging & More

Concert discovery platform Bandsintown has updated its artist portal with new features and key improvements in order to better help touring artists evolve their careers, the company announced Wednesday (Sept. 18). Now called Bandsintown for Artists, the platform is now available for Bandsintown’s 510,000 registered artists.

\\ Read more on Billboard //

CHARLI XCX EXPLAINS HOW STREAMING IS CHANGING SONGS

Charli XCX has made a career out of releasing music however and whenever she wants. So if much of her new album, Charli, already sounded familiar to fans, that’s because it should: about half of the album’s tracks were released as singles before its release, spanning back almost a year. This would have been unthinkable before streaming. But Charli uses the instant nature of modern platforms to her advantage, upending the traditional idea of an album and growing her audience in the process.

\\ Read more on The Verge //

Inside Tinder’s Secret Streaming Series (EXCLUSIVE)

Popular dating app Tinder is set to release a choose-your-own-adventure-style original series in early October, marking its first outing as a content financier and distributor, numerous individuals close to the project told Variety.

The series is set against an impending apocalypse, one of the insiders noted, and asks the question “Who would you spend your last night alive with?” The show will upload directly to the Tinder app, and users will be able to swipe right or left (the service’s basic function of approving or denying a potential love match) and advance the plot as they see fit.

\\ Read more on Variety //

AS PREDICTED, AMAZON LAUNCHES $15-PER-MONTH HI-DEF MUSIC STREAMING SERVICE, AMAZON MUSIC HD

MBW told you five months ago that Amazon was readying a new hi-definition music streaming subscription service, for launch before the end of the year. Today (September 17), that news got official.

Amazon has just launched Amazon Music HD in the US, UK, Germany and Japan. It offers 50 million lossless HD songs, with a bit depth of 16 bits and a sample rate of 44.1kHz (described by Amazon as “CD quality”).

In addition, Amazon Music HD subscribers can stream “millions more” songs in ‘Ultra HD’ (described by Amazon as “better than CD quality”), with a bit depth of 24 bits and a sample rate up to 192 kHz.

\\ Read more on Music Business Worldwide //