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Mobile Music Therapy: Humm.ly App Will Chill You Out

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This app might be first ever to use professional music therapy, integrated with music and health data, to help your moods and be more mindful
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Oct 24, 2017 - 1:17 pm

Music and wellness are a natural fit. For example, studies have shown that 30 minutes a day at work spent listening to desired music on-demand boosts cognition among I.T. workers. The Humm.ly wellness app, for iOS at iTunes, was designed to integrate many insights like that from consulting music therapists as well as from founder Joanna Yu's previous years in music.

Working in affiliation with American Music Therapy Association certified professionals, Yu brings strong music production chops from her native China and data smarts from her U.S. college degree in applied mathematics. Now studying to be a music therapist herself, Yu expects Humm.ly will help her larger task as an advocate for wellness.

Choosing music to adjust mood for an increased sense of wellbeing seems likely to grow on the scientific and medical side of digital engagement, while on the consumer side, streaming music services increasingly supply a universal jukebox in daily life. Humm.ly could be balanced at just the right point.

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Apple

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Apple Services' Growth Has Music Breaking Its Own Records

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Apple Music and iTunes content, software and services rake in $8.5 billion quarterly revenue, up more than a third from last year
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Nov 3, 2017 - 4:02 pm

On Nov. 7 Apple announced its July through Sept. quarterly results, ending its 2017 fiscal year on a high note.

Thanks to Apple services, including iTunes, Apple Music and other software, the company raked in a record $8.5 billion in revenue in this category over the last quarter, up 34 percent from the same time last year.

Some of this success can be attributed to Apple Music's paid subscriber base. Conversions from free to paid are better than ever. In September Apple Music confirmed its paid subscriber base of 30 million, and that has grown by 75 percent from the previous year. In addition, Apple Music's original content such as James Corden's "Carpool Karaoke" series and "Planet Of The Apps," among other top performers, has been cited by Billboard as a potential driver of subscriptions.

With TV know-hows Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht onboard to manage a reported $1 billion original content budget, it looks like Apple will continue its original programming efforts moving forward. The question is whether new content is rolled out via Apple Music or another video platform.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said, "We're happy to report a very strong finish to a great fiscal 2017, with record fourth quarter revenue, year-over-year growth for all our product categories, and our best quarter ever for services."

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Ed Sheeran

Ed Sheeran

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IFPI Global Music Report: Streaming, Ed Sheeran Top 2017

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International recording industry organization reviews a year of continued strong growth, but music still has not recovered its former market strength
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Apr 24, 2018 - 2:52 pm

On April 24, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) released its Global Music Report 2018, reviewing and tabulating the business fortunes of the recording industry last year worldwide. The music industry grew overall in 2017 by more than 8 percent to $17.3 billion, led by streaming revenues which grew more than 41 percent. "We're not getting complacent," said Warner Music Group CEO of international and global commercial services Stu Bergen at the report's release event in London. "We've fought too hard to get here and, after 15 years of decline, there's still plenty of room to grow." Last year was the third consecutive year of growth for the first time this century.

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The IFPI report credited Ed Sheeran's "Shape Of You" as last year's top song followed by Luis Fonsi's "Despacito." While top sellers and the 176 million subscribers paying for premium music accounts make for good news, IFPI chief executive Frances Moore warned that "there is a structural fault in the system" because of the value gap. Combining paid and ad-supported streaming for music, revenues total $5.6 billion with 272 million users overall. On the video side, revenues are $856 million, much less, with more than 1.3 billion users, much more. "Until we fix that structural defect to the market it will always be a struggle," said Moore.

In 32 global markets, digital is now more than half of all revenues. Physical sales and downloads have continued to decline. Without counting video, streaming is 33 percent of all revenues. In 2017, adding video back in bumps that 5 percent up to 38 percent from all digital. If the value gap wasn't holding back fair music revenue for video streams, that video bump would be much more substantial.

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Jann Wenner photographed in 2006

Jann Wenner
 

Photo: Michael Loccisano/FilmMagic

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Penske Media Acquires 'Rolling Stone' Magazine Majority Stake

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The 50-year rock culture classic, reporting on music and important news, sells majority stake to Penske Media Corporation
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Dec 21, 2017 - 12:12 pm

Following music and culture in the U.S. has often included reading Rolling Stone magazine over the past 50 years, thanks to the publishing success of Jann Wenner. So it came as a surprise last September when Wenner announced he would sell the magazine. Now, it has been announced Penske Media Corporation has acquired 51 percent of the magazine for an estimated $100 million. Wenner will remain on as editorial director.

Jay Penske, who also owns entertainment business magazine Variety, and PMC look forward to being a big part of what happens next.

"Our interest in Rolling Stone is driven by its people, its cultural significance and the globally recognized brand that has no peer in its areas of influence," Penske said. "We believe that Penske Media is uniquely qualified to partner with the Wenners to ensure the brand continues to ascend for decades across multiple media platforms."

The remaining 49 percent of Rolling Stone parent Wenner Media remains held by Singapore's BandLab.

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Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey

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The Secret Behind Mariah Carey's Timeless Hit "All I Want For Christmas Is You"

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A musicologist explains how "All I Want For Christmas Is You" owes its lasting popularity to the way the chords dance, teasing the return to G Major
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Dec 20, 2017 - 4:36 pm

As of Dec. 18 the Mariah Carey Christmas classic "All I Want For Christmas Is You" landed on the red-hot Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. Quartz spoke with "Switched on Pop" podcast host and musicologist Nate Sloan and his co-host Charlie Harding about what could drive this powerful rise, year after year. Sloan says it is suspense of the harmonic kind.

Because the song "All I Want For Christmas Is You" is written in the key of G Major, return to that "tonic" home base feels like a soothing resolution, Sloan described. Harding simplified the teasing of false cadences that seem like they will resolve but then don't, pointing out, "There are so many points in that chord progression where you think it's going to go back to where it started and instead she keeps dancing around it." This captures the essence of the suspense Sloan identified as the secret of Mariah Carey's Christmas tonic.

Whatever the reason, more than two decades after its release in 1994 the song is still becoming more popular. As long as Carey's upward trajectory continues, she seems destined to someday pass Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" for the top Christmas spot in total sales. But don't expect that day to come too soon, as Carey has 14 million sales so far, but Crosby has in excess of 50 million.

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