John McDuling

Spotify turned on a cool new feature this morning called Serendipity, an interactive map that highlights places on the planet where two people begin a song at the same time (or within a tenth of a second of each other). The above is a GIF built on screenshots from the site, but for the full effect, turn your volume up and click through to hear snippets of the songs the world is listening to. (You can pause to finish listening to anything you like.)

Hollywood is experiencing one of its worst summers at the US box office in years, providing us with a perfect opportunity to look back at happier times.

Apple’s share price has pierced the $100 threshold today, and the hedge fund manager Carl Icahn, who built a position in the iconic device maker about a year ago, is already taking a victory lap.

Google’s IPO was ten years ago today and the Wall Street Journal has a great piece on how the company has evolved over the past decade.

Shares in Taser, the manufacturer of electrified stun guns used by law enforcement and security personnel in America and elsewhere (remember  when a protestor was Taser-ed at a John Kerry rally and it was uploaded to YouTube?) are on an absolute tear. Since Michael Brown, an unarmed, black teenager, was shot and killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri, on Aug. 9, the stock has climbed about 20%.

It’s often said that all politics is local. The same might be said of the radio business.

An ancient sport with a big international following and English origins is undergoing a quiet resurgence in the US this summer.

The European soccer season is almost back again, with the latest edition of the English Premier League kicking off in a matter of hours. But this year, those who like to keep up with the action via social media may find the experience underwhelming.

Netflix and the cable industry, bitter foes on most issues involving the internet, have been united by an unlikely cause: music licensing.

T-Mobile US CFO Braxton Carter’s comments at an investment conference yesterday (August 13)  provide an insight into how the wireless carrier views the multiple companies that are currently encircling it.

It’s barely two weeks since Apple actually closed  (paywall) on its $3 billion purchase of Beats Electronics. Nobody really knows how the world’s biggest—and arguably most secretive—company plans to fully integrate the headphones and streaming-music service operator into its broader empire. And it turns out that extends to people in the streaming music industry.

This post has been updated. 

Electronic dance music (EDM) is not just growing, it’s absolutely booming. The genre, which has been popular in Europe for decades but only really broke through in the US in the last couple of years, has now spawned an industry conservatively estimated to be worth $6.2 billion a year, according to figures from the Association for Electronic Music (AFEM). “No other musical genre currently embodies the tastes of young people like electronic dance music,” said the very old sounding Washington Post last week.

Tesla shares closed at a record high on August 12.

Wi-Fi is slowly but surely ramping up on domestic US flights. A larger proportion of them offer some form of Wi-Fi compared to many other places around the world. The above chart, using data published by Morgan Stanley analysts Simon Flannery and Armintas Sinkevicius, lists major international airlines (those with more than 70 aircraft in their fleet) with no public trials, agreements, or contracts for in-flight Wi-Fi. (We will update this story with any statements from airlines listed above to the contrary).

The Spotify IPO rumors may have quietened down, but the company’s global expansion continues, and its hiring activity continues to raise eyebrows in the music industry.

Last week, America’s biggest newspaper by total circulation, USA Today, was effectively discarded by its owner. News Corp, the owner of the second biggest (the Wall Street Journal) suffered another revenue decline. Today, the New York Times’ media critic, David Carr, sounded the death knell for print newspapers, while viral content site Buzzfeed raised $50 million to accelerate its world domination through your Facebook newsfeed.

Golf, as a sport and a business, is struggling in the US.

Rupert Murdoch may not be getting his hands on Time Warner, but his $80 billion bid for the company (and its subsequent withdrawal) could inadvertently achieve something many Americans have wanted for years.

If you are a big fan of American sports, chances are you haven’t cut the pay TV cord yet—or are at least finding it very hard to do so.

Pandora Media has suffered a torrid few months. Publishing companies and big record labels have been fighting with it over royalties, while investors are questioning its ability to keep growing.

The telecom business just got another interesting (and potentially exciting) CEO, and his name is Marcelo Claure.

Everyone, ourselves included, seems to have been caught off-guard by 21st Century Fox’s withdrawal of its $80 billion bid for Time Warner. And maybe that was the intention?

How badly do Time Warner and its CEO Jeff Bewkes want to avoid being bought by Rupert Murdoch?