Tag: messaging

We’ve been fairly gloomy about the prospects for music messaging apps, having seen several crash and burn (or, more often, not even get enough speed up to crash).

We reported yesterday on messaging app Line’s plans for an IPO split between Tokyo and New York. Now TechCrunch has ferreted out some interesting data on one aspect of the company’s business: the sale of digital ‘stickers’...

Messaging app Line’s parent company has filed to go public in mid-July with the aim of raising $1bn in an IPO that would value the company at $5.5bn. The company also announced a new figure for its user base: 218 million...

Silicon Valley and the wider tech world hangs on the annual Internet Trends report by Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker, who published her latest presentation yesterday during the Code conference. While clicking through...

Yesterday was the first day of Google’s annual I/O developer conference: its equivalent of Apple’s WWDC in terms of revealing new products and services for the year ahead. While there were no direct news about the...

The music industry is pretty down on the idea of artist apps, with few having reached any kind of audience. How about marketing through push notifications though? That’s an idea eliciting more interest, with smartphone...

There is lots to say about what Facebook announced at its annual f8 conference last night, but the news of most immediate interest to the music industry is a new tool called Rights Manager. It’s essentially Facebook’s...

Major Lazer have followed in Paul McCartney’s footsteps by launching their own sticker pack in messaging app Line. The digital stickers can be pasted in to conversations within the app like emoji, and are available as...

Japanese messaging app Line has published its latest financial results, including an update of its active-user total. Line ended 2015 with 215 million active users, up from 181 million at the end of 2014. Line says that...

Music Ally has been reporting on the rise of messaging apps – and the potential for music – for some time. The latest evidence comes in an opinion post by Uber’s Chris Messina, which claims that “2016 will be the...

Messaging app WhatsApp is about to reach a major milestone: 1bn active users. And it’ll come as the Facebook-owned app makes some changes to its business, including dropping its $1 annual subscription fee for users,...

South Korean messaging app Kakao has acquired a controlling stake in the parent company of local music-streaming service MelOn, spending $1.6bn to acquire 74.6% of Loen Entertainment. It’s the latest crossover between...