Finally: GEMA and BITKOM reach agreement for online music services

Good news for the German online music market: After years of negotiations GEMA and the industry association BITKOM have finally reached an agreement on online music services. As announced in a press release on Dec 8, the agreement covers the compensation for authors, that music services have to pay to the GEMA, and allows for flat licence fees for streaming services.

In a follow-up press release on Dec 21 the GEMA (apparently without having a definitive an agreement with BITKOM, heise) further announced a new set of tariffs that apply to ad-supported services.

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Spotify introduces Apps

Spotify_appsSpotify announced that they are introducing Apps within Spotify. Basically little add-ons similar to what you know from your Firefox or Chrome. As of now apps are only available for the beta version of Spotify.

The list of apps so far includes well-known players such Last.fm, Songkick as well as music reviews from Rolling Stone or The Guardian.

Looking forward to seeing what developers come up with!

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