Nielsen Has Released Their 2016 Music Year-End Report

Nielsen:

Music consumption is at an all-time high. Overall volume is up 3% over 2016, fueled by a 76% increase in on-demand audio streams, enough to offset declines in sales and return a positive year for the business. Nearly 650 solo artists, groups and collaborators appeared on the Top 200 Song Consumption chart in 2016, representing over 1,200 different songs.

You have to use the blue download button to read the full thing, but a brief recap can be found on their press release page:

The biggest song of the year in terms of total activity (sales + audio streaming equivalents) was Drake’s “One Dance,” followed by “Closer” by Chainsmokers (feat. Halsey) and “Work” by Rihanna (feat. Drake). Topping the Digital Songs Sales charts this year were “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” by Justin Timberlake, “Closer” by The Chainsmokers (feat. Halsey) and “My House” by Flo Rida.

Ten Years Ago Today Steve Jobs Introduced the iPhone

iPhone

Ten years ago today Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone. That’s still got to be one of the greatest product introductions of all time. The Telegraph put together a collection of reactions after the initial launch, I liked this one:

The problem here is that while Apple can play the fashion game as well as any company, there is no evidence that it can play it fast enough. These phones go in and out of style so fast that unless Apple has half a dozen variants in the pipeline, its phone, even if immediately successful, will be passé within 3 months.

There is no likelihood that Apple can be successful in a business this competitive.

I’ll admit that I didn’t understand what made the iPhone special or different from my BlackBerry until I used one for the first time. That’s when I knew it was going to be an absolute game changer.

Backchannel also has an interview with Apple executive Phil Schiller:

“That undervalues how earth-shattering the iPhone was when it first came to market, and we all first got them and fell in love with them,” he says. “iPhone made the idea of a smartphone real. It really was a computer in your pocket. The idea of real internet, real web browser, MultiTouch. There were so many things that are core to what is the smartphone today, that created a product that customers fell in love with, that then also demanded more stuff on them, more apps.”

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