VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Apple Music has gained another million subscribers, following its previous 10 million members. It means that Apple is chasing to compete tightly with its competitor, Spotify.

Amazon Echo is a smart device that was launched on November 7, 2014, it can respond to human voice when users call its name, "Alexa." After a year in the market, new functionalities are added to make it a better smart device.

The internet radio services provider Pandora's stock plummeted owing to increased competition in the global market. Pandora shares dropped 35 percent on Wall Street in just one session eroding $1.4billion market capitalization of the company. The emerging competition in internet radio services from global majors such as Apple is impacting the Pandora's performance. Adding to this YouTube has also introduced a subscription plan for music and video.

Google Inc launched a free version of its music streaming service on Tuesday, as it sought to upstage the debut of Apple Inc's rival service next week.

Apple launched Apple Music on Monday, a $9.99-a-month streaming music service that may not differ dramatically from competitors but comes with Apple's deep music roots, global brand and hundreds of millions of iTunes customers.

Santa Monica, US-based music streaming service Beats Music is looking to raise between $60 million and $100 million in a new funding round in a bid to keep up with bigger rival Spotify, as the Beats Electronics spin-off failed to attract the targeted number of subscribers since its January launch.

San Francisco, US-based Internet radio startup 8tracks, a music service that is not yet widely known but already has 8 million active users, provides unique and awesome playlists and successfully maintains its profitability at the same time.

Oakland, California-based music streaming service Pandora is planning to push native advertising to connected vehicles in a bid to boost the company's total revenue, as announced during the company's Q4 earnings call.

Tech and Internet giant Google released a new software development kit (SDK) that allows developers to build their own apps for the Chromecast streaming media dongle.

Pandora chief executive Brian McAndrews's first and the most difficult task would be to renegotiate royalty fee payments to the music industry in order to lift the struggling company's finances.

The increased value of jewelry maker Pandora this year gave investors something to smile about.

Venture capital firms find themselves fending off increasingly uneasy investors who are urging them to cash out.