Google Play passes 25 billion app downloads
Google has surpassed 25 billion app downloads from 675,000 different apps — both free and paid — at Google Play. The announcement was made Sept. 26 at the Official Android blog. Google Play has seen a sharp increase in app downloads in recent years. It hit the 1 billion-app mark in early 2010 and surpassed the 10-billion app mark in mid-2011. To celebrate hitting 25 billion, Google Play offered U.S. consumers, for a limited time, apps sale-priced at 25 cents, 25 movies to own at $4.99, 25 albums priced from $3.99 and 25 magazines priced less than $1.99.
Vevo unique viewers grow
Vevo claimed its first monthly increase in unique viewers since February, according to comScore’s figures for the U.S. online video market for August. Vevo had 49.3 million unique viewers versus 44.8 million in July. Video streams fell slightly to 595.2 million from 597.1 million, however. Google sites, represented mostly by YouTube, experienced a big decline in streams to 13.8 billion from 19.6 billion. ComScore counts Web traffic but not streams from mobile or videogame platforms.
Sony offers exclusive MGK tracks
Sony Music Network started offering an exclusive four-track release from 19XX/Bad Boy/Interscope artist MGK on its Music Unlimited Service on Oct. 2. The EP, the service’s first exclusive content, contains songs from MGK’s Lace Up, due Oct. 9. Music Unlimited is a cloud-based subscription service with 16 million songs and is available on a wide range of Sony consumer electronic devices and Android mobile devices. Sony is offering a free 14-day trial with no credit card requirement to encourage consumer sampling.