Indie artists have doubled their share of Napster’s top 100
Napster is the latest music-streaming service putting out some end-of-year statistics. However, it has chosen a different topic to the usual ‘most popular artists / tracks’ DSP data dumps.
Napster has been looking at its data for independent artists, and says that in 2019, 33% of its top 100 most-streamed artists were independent. That’s up from 15% in 2015.
Napster reckons that this says something positive about the people listening on its service. “We’re thrilled about this data and believe the trend shows Napster has a unique user base looking to dig deeper into music and are willing to explore outside of the mainstream,” as its director of label relations and licensing Keola Kama put it.
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Source: Music ally
Keaton Henson releases album through meditation app Music Zen
The latest artist experimenting with releasing music through meditation apps is Keaton Henson, the British folk-rock musician and composer.
His new album ‘Louise’ Piano’ is coming out through Music Zen, the mindfulness app developed by music-apps firm Gismart. It’s the first time an artist has written exclusive music for the app, although the model has been set by rival meditation app Calm with its partnerships with Moby and Above & Beyond.
In Henson’s case, the album was recorded on an old piano belonging to his family, augmented with a dash of strings and field recordings of birds and rivers. The deal happened via publisher Faber Music.
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Source: Music ally
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band gets immersive with Dolby
Bad news if you want to hear the all-new remixed version of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in the flesh: tickets to the “immersive experience” in the band’s native Liverpool are already sold out.
The good news, however, is that the remix – in the Dolby Atmos format – is also being made available to stream globally. For now, it’s only on one service, Amazon Music HD, which is one of the first to support Dolby Atmos. However, Universal Music’s press release announcing this promised that there will be “further services to follow in 2020”.
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Source: Music ally
Gaana now has 125m monthly active users – and a new voice-ads partnership
Gaana is the latest music-streaming service exploring the potential of interactive voice ads, following announcements earlier this year from Spotify and Pandora.
The Indian service is working with the same partner as the latter: Instreamatic, which has tech for ads that people can talk back to.
“With this partnership, Gaana listeners will engage with voice ads that present them with verbal prompts from a brand. For example, an ad’s call-to-action might invite the listener to respond affirmatively in order to receive more information about a product, or negatively to simply skip the ad,” explained the announcement of the deal.
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Source: Music ally
Sofar Sounds explains its business model after criticism
Live-music firm Sofar Sounds has been facing some criticism in recent months around how it pays artists and its volunteers alike. Now the company is responding in some depth, with a blog post explaining “how money works at a Sofar show”.
Its publication comes ahead of some changes to the company’s model set for February, including to artist compensation at its bigger shows.
“The average net income split between artists and Sofar is currently 63/37, with 63% of the net show income going to the artists. Our goal is to move from today’s 63/37 average profit split for our standard show format (3 artists and 20-25 minute sets) to 70/30 across Sofar-operated cities, in favour of the artist,” explained Sofar.
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Source: Music ally
Facebook tipped to sign music-video licensing deals for Watch
Up to this point, Facebook’s music-licensing deals have focused squarely on user-generated content. But for several years now – for example in the days when Vevo’s relationship with YouTube was thought to be on the rocks – there has been speculation about whether Facebook might fancy licensing music videos for its service.
Now, according to Bloomberg, it may be taking that leap. Its report claims that Facebook is “pursuing rights to music videos from major record labels, programming that could boost interest in its Watch video service” as part of its licensing renewals with the three major labels.
It also claims that Facebook is already testing music videos in India and Thailand.
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Source: Music ally
Facebook tipped to sign music-video licensing deals for Watch
Up to this point, Facebook’s music-licensing deals have focused squarely on user-generated content. But for several years now – for example in the days when Vevo’s relationship with YouTube was thought to be on the rocks – there has been speculation about whether Facebook might fancy licensing music videos for its service.
Now, according to Bloomberg, it may be taking that leap. Its report claims that Facebook is “pursuing rights to music videos from major record labels, programming that could boost interest in its Watch video service” as part of its licensing renewals with the three major labels.
It also claims that Facebook is already testing music videos in India and Thailand.
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Source: Music ally
We’ve tested Bytedance’s Resso app: here are our first impressions
Earlier this month, we reported on Resso, the new music-streaming app that TikTok’s parent company Bytedance is testing in India and Indonesia. We asked journalist Amit Gurbaxani, who has written regularly for Music Ally about the music industry in India, to try the app and offer his first impressions.
“The most distinct thing about Resso, TikTok owner Bytedance’s six-month-old music streaming app, is the level of interactivity. This may provide it an edge over local services such as Gaana, which already let you ‘enjoy your music with real-time lyrics’ – the feature Resso advertises prominently on the App Store.
On Resso, new users need to log in with their Facebook or Google details. As with most other platforms in India, you’ve to choose between languages rather than genres when asked, ‘What music do you like?’ Currently, the options include English, Hindi, Punjabi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Bengali and Marathi.
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Source: Music ally
Billboard parent company buys Nielsen Music as battle of charts heats up
Valence Media, the owner of Billboard, is buying the Nielsen Music “insights and product suite’ that it uses for its charts in the US.
The two companies were previously under the same roof between 1999 and 2009 when they were part of Dutch media group Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen (VNU). That was until VNU sold Billboard to e5 Global Media Holdings which eventually led to its operating under Valence.
“By bringing Nielsen Music Products and Billboard back together, we’re answering the request from the music industry for a more coordinated, powerful, agile and global suite of independent measurement products,” said Deanna Brown, president of Billboard-Hollywood Reporter Group, in a statement.
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Source: Music ally
Marketing Co-ordinator – BMG – London
Your Mission. We have an exciting opportunity for a Marketing Co-ordinator to join BMG Production Music in the sales and marketing team based in our new office in Hoxton! The role will be working with the international territories to co-ordinate the global marketing strategy for BMG Production Music. Your Responsibilities. Create and coordinate the distribution […]
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Source: Music ally
Alexa in-skill purchases off to a sluggish start for Amazon
Music Ally has written about ‘in-skill purchases’ before: they’re the equivalent of in-app purchases for the third-party skills created for Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant. A way for developers to make money from their Alexa skills, in other words, by charging users for extra content or features. Tech-news site The Information claims that the feature is off to […]
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Source: Music ally
Post Malone gets a ‘dual-phone’ music video on Spotify
As Drake never sang: you used to call me on my cell phone, late night when you need my… cell phone too, to watch the new video from Post Malone. Yes, fans will need two phones to watch the latter artist’s new video, which is exclusive to Spotify. Essentially it’s the story of a couple breaking […]
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Source: Music ally
Midemlab startups competition seeks entrants for 2020
Will the number 13 be lucky for some music/tech startups? The annual Midemlab competition will be in its 13th year in 2020, and has just opened its call for entries. SoundCloud, Kickstarter, Songkick, The Echo Nest, Next Big Sound and Soundcharts are among the past participants in the contest, which is part of the Midem conference. […]
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Source: Music ally
Tracklib launches its ‘State of Sampling 2019’ report
Sample-licensing service Tracklib has published its latest ‘State of Sampling’ report, offering some stats and insight into how samples are being used in 2019’s music industry. “This year, 15% of the songs on Billboard Hot 100 contained samples. A total of 17 samples in 15 of the songs, with some containing more than one,” being […]
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Source: Music ally
Amazon Music is official digital partner for 2020 Brit Awards
The UK’s Brit Awards have a new partner from the world of streaming services. Amazon Music will be the ‘digital music partner’ for the event in February. That means Amazon’s music services will get to stream the performances from the awards after the event; host the official Brit Awards 2020 playlist as well as other […]
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Source: Music ally
Spotify plans Tekashi 6ix9ine podcast for new year
Another day, another new music-podcast announcement. Spotify in particular has been throwing a lot of money, time and marketing effort at original podcasts this year. The latest example is a show focusing on the rise (and recent fall) of rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine. It has been created in partnership with Complex. Infamous: The Tekashi 6ix9ine Story […]
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Source: Music ally
Sound Royalties backs Wyclef Jean’s Carnival World Music Group
Fugees and solo star Wyclef Jean has founded a music publisher and distributor that will focus initially on working with songwriters and artists in Africa. It’s called Carnival World Music Group, and now it has some financial backing from music-investment firm Sound Royalties. That company is better known for its business offering royalty advances to […]
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Source: Music ally
New DJ mixes on Deezer promise ‘fair artist revenues’
Deezer is adding a selection of DJ mixes to its streaming service, with Michael Mayer, Modeselektor, Mark Knight, Wil Saul, Sultan + Shepard and Makoto among the DJs taking part, with the first mixes launching on 30 December. Mix sets have long been a tricky area for music-streaming services, in terms of rights clearances and […]
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Source: Music ally
YouTube Music unveils three more personalised playlists
A decent suite of personalised playlists is now table stakes for anyone who wants to be a competitive music-streaming service. YouTube Music’s latest move to ensure it’s up to speed is the launch of three new ‘playlists mixed for you’ which follow the template laid down by other services. Discover Mix is a playlist of […]
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Source: Music ally
Clio Music awards winners offer music-marketing inspiration
2019 has been a good year for creative music-marketing campaigns, as you’ll know if you read our end-of-year Sandbox report earlier this month. If you haven’t, you can find it here: it’s our pick of the best campaigns of the year.
Anyone looking for more inspiration for their music marketing in 2020 would do well to check out the winners of the 2019 Clio Music awards. The event aims to spotlight content and campaigns that “push boundaries, permeate pop culture and establish a new precedent for artist self-promotion, music marketing, brand collaborations and the use of music in advertising”.
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Source: Music ally
Music Ally Startup Files: Musiio talks AI-tagging
AI-music analysis startup Musiio has had a good 2019: it recently raised $1M in seed funding, is already working with a slew of clients, and is looking to raise money again in 2020.
Musiio’s technology is a mixture of the advanced (AI that can listen to music) and the pragmatic (efficiently labelling catalogue). Right now, its focus is on two B2B products: the automated tagging of tracks, and smart searching of catalogue, all using their proprietary AI. But the future holds possibilities that may be more end-user-friendly, like smarter playlists, sensing “good” songs, and more human sub-genre search.
Music Ally spoke to Musiio co-founder Hazel Savage, who has years of music-tech experience, having worked for Shazam, UMG, Pandora and Bandlab, before meeting her co-founder and CTO Aron Pettersson whilst part of the Entrepreneur First incubator in Singapore.
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Source: Music ally
Amazon’s Alexa can now play podcasts from Apple and Spotify
Podcasts are already one of the uses for smart speakers, but that activity could be boosted in the US by the latest announcements from Amazon. From last Friday (13 December) it became possible for American Alexa customers to ask for podcasts as well as music. Interestingly, Amazon’s announcement only included Apple, with more than 800k podcasts […]
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Source: Music ally
WWE strikes TikTok deal including wrestler entrance-themes
The latest brand working with TikTok is sports-entertainment organisation WWE, which has created an official account on the social app. However, music is also a key part of the deal, with WWE licensing the entrance themes for more than 30 of its past and present wrestlers for use on TikTok. That means users of the app will […]
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Source: Music ally
BTS show off Spotify stats, but YouTube still bigger for them
The latest act to get into the Spotify Wrapped co-promotion mood are BTS, with the headline stat being that their music has been streamed over 3bn times on Spotify in 2019. Those streams come from 60 million people across 79 countries – resulting in 178.4m listening hours. Reminder: Spotify’s ‘Wrapped’ data covers the period of January […]
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Source: Music ally
Qube co-create music space to open in January in London
A variety of tools and platforms have allowed artists and industry professionals to collaborate remotely, but real-world meetings are also important, especially the serendipity that can arise from them. That’s part of the logic behind Qube, a new co-create space that will open in West London in January. The membership-based complex has been set up by […]
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Source: Music ally
Billboard will soon count YouTube data towards US albums chart
YouTube has contributed to the US ‘Hot 100’ singles chart since early 2013, but now Billboard has announced that the video service’s data will also count towards its ‘Billboard 200’ albums chart. Importantly, this data will only come from “official licensed video content uploaded by or on behalf of a rights holder” – no user-generated […]
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Source: Music ally
Report claims YouTube has 800k paying subscribers in India
It’s not there yet, but YouTube could soon be the biggest paid music-subscription service in India. That’s the hook for a report by Bloomberg claiming that YouTube has more than 800,000 paying subscribers in India across its YouTube Music Premium and YouTube Premium tiers – the latter of which includes the former. The report claims that YouTube’s subscriptions […]
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Source: Music ally
Sony Music invests in US podcast production firm Neon Hum
Sony Music really is serious about this podcasts business. The label has already launched two joint-ventures with podcast producers this year, as well as building internal teams to develop (and commercialise) spoken-word shows. Now it has announced a strategic investment in an existing podcast production firm, Los Angeles-based Neon Hum. Its hits include ‘Bag Man’, ‘The […]
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Source: Music ally
Startup Qjam aims to popularise ‘digital signings’ from artists
With the decline of high-street record stores, not to mention the rise of smartphones, are artist-signing events dying out? Scribbled signatures may pale compared to selfies, but a startup called Qjam is aiming to give signings a new, digital spin. It’s launched an Android and iOS app that fans can use to stream live video of an […]
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Source: Music ally
Stormzy and Wham get AR camera-effects on Instagram
The latest two artists to get their own augmented-reality camera ‘effects’ on Instagram are Stormzy and Wham. The Stormzy effect has been created by the Firepit Technology team at Warner Music in the UK, and puts a rotating crown of ‘H.I.T.H’ (the initials from Stormzy’s new album Heavy Is The Head) on the user’s head […]
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Source: Music ally
Pandora launches its test of interactive voice adverts
Earlier this year, Pandora announced a deal to test ‘interactive voice advertising’ through a partnership with a company called Instreamatic. At the time, the tests were slated to begin later in 2019. Well, now they’ve begun. TechCrunch has the details of the ads, which will ask listeners if they want more information about whatever product or service is […]
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Source: Music ally
Twitter wants to make a ‘decentralised standard for social media’
If you’ve read any of the long-form articles (or the book) about Twitter’s history, you might have formed the opinion that CEO Jack Dorsey is good at Big Ideas, but not always quite as good at the details. With that in mind, here’s a new Big Idea from Jack Dorsey! “Twitter is funding a small independent […]
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Source: Music ally
Sony Music UK appoints VP of podcasting and creative strategy
Streaming services are going in all guns blazing with podcasts and the major labels are following suit. In April, Universal Music Group announced a partnership with podcast publisher Wondery to develop original podcasts based on the label’s catalogue, artists and labels. Sony Music has launched two podcast-focused joint ventures, and recently unveiled its US leadership team for podcasts. […]
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Source: Music ally
Label Dirty Hit signs global distro deal with Ingrooves
British label Dirty Hit has made its name with The 1975 and Wolf Alice (not to mention Beabadoobee, one of the hot tips for 2020 in numerous year-end lists). Now the independent company has signed an exclusive, global distribution deal with UMG subsidiary Ingrooves – a “deepening” of an existing relationship, rather than a brand […]
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Source: Music ally
RoadNation is latest platform to help acts de-risk tours
Touting (scalping) is an ongoing problem for mega-acts, where demand far outstrips supply. The inverse, of course, is the case for smaller acts – where tours can lose them money and small venues are often sparsely attended. RoadNation is the latest platform aiming to help, by developing what it is terming a “direct to fan” touring […]
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Source: Music ally
Netflix to distribute TV series based on ‘Spotify Untold’ book
Earlier this year, we reported on the publication of a book, ‘Spotify Inifrån’ (‘Spotify Untold‘), which claimed to tell the inside story of Spotify’s rise. Then, in August we reported on the news that TV production company Yellow Bird UK, part of the much-bigger Banijay Group, had optioned the screen rights to the book and was developing […]
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Source: Music ally
Napster reveals a new partnership with startup Super Hi-Fi
We profiled startup Super Hi-Fi earlier this year. The US firm has developed technology that uses AI to make streaming services sound much more radio-like, with branded stings, artist name and track title announcements, interview clips and ads – all personalised to each individual listener. Now the company has a new partnership with a streaming-music firm: Napster. […]
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Source: Music ally
Warner Music Group appoints its first senior privacy counsel
Here’s an interesting job title for a major label: senior privacy counsel. Warner Music Group has just created the role, and appointed Clare McConnell to it, reporting in to WMG’s general counsel, international, Kate Logan. “Clare is an online privacy expert and specialist in compliance with data privacy legislation in the US, Europe and beyond,” […]
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Source: Music ally
Hype Machine connects Spotify Wrapped playlists with Bandcamp
Streaming music doesn’t mean you don’t also want to buy it sometimes. Music Ally has always argued that there could be more links between streaming services like Spotify and D2C platforms like Bandcamp, beyond a few items of merch on artist profiles. Now music website Hype Machine has stepped in to create a new link […]
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Source: Music ally
Taylor Swift: ‘We’re working off of an antiquated contractual system’
Taylor Swift’s latest interview (with Billboard) sees her talking about the music industry’s approach to rights ownership. It won’t surprise you, given recent events, to find out she thinks change is needed. “We have a long way to go. I think that we’re working off of an antiquated contractual system. We’re galloping toward a new industry […]
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Source: Music ally
What do YouTube’s new harassment policies mean for music?
Spend any amount of time digging in to the comments on any public figure’s social-media accounts, and you’ll quickly realise it’s not all wonderful #engagement with fans. In fact, it can often be a cesspit. This is a challenge all the social networks (and streaming services with comments enabled) are trying to tackle. Yesterday, YouTube announced […]
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 242: The Year’s Best Music Marketing Campaigns. 2019
It is that time again when we highlight the best music marketing campaigns of the year. We genuinely were flooded with entries this year and therefore had to increase the number that made the final cut to 50 simply because there were so many incredible campaigns to choose from. We list everything in alphabetical order (by […]
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Source: Music ally
AI-music startup Popgun launches consumer music-making app Splash
Our recent interview with Stephen Phillips, CEO of AI-music startup Popgun, outlined his belief that an app for teenagers to make AI-powered music might be the ultimate ‘end-game’ for this technology. Now his company has launched… a music-making app for teenagers!
Well, any-age people really: the key is that they don’t need prior musical knowledge to use Splash, which is available for iOS and Android.
It’s a free download, and looks similar to popular music-creation app Groovepad, in that users choose genre-based packs of loops, then tap to trigger drums, basslines, synths, vocals and FX. They can then record their songs, add cover artwork and share them with the world.
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Source: Music ally
1,200+ Indian YouTube channels have more than 1m subscribers
Amid all the interest in the audio music-streaming market in India, where Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn and others are all scrapping it out, the biggest hitter is undeniably a video-streaming service: YouTube. We already knew that it has 265 million monthly users in India; that it may account for as much as 40% of Indian labels’ digital revenue; […]
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Source: Music ally
Artist Danny Brown to host a Grand Theft Auto V radio station
The game Grand Theft Auto V was released in September 2013, but six years on it’s still going strong, having sold more than 115m copies across various consoles, and with a popular online mode extending its lifespan. It’s also still making musical waves, with the latest example being a new station for the game’s in-car […]
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Source: Music ally
UMG, EMI Trust and The eXceL Project back Secret Studio
As part of a collaboration between UMG, the EMI Trust and youth-community charity The eXceL Project, the three-day education programme Secret Studio has resulted in the release of two new original tracks. The eXceL Project’s (XLP) community leaders picked six individuals, aged between 16 and 20, from different backgrounds across London to harness their creativity […]
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Source: Music ally
Corite raises $24k in fan-funding for artists in first month
Music Ally wrote about the beta launch of Swedish fan-funding startup Corite in October, with five artists raising money from fans in exchange for a share of their royalties. Now the company has provided an update on how it all went. “One month after the official launch, Corite has gathered thousands of registered users and closed ten […]
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Source: Music ally
Bytedance tests music-streaming app Resso in India and Indonesia
Bytedance has begun testing its new music-streaming service Resso in India and Indonesia. Music Ally received a tip-off yesterday about the app’s availability, and began researching it, but since then Bloomberg has published a report claiming that the new app has been downloaded 27k times since its stealthy launch, but also suggesting that Resso has yet to seal licensing deals with the three global major labels.
“Resso is currently in a beta testing phase. We are optimistic about its long-term prospects but we are still very early in the process and only in a limited number of developing markets,” is the quote from Resso’s spokesperson. Happily, there’s a fair amount of information on what the app does and how its business model works online already (translation: we’re not letting our cyber-sleuthing yesterday go to waste!)
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Source: Music ally
Deezer signs its first telco deal in the MENA region
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is one of the regions – like Latin America – where Deezer sees an opportunity to compete strongly against its larger global rivals. A $185m funding round in August 2018 included Saudi Arabian investment fund Kingdom Holding Company and media firm Rotana Group, and was quickly followed by Deezer’s launch across the MENA […]
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Source: Music ally
Shesaid·so and InChorus reveal first bias-reporting data
In September, InChorus Group and Shesaid·so teamed up to launch a global survey of bias and harassment within the music industry. Now they’ve published some of the first results, based on the first 172 respondents. The survey focused on incidents of bias, harassment and microaggressions experienced at work in the music industry. According to InChorus and Shesaid·so, […]
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Source: Music ally
BTS Army’s latest battle was with… the World Record Egg
Yesterday, Twitter announced that the most-retweeted tweet of 2019 was January’s ‘World Record Egg’ – an attempt to break the previous retweets record with a photo of an egg.
According to Twitter, the egg beat a tweet by K-Pop stars BTS featuring band-member Jungkook dancing to Billie Eilish’s ‘Bad Guy’ into second place. We’ll let you guess what happened once the BTS Army saw this news…
Yes, BTS fans mobilised to hammer on the retweet button for their idols, and at the time of writing, the BTS tweet has more than 1m retweets, while the egg is on 957.1k. Mission accomplished for the BTS Army, and the latest evidence of their social-media strength.
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Source: Music ally
After 500m app downloads, Gismart kicks off external investment with Jambl
British music-apps developer Gismart has quietly become one of the bigger firms in the apps world, with more than 500m downloads of its products – which include Beat Maker Go, Piano Crush and DJ It. Now the company is starting to invest in external firms, starting with one of the winning music/tech startups from this summer’s Midemlab contest: Jambl.
Gismart is investing $500k in the German startup, whose iOS app helps people to create beats and melodies before adding videos and sharing them to social media. The deal is part of a wider initiative announced by Gismart in March this year, which will see it investing up to $1m in “selected developers across a wide ran
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Source: Music ally
Harry Styles had 2019’s most cryptic music-marketing campaign
The treasure hunt, scattering of Easter eggs and a good dash of the cryptic is a failsafe in music marketing. It is all a nice way to get the fanbase excited about a new album, an opportunity to test out a new platform and hopefully get some virality and/or wider media coverage in the process.
But the set up for ‘Adore You’, the current single from Harry Styles’ imminent second album, has taken all this to a whole other level. Billboard has the full breakdown of the campaign and has spoken to Manos Xanthogeorgis, SVP of digital marketing & media at Columbia Records, about just how huge and complex an undertaking it all was.
It involved leaving a convoluted trail of clues through videos, dusty corners of the internet and social media while also responding in real time to the Styles fanbase’s ability to crack clues (or not) and amending the rest of the campaign on the hoof as a result, giving them nudges in the right direction when required.
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Source: Music ally
Colors moves into the headphones market with first hardware
Regular readers of our Sandbox report will be very familiar with music brand Colors and the minimalist videos it records for artists which are often a key part of their marketing campaigns. The visual aesthetic is based around getting acts to perform in a room that is in a single block colour, the intention being […]
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Source: Music ally
Former WMG exec Ole Obermann confirms new role at TikTok
Ole Obermann was Warner Music Group’s chief digital officer until June 2019, when he left the company after reportedly declining to renew his contract. Recent gossip had suggested that Obermann was joining TikTok and/or its parent company Bytedance in a key music role. And lo: Obermann has now confirmed that he has joined the companies as global […]
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Source: Music ally
Taylor Swift tops Amazon Music’s most-streamed chart of 2019
Amazon is the latest streaming service to publish some year-end charts, including a new name as its most popular artist of 2019. Taylor Swift takes that honour for Amazon Music, joining Post Malone (Spotify) and J Balvin (Deezer), while Billie Eilish was Apple’s editor-chosen ‘Global Artist of the Year’, and Daddy Yankee / Snow had […]
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Source: Music ally
Music Ally’s Music/Tech Startup Files #1: Five Vectors
Gamer music fans want music that fits the exact gaming moment they’re experiencing, and they want to show off their fandom. Five Vectors’ tech scans and funnels music programmatically to those audiences, and helps fans pay for it in ways that make interaction meaningful and status-based, like being skins in Fortnite.
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Source: Music ally
Famous Media wants to create ‘TikTok with Tinder-style voting’
Take two trends: swipe-voting and short-videos. Mash them up, and what do you get? US startup Famous Media hopes you get a recipe for success. It’s working on an app called Famous for which its high-concept pitch is “TikTok with Tinder-style voting”. Its profile on investment site AngelList explains more. “Famous merges the youthful appeal of Instagram and TikTok […]
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Source: Music ally
What’s the real end-game for AI music? Popgun’s CEO has some ideas…
“What’s the end-game for this? There isn’t this place in the world where teenagers come together to make music for each other. That place does not exist, and that’s nuts! That thing needs to exist, and it will exist. And getting the AI working is the price of admission to build that thing…”
Stephen Phillips, CEO of Australian startup Popgun, thinks that the early business models in this sector – AI-music as a replacement for production music, for example – are just a sliver of the ultimate potential for this technology.
What’s more, his thoughts on how AI music might disrupt the current music industry are less about people choosing to listen to AI-made music instead of human-made music, but rather about people (non-musicians) using AI tools to make music for one another. Specifically: kids.
“Where’s the ‘pop stars on training wheels’ place where they make music for each other, release it and watch each other pretend to be pop stars, but then go on to become legitimate pop stars? Who’s going to create that space where the next Billie Eilish comes from?” he says.
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Source: Music ally
TikTok settles children’s privacy lawsuit in the US
Yesterday, we reported on a lawsuit filed against TikTok in the US over its predecessor app Musical·ly’s handling of children’s data. There’s a speedy update on the case: it’s been settled. “TikTok is firmly committed to safeguarding the data of its users, especially our younger users,” a spokesperson told The Verge. “Although we disagree with much […]
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Source: Music ally
Twin Atlantic use new Google Earth features for campaign
In mid-November, Music Ally wrote about a new feature on Google Earth where people could create their own stories by attaching text, images and videos to locations on the planet. “We think there is some interesting scope here for artists to tell stories using the new features: who’ll be the first to give it a try?” we […]
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Source: Music ally
Spotify Wrapped 2019 sparks new discussion about artist income
As Spotify launched the artist-focused element of its Wrapped 2019 promotion yesterday, the streaming service also offered some new statistics. More than 1.2 million artists were listened to for more than 100 hours on Spotify this year during the period covered by Wrapped (January to the end of October, which isn’t a widely-known fact – Mariah Carey must be FUMING…) Meanwhile, 169,000 artists were listened to for more than 10,000 hours on Spotify during that period.
Speculative maths time! If an hour is around 15 tracks on average, that would suggest more than 1.2 million artists with more than 1,500 streams on Spotify in the first 10 months of 2019, and 169,000 artists with more than 150k streams in that period. Using musician Zoë Keating’s recent ‘0.37 cents per stream’ royalties figures – recordings only, with her distributor not taking a cut – that’s more than 1.2 million artists whose tracks are generating more than $5.55 of recording royalties from Spotify this year, and 169,000 generating more than $555.
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Source: Music ally
Jamie Cullum teams with Clos19 for personal song tributes
Anyone who has been to an improv comedy show will know that making up songs on the spot based on audience suggestions is often more admirable than enjoyable. But that’s, in a way, what Jamie Cullum is doing with the release of 19 songs, as part of a partnership with lifestyle retail brand Clos19. Each of […]
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Source: Music ally
AIM Connected conference ditches the panel format for 2020
Every so often, we end up in a conversation about how to make conference panel-sessions more interesting. British indie body AIM has an idea: get rid of them entirely. Its AIM Connected conference will take place on 4 February in London, and it will be panel-less. Instead, the event will focus on “a series of […]
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Source: Music ally
U2 to launch their own radio channel on SiriusXM and Pandora
U2 are the latest artist to ink a partnership with both SiriusXM and its Pandora subsidiary. The band are launching something called U2X Radio, which will include their own station on SiriusXM’s satellite-radio service playing recorded and live music, interviews and other content. There’ll also be exclusive stuff available for Pandora listeners. The news follows SiriusXM’s creative […]
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Source: Music ally
Portes aims to connect artists and fans while respecting privacy
Artists connecting with fans and rewarding superfans has been a trend in our industry for years. Doing that while respecting their digital privacy is… a somewhat-newer trend. Something that’s trying to walk this line is Portes, a new platform and app launched by startup OCL. The app is available on iOS, with Android to come. “Use […]
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Source: Music ally
Beatport launches a new editorial website called Beatportal
Running a music website as a profitable business in 2019 is hard. Running it as an extension of other kinds of music brands, however, is an increasingly-common strategy. The latest example is a site called Beatportal, launched by dance brand Beatport for its community of DJs. “A monthly cover story featuring a diverse range of artists […]
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Source: Music ally
Streaming-led recorded-music revival in Italy is lasting
Recorded music revenue in Italy increased 6.7% in the first nine months of the year, according to recorded music body FIMI, with streaming up 28%, a result that suggests the streaming-led revival is having a lasting impact in one of Europe’s most stubbornly analogue markets. Italy, the subject of our latest Country Profile, ranks 24th out […]
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Source: Music ally
Spotify’s annual Wrapped feature for fans and artists goes live
Expect to see a LOT of Spotify-branded social posts from artists and fans alike today, due to the launch of the streaming service’s annual ‘Wrapped’ promotion. Fans can log in to see data on their listening not just from 2019, but also from the last decade. It’s the first time Wrapped has been available within Spotify’s […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Italy 2019
Italy’s digital music take-up lags behind most of its EU neighbours with only 1.5 million premium streaming subscribers. Nonetheless, that’s still a jump of 0.5m in less than a year and streaming is enjoying growth
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Source: Music ally
Genius sues Google and LyricFind over lyrics allegedly lifted from its site
The dispute between music-lyrics site Genius and Google may yet end up in court: the former is suing the latter plus its partner LyricFind for $50m. This all relates to Genius’ accusation in June that Google was serving up some lyrics in its ‘OneBox’ search results that had been lifted from Genius – detected by the latter using alternating straight […]
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Source: Music ally
TikTok backs the Giggs economy in month-long partnership
TikTok currently finds itself in a position that YouTube knows only too well, being simultaneously hailed as a kingmaker for breaking new artists, and a hot potato when it comes to the question of licensing and royalties for music on its platform. Part of TikTok’s charm offensive is partnerships with artists, and the latest example […]
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Source: Music ally
Collecting society GEMA buys stake in distributor Zebralution
Who said major labels were the only established music entities buying into the digital distribution market? German collecting society GEMA is joining the fun. It has taken a majority stake in Berlin-based distributor Zebralution, which it says makes it one of the first collecting societies in the world to ‘secure commercial participation’ in that market. Zebralution […]
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Source: Music ally
Jukedeck founder responds to Amazon’s DeepComposer launch
We reported yesterday on Amazon’s announcement of DeepComposer, a musical keyboard designed to help developers explore generative AI. Now Ed Newton-Rex, founder of one of the first AI-music startups, Jukedeck, has been giving his views on what Amazon’s announcement means. That includes the fact that it’s the fourth of the ‘big five’ tech companies to publicly […]
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Source: Music ally
Aaliyah’s catalogue to finally make it onto streaming services?
The catalogue of late R&B star Aaliyah has long been held back from streaming services – with the exception of her 1994 debut album Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number and a handful of early singles and EPs. Now it is rumoured her full catalogue, including 1996’s One In A Million and her self-titled third […]
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Source: Music ally
Sony Music reveals its leadership team for podcasts
Details have emerged about the team Sony Music is putting together in its New York office to produce and make money from podcasts. An internal memo from execs Dennis Kooker and Tom Mackay outlined the four key executives working on what they describe as a “key area of creative and business development”. They are: SVP […]
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Source: Music ally
TikTok criticised for limiting reach of people with disabilities
After all the recent controversies around data privacy and censorship, TikTok’s leadership won’t have enjoyed seeing this intro to a story on news site Netzpolitik. “Leaked documents reveal how TikTok hid videos of people with disabilities. Queer and fat users were also pushed out of view.” The story concerns a list of ‘special users’ whose posts’ […]
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Source: Music ally
Tech firms call for US to stay in climate-focused Paris Agreement
The Paris Agreement is the 2016 deal on measures to tackle the climate emergency signed by 195 nations and states. However, US president Donald Trump has made it clear that he intends to withdraw from the agreement, and the earliest date at which he could do that would be November 2020. Now a group of […]
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Source: Music ally
Ministry of Sound playlists back on Apple Music rivals
Cast your minds back to October 2018, and a story we wrote about a playlists partnership between Apple Music and Ministry of Sound. The gist being, as Ministry’s profile on that streaming service explained it: “All Ministry of Sound playlists and the monthly Ministry Mix – only on Apple Music.” At the time, we noted that Ministry […]
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Source: Music ally
Spotify advises $5k minimum spend for its new ‘marquee’ ads
In October, Spotify announced that it would be testing sponsorship of its full-screen ‘marquee’ album recommendations, allowing artist teams in the US to buy these spots – but only for people who’d already listened to their artist. What Spotify didn’t say at the time was how much this would cost. Enter Rolling Stone, which has got its hands […]
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Source: Music ally
TicketSwap hires FastForward founder Chris Carey
Dutch secondary-ticketing firm TicketSwap has hired former EMI/Universal Music insight director Chris Carey as its new head of international marketing. The company aims to make secondary ticketing “fairer, safer and more transparent” at a time when the biggest firm in the secondary world, Viagogo, is under sustained attack from the music industry and regulators alike. […]
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Source: Music ally
Billie Eilish wins big in Apple awards and Spotify 2019 stats
What we need, said almost nobody in the music industry, are a few more awards ceremonies. But now we have two, from the world’s biggest subscription music-streaming services.
Spotify’s first awards will take place in Mexico City next March, driven entirely by its data, but Apple Music’s first event took place overnight, chosen purely by the company’s editorial team. The simplification of Spotify as ‘algorithms’ and Apple Music as ‘humans’ is a complete fallacy, but dammit if the two services’ awards aren’t playing right in to it.
Spotify’s awards don’t even have nominees yet, but the company did (also overnight) just release its ‘Wrapped 2019’ data for the most popular artists and music on its platform this year. So what can we learn? There’s fun to be had comparing the 2019 stream-count for Billie Eilish on these fierce rivals.
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Source: Music ally
The Weeknd becomes face and sound of luxury electric car ad
“Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?” sang Janis Joplin in 1970. “My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends.” Half a century on, instead of wishing for luxury automative brands to fall out of the sky, pop stars now become creative directors for them. Which is the long way round to […]
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Source: Music ally
Anghami offers music-streaming for travellers at Dubai airport
Travellers to Dubai’s international airport (DXB) will now be getting some free music playlists, courtesy of the facility’s partnership with streaming service Anghami. “Customers of DXB will now have uninterrupted free access to specially curated, travel-themed playlists featuring a variety of different global artists and some exciting new local talent from Anghami’s vast music catalogue, […]
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Source: Music ally
Deezer launches its own Christmas originals album
Deezer has pulled together its 18-track Big Christmas album where acts including Ella Henderson, Aurora, Circa Waves, Thalía and Gabrielle Aplin record covers of Christmas classics that are exclusive to the streaming service. The album pulls in artists from a range of countries including Australia, France, Norway, Mexico the UK and the Philippines, and working across a […]
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Source: Music ally
Spotify offers half-price annual subscription in India
Spotify’s annual subscription promotions are of and running in the western world, but the streaming service also has a discount for one of its newest markets: India. The company has halved the price of its annual subscription there from 1,189 rupees (around $16.57) to 699 rupees. The Hindustan Times reported that the offer lasts until 31 December, […]
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Source: Music ally
Mixcloud apologises to users affected by hacking attack
In 2019, every digital service with a significant profile is a target for hackers. The latest music service dealing with the after-effects of a security breach is Mixcloud. According to both Motherboard and TechCrunch, a data reseller is asking for around $4k (paid in bitcoin) for details of 21m user accounts from the audio-streaming service. Mixcloud has issued […]
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Source: Music ally