Streaming round-up – March 2026

by IDOL
News
25.03.26
Stay up to date on the latest in streaming news with our monthly round-up. This month, Apple Music is leaning into live music features, TikTok is becoming impossible to ignore in the US, and Spotify is testing a feature to protect artists’ profiles.

The figure of the month: 837 million. That’s the number of paying subscribers to music streaming services, according to the IFPI. More info on Music Business Worldwide.

Economy

Anghami
Anghami partners with Cyanite to enrich metadata for 2.5 million songs. More info on Music Week.

Audiomack
Artists can now sign up for the Audiomack Pro waitlist, with a launch announced later this year. More info on Hypebot.

Beatport
Beatsource, a subsidiary of Beatport, will be reintegrated into its parent platform. More info on Music Ally.

Bandcamp
Bandcamp expands its publishing tools to ensure songwriters get paid. More info on Hypebot.

Deezer
Deezer and Sonos renew and extend their long-term collaboration. More info on Digital Music News. Deezer launches its revamped “Deezer for Business” platform, bringing together partnerships, advertising, and AI detection licensing, among others. More info on Music Business Worldwide. Deezer achieved profitability for the first time in its history. More info on Music Business Worldwide.

Feels
Thanks to licensing agreements concluded with the three major labels, the music messaging app, Feels, is now available. More info on Music Business Worldwide.

Google
Google acquired ProducerAI, the AI-based music creation platform formerly known as Riffusion. More info on Music Business Worldwide. Independent artists are suing Google for using music tracks from YouTube to train the AI music tool Lyria 3. More info on Billboard.

Meta
Meta is increasing ad prices in six countries. More info on Social Media Today.

Spotify
In its Loud & Clear report, Spotify details $11 billion in payments to the music industry and notes the rise of non-English language music. More info on Music Week. Spotify states that the EU’s Digital Markets Act will enable the creation of ‘superfan clubs’ More info on Music Ally.

Tencent
Tencent Music now has over 20 million ‘Super VIP’ subscribers. More info on Music Business Worldwide.

TikTok
Nearly half of US consumers use TikTok as a search engine. More info on Social Media Today. TikTok avoided a shutdown in Canada after a security review. More info on Music Business Worldwide. TikTok Radio officially moved from SiriusXM to iHeartMedia, which launched the “fast-paced” listening option on its app as well as on 28 radio stations. More info on Digital Music News.

New Features

Apple Music
ChatGPT can now Shazam songs as Apple has integrated its music recognition tool into OpenAI’s chatbot. More info on Music Business Worldwide. Apple Music has officially launched the Play Full Song feature, allowing users to listen to full tracks directly on TikTok. More info on Music Business Worldwide. Apple Music has added tags to identify songs created using AI. More info on Music Ally. Apple Music has teamed up with Ticketmaster and Bandsintown to improve its concert search feature. More info on Music Business Worldwide.

Deezer
Deezer is refining its Flow feature to give users more control over algorithmic playlists More info on Music Business Worldwide.

Instagram
Instagram is opening up content scheduling to all users. More info on Social Media Today. Instagram is testing adding links in post captions for its paying subscribers. More info on Social Media Today.

Qobuz
Qobuz will tag tracks detected as AI-generated. More info on Music Ally.

Spotify
Spotify now allows users to steer its algorithm and examine listening data with the new Taste Profile feature. More info on Music Tech. Spotify’s SongDNA feature does not officially exist yet, but beta users are already calling it the ‘best Spotify feature’ to date. More info on TechRadar. Spotify and Liquid Death have created the “Eternal Playlist,” an urn that plays your playlist after you pass away. More info on Hollywood Reporter. Amid concerns about AI-generated fake content, Spotify is trialing an artist profile protection feature. More info on Music Week.

Tidal
Tidal is offering direct-to-fan album downloads, with a 90/10 revenue split. More info on Digital Music News.

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