Streaming round-up – September 2021

Apple has just acquired Primephonic, the Dutch classical music company, to integrate with Apple Music. More info on Bloomberg. Also announced this month, Apple Music is now using Shazam, its proprietary app, to solve the streaming industry’s problem with DJ mixes. More info on TechCrunch.

Amazon Music is coming to Sonos in high resolution in a few months. More info on Tech Hive. The company is also in discussions with the majors for a project of live concert streaming. More info on Music Tech. In the meantime, Amazon Prime has just announced a partnership with Anghami, to extend its network to the MENA region. More info on Music Ally

Deezer offers NPR shows and podcasts, for more international distribution, and a stronger foothold in the US. More info on Radio Inside. The platform also partners with Mediamarkt, to expand its audience in South Africa. More info on Media Update. On the practical side, its version of the Apple Watch app now allows you to listen to music offline. More info on The Verge

Qobuz just launched a new playlist, My Weekly Q – based on the listener’s musical tastes, to encourage musical discoveries. More info on What Hifi

Spotify is preparing to launch Enhance, a new feature for adding personalized recommendations to a playlist. More info on The Verge. And for almost a month now, the platform proposes Blend, a feature that lets you sync your music tastes with your friends’, and create shared playlists. More info on TechCrunch

ByteDance, which among other things owns TikTok, has announced the launch of a new music streaming service in China later this year. More info on Music Business Worldwide

Spotify announces 165 million premium subscribers
Apple has over 660 million subscribers across all of its services (Digital Music News estimates Apple Music subscribers at 112.5 million)
YouTube Music has just passed the 50 million premium subscribers mark.
In all, there are 443 million paying subscribers, spread across the various music streaming platforms (Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Prime, Deezer, etc.), and “62% of the sector’s global turnover”, according to Le Monde.

Nevertheless, Digital Music News believes that the fact that Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube Music keep growing is actually very good news for niche streaming platforms.

How the IDOL strategy, built on a TikTok trend, helped Else achieve double diamond certification. Read the article
Spotify: Jennifer Masset’s advice for Indies. Read the article
YouTube Series:
Thematic channels. Read the article
The official artist channel (OAC). Read the article