Streaming round-up – November 2021

To conquer the Chinese market, Apple Music has signed a deal with TenCent. More info on Billboard. Meanwhile, to celebrate 40 years of activity in France, Apple Music opened a studio on the Champs Elysees in Paris. More info on TechTimes.
Apple Music launches on PlayStation 5, Sony’s latest console. More info on The Verge. And on LG’s Smart TVs. More info on Engadget. With the latest update, the Share Play feature allows playlist sharing. More info on IDopNews. Apple has also just initiated a low-cost subscription, Apple Music Voice, with reduced features, and accessible only via Siri. More info on The Verge.

Deezer has signed a big partnership with the German giant RTL. More info on Music Business Worldwide. With the help of Tune My Music, Deezer offers playlist transfers to help users switch streaming services. More info on Music Ally.

No one missed this news: Facebook becomes Meta. More info on the Financial Times. CNet offers a condensed 11 minutes of Mark Zuckerberg’s conference. Watch it on YouTube.

It didn’t go unnoticed either, but now all accounts can add a clickable link in their story. More info on TechCrunch. Instagram has also launched the Collabs feature, which allows you to share a video or a reel on different feeds. More info on the Social Media Today. While this feature is currently only available in 3 countries (Brazil, India and Turkey) Instagram is testing the ability to add music to a feed. More info on Digital Trends.

Linkfire, which went public in June, just acquired its main competitor, Smart Links. More info on Music Ally.

The streaming platform Qobuz has just launched its TV application on Samsung TVs. More info on What Hifi.

The social network has signed a licensing agreement with Sony Music to offer the music of its artists on the platform. More info on Music Week.

Sonos rolls out support for DTS audio, and announces Amazon Music Ultra HD and Dolby Atmos Music coming soon to the listening platform. More info on Engadget.

Soundcloud is partnering with Splice, the music creation platform, to launch Nova, a new program for emerging artists. More info on Music Business Worldwide.

The Swedish giant has sold two thirds of its shares in the distributor Distrokid. More info on Music Ally. Spotify and fitness-tech company Peloton strengthen their playlist partnership. More info on Music Ally. Spotify also launches new popularity rankings to discover the most listened-to music by genre, city, artist or country. More info on CNet. EIn parallel, Spotify continues its expansion on the African continent, as the platform is now available in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Congo Brazzaville. More info on Music in Africa. Finally, the long awaited feature has arrived: real-time lyrics are now available to everyone. More info on TechCrunch. The platform announced an estimated 400 million users by the end of the year. More info on The Verge.

Swedish start-up Staccs, which offers streaming concerts, has signed an agreement with INA, the body that owns 80 years of French television and radio archives. More info on Music Week.

In order to stay competitive, Tidal is now offering streaming music for free, thanks to advertising. More info on Engadget. Tidal will offer user-centric compensation starting in January for HiFi Plus subscribers. More info on The Verge. Read also Pascal Bittard’s article in favor of user-centric payment.

TikTok has just signed a deal with APRA AMCOS, which represents over 100,000 Australian and New Zealand songwriters and publishers. More info on The Music Network.

While Spotify is gaining ground on video podcasts, YouTube is looking to expand its audio podcasts. More info on Forbes. Moreover, it has been announced that the freemium version of YouTube Music will only offer audio, videos will only be accessible via the Premium service. More info on 9to5Google.

• Labelcamp supports Dolby Atmos. Read the article
• User Centric: A fairer streaming model is possible. Read the article
• Spotify: Jennifer Masset’s advice for Indies. Read the l’article
• YouTube: Thematic channels. Read the article
• YouTube: The official artist channel (OAC). Read the article
• How the IDOL strategy, built on a TikTok trend, helped Else achieve double diamond certification. Read the article
• Enter the metaverse, Yndi and ill peach digitize their music. Read the l’article