Streaming round-up – December 2021

Artificial Intelligence-based music platform Aimi just raised $20 million in funding. More info on Music Business Worldwide

Streaming platform Anghami has partnered with Sony Music Entertainment Middle East to create Vibe Music Arabia. More info on Music Week.

Streaming service Audiomack launches direct monetisation on the platform. More info on Music Business Worldwide.

Audius launches its radio station in the Metaverse. More info on Music Ally

Beatport matches Apple Music’s latest offering with a $9.99 subscription for DJs. More info on Music Ally

Epic Games, Fortnite’s developer, has bought Harmonix, creator of Rock Band and Dance Central. More info on Music Business Worldwide

The startup Groove is going to reinvent your party playlists. More info on Music Ally

To rival TikTok, Instagram has developed a feature to add voice effects to Reels. More info on The Verge. Instagram is also returning to a chronological feed. More info on Complex. At the end of the month, the social network ends its messaging application. More info on TechCrunch. Just in, the Caribbean finally has access to music on Facebook and Instagram as well as Reels. More info on Loop News

To boost online sales, Facebook is developing features dedicated to groups to facilitate purchases and product recommendations. More info on TechCrunch. And to encourage live videos, the social network is launching new Facebook Live features. More info on TechCrunch. As a first step towards the Metaverse, Meta launches Horizon Worlds in North America. More info on The Verge

The new app (iOS only for now) MusicMatch allows you to share tracks from one streaming platform to another. More info on TechRadar.

Chinese giant NetEase is selling ​​16M new shares of Cloud Village, the company that runs the NetEase Cloud Music platform. More info on Music Ally

Soundhound, the voice and music recognition company, announces a merger and upcoming NASDAQ listing. More info on Music Business Worldwide.

Sonos now supports Ultra HD and Dolby Atmos tracks from Amazon Music. More info on The Verge. Note that Labelcamp now allows you to download Dolby Atmos files. Read the article

This was the news of the month: Spotify has stopped shuffling albums at Adele’s request. More info on The Verge. And with the success of Squid Game, Spotify has launched a special Netflix hub for soundtracks. More info on Engadget. To compete with TikTok, Spotify is also testing vertical videos in the feed. More info on TechCrunch.
Spotify is expanding and is now available in Venezuela. More info on Billboard. But it’s also looking at the African continent. More info on Tech Central. For that matter, Spotify has just rolled out the Ad Studio in Uganda. More info on Tech Jaja.
In 2021, Spotify announced 107.9 billion hours of music listening. More info on Music Ally.

Tuned Global will relaunch the African streaming platform WAW MUZIK’s application. More info on Music Business Worldwide.

TikTok has added monetisation features for creators. More info on TechCrunch. And is testing a desktop application for live streaming. More info on Music Ally. As well as new video editing options. More info on Tech Crunch. TikTok is also looking to revolutionize B2B music licensing on its service. More info on Music Ally.
Over the course of 2021, TikTok reports that 430 songs have surpassed one billion video views. More info on Music Tech

The social network just bought messaging platform Quill to improve DMs. More info on The Verge. And adds automatic subtitles to videos. More info on Tech Times. But its CEO Jack Dorsey has just resigned. More info on The Washington Post.

YouTube Music launches Recap 2021 feature to rival Spotify Wrapped. More info on CNet. And has just published its first report on copyright transparency. More info on Music Ally.

• 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