Streaming round-up – December 2022

by IDOL
News
16.12.22
Every month, this section offers a summary of the latest news about the main streaming platforms, in particular the latest features offered by Deezer, Apple Music, Twitter, Instagram...

Economy

The figure of the month is 616.2 million. That’s the number of subscribers to the various music platforms worldwide, a figure recorded at the end of June, representing a 17.6% increase over last year. More info on Music Ally

Anghami
Anghami announces that it will soon become the first platform to host over 200,000 AI-generated songs. More info on Music Business Worldwide.

Boomplay
Telecom giant MTN Ghana partners with Boomplay to pair data plans with subscription packages for music streaming. More info on Digital Music News

Deezer
Deezer partners with LyricFind, Zebralution and 12 other companies for an EU-funded lyric translation project. More info on Music Business Worldwide.

Meta
Meta is fined €265 million for a data protection breach that affected more than 500 million users. More info on The Guardian.

Merlin
Merlin partners with fitness app Supernatural to bring its members’ music to Meta Quest virtual workouts. More info on Music Business Worldwide. Merlin has also signed a new agreement with Styngr, a B2B platform specializing in video games and the metaverse. More info on Music Week. Incidentally, Pascal Bittard, founder and president of IDOL, is a member of Merlin’s board of directors.

Netease
NetEase Cloud Music signs a licensing agreement with J-pop and anime company Pony Canyon. More info on Music Business Worldwide.

Soundcloud
SoundCloud has partnered with Third & Hayden to expand its creator and artist services business. More info on Complete Music Update. SoundCloud is offering a 50% discount on its “Next Pro” plan, which includes unlimited uploads and releases. More info on Music Business Worldwide.

Spotify
Logcast has partnered with Spotify to allow artists to record and publish short-form audio clips. More info on Music Ally. Spotify launches a rewards program for listeners based in India. More info on Music Ally.

TikTok
New proposals to ban TikTok in the United States are presented to Congress. More info on Complete Music Update.

Triller
Still being sued by Sony for non-payment, Triller says it is exploring revenue-sharing agreements with the majors. More info on Music Business Worldwide. Until these deals are re-evaluated, Triller is removing most of the music catalogs from the platform. More info on Hypebot.

Twitter
Elon Musk disbanded the Trust and Safety Council, the platform’s advisory group of about 100 independent civil, human rights organisations. More info on NPR. According to The Guardian, Twitter will lose 32 million users in two years after Elon Musk’s takeover.

YouTube
The use of classical music in YouTube content has increased by 90% in one year. More info on Music Business Worldwide.

New Features

Apple Music
Apple Music launches a newly designed Replay user experience with new features. More info on Music Week. Apple Music now offers a karaoke mode, Apple Music Sing. More info on The Verge.

Deezer
Deezer is redesigning its app for Wear OS smartwatches with offline listening functionality. More info on Wareable. The streaming platform also launches music quizzes. More info on Route Note.

Discord
Discord offers paid subscriptions for servers to sell premium benefits. More info on Techcrunch.

Instagram
Instagram has launched a new feature, Notes. More info on The Verge.

LinkedIn
LinkedIn now allows post scheduling in the app. More info on Social Media Today.

Meta
Meta adds Instagram audience targeting for Facebook and Instagram ads. More info on Social Media Today.

Microsoft
Microsoft will launch the Soundscape 3D audio application and open source the code. More info on TechCrunch.

Spotify
Spotify launches WonderWrapped music space on Roblox. More info on VentureBeat.

Snapchat
Snapchat complies with California’s privacy law with a new switch button. More info on TechCrunch.

TikTok
TikTok is stepping on YouTube’s toes with a new horizontal full-screen mode. More info on TechCrunch.

Twitter
Elon Musk announces that the length limit for tweets will increase from 280 to 4,000 characters. More info on Mashable. Twitter also implements a new account verification system. More info on Search Engine Journal.

Winamp
The Winamp player now allows you to play music in NFT mode, i.e. to play audio files embedded in the non-fungible tokens. More info on Techcrunch.

WhatsApp
WhatsApp adds a new option to send messages to yourself. More info on Social Media Today.

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