Streaming round-up – February 2022

The merger with Vistas Media Acquisition Company has been approved by SPAC shareholders, allowing Anghami to be listed on NASDAQ. More info on Music Business Worldwide. This makes Anghami the first Arab company listed on NASDAQ. More info on A Digital Boom.

Eight months after the launch of Spatial Audio, Apple Music says this option is attracting more and more listeners. More info on Digital Music News. Perhaps as a consequence, the trial offer was scaled down from 3 months to just 1 month. More info on Music Business Worldwide.
In other news, Apple has just acquired the start-up AI Music which uses artificial intelligence to generate tailor-made music. More info on Japan Times.

Streaming service Audiomack now has its own data analysis application. More info on Music Ally.

Audius, the music streaming platform, rewards artists and fans for using their $audio crypto-currency. More info on Magnetic Mag.

Bandcamp has extended the Bandcamp Live offer to all artists on its platform. More info on Gearnews. Following an update of the application, it is now possible to queue songs and albums. More info on Engadget.

Deezer is now available in Metrological’s app library, allowing the French streaming platform to reach millions of viewers worldwide. More info on Music Week

Max Richter and visual artist Yulia Mahr opened a carbon-negative music studio with a Dolby Atmos mixing room. More info on Music Week. Note that Labelcamp now allows you to download Dolby Atmos files.

Imagination launched BEAST TV, the first Saudi music streaming channel. More info on Arab News

Instagram is testing paid subscriptions, to offer monetization options to creators. More info on Social Media Today. To compete with TikTok, Instagram now allows you to remix all videos, not just Reels. More info on Social Media Today. Instagram is also tackling cyberstalking, and will now reduce the reach of posts that are “likely” to contain hate speech. More info on Social Media Today. For a better visibility on engagement, Instagram also now allows liking of Stories without the need to open a DM. More info on Social Media Today.

Following its partnership with Merlin, Lickd, which provides YouTube creators – among others – access to music, signs a deal with music licensing company Audio Network. More info on Music Week.

Linktree has partnered with Bandsintown, Audiomack, SoundCloud and Community, offering real value to artists’ profiles. More info on Platform & Stream.

Merlin has signed a deal with the platform Twitch. More info on Techcrunch. Incidentally, Pascal Bittard, founder and president of IDOL, has been elected to Merlin’s board of directors.

Meta is working on an “ethical framework” for virtual influencers. More info on Social Media Today. The social network also is planning to launch a marketplace for NFTs. More info on Social Media Today. On the other hand, the Libra experiment, the crypto-currency imagined by Facebook, will not move forward. More info on The Verge. On Messenger, Meta offers bill sharing, and voice messages’ preview. More info on Social Media Today.

No one has missed a second of the conflict between Neil Young and Spotify over Joe Rogan’s podcasts. The results are contradictory: Mixmag reports that traffic on Spotify’s unsubscribe page has increased by 196%. But Bloomberg says that Spotify climbed 13% as a result.
Otherwise, the streaming platform has partnered with telecom company AirTel to develop in Nigeria. More info on The Eagle Online. Spotify recently launched “Made to Be Found”, a website that gives artists advice on how to meet with their audience. More info on Hypebot. Read also Spotify’s Jennifer Masset’s advice to independent artists.

Snapchat renewed deals with Disney, Viacom and NBCUniversal, securing exclusive programming on Discover. More info on Social Media Today. In Stories, Snapchat will introduce revenue sharing on ads, so creators can get a share of ad revenue. More info on TechCrunch.

Music streaming service Tidal launched in the United Arab Emirates. More info on Gulf News.

TikTok is rolling out new features like group chats, audio-only live streams, and subscription features on the Twitch model. More info on TechCrunch. The social network has partnered with the Montreux Jazz Festival to support emerging artists. More info on Music Week. To help marketing professionals, TikTok has launched online courses: TikTok Tactics. More info on Social Media Today.

Triller and Boomplay have teamed up to create African music playlists. More info on Music Ally.

Thanks to the implementation of its ‘Safety Mode’ alert on hateful responses, the social network announces a 30% decrease in negative messages. More info on Social Media Today. Additionally, Twitter is testing a “downvote” system to display disagreement with responses. More info on NBC News. The social network just added regional payment options to help fund more creators More info on Social Media Today.

XRSpace launches a karaoke music metaverse in China. More info on Music Ally.

The platform could adopt web3 technologies, especially NFTs, to help creators make money. More info on TechCrunch. Meanwhile, Spotter is raising $200 million to invest $1 billion in YouTubers’ back catalogs. More info on TechCrunch.

• 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