Streaming round-up – January 2022

Following Apple Music’s association with Siri, Anghami is evolving its customer experience with the help of Alexa, as part of its partnership with Amazon. More info on Music Ally.

The Anthem app (on iOS) allows users to TikTokify the Spotify experience. More info on XDA Developpers.

Following the purchase of Primephonic, Apple Music decided to tackle its data problem related to classical music with a new app. More info on Ludwig Van. In the race for Spacial Audio, Apple announces that it is working on improving its Airpods and the limitations of the Bluetooth technology. More info on Music Tech.

Chinese search engine Baidu launches its metaverse application, XiRang. More info on Pandaily.

Clubhouse develops a new method to share Rooms, and more data analysis options. More info on Social Media Today.

Shazam partners with Google and creates a Chrome extension to recognize songs while streaming TV shows or movies. More info on Lifehacker. By the way, in the new season of Emily in Paris, no less than 14 IDOL artists have been chosen for the soundtrack. On the legal front, the CNIL fined Google and Meta for cookies that were too difficult to refuse. More info on La Cnil’s website.

The social network is testing a feature to allow users to rearrange posts on their profile. More info on Social Media Today. Instagram now enables IG Live badges by default for creators which allows for donations. More info on Social Media Today. Instagram is also considering a paid subscription feature for creators which could charge users for access to exclusive content. More info on The Independent.

To compete with Clubhouse, LinkedIn is launching new live formats and audio events. More info on Social Media Today. The social network also offers tools to help companies build their presence on the platform. More info on Social Media Today. Also sponsored private messages are no longer a marketing option in Europe, most likely to comply with GDPR requirements. More info on Root Agency.

Merlin has strengthened its agreements with the pan-African streaming platform Boomplay for an extension to 36 new countries, for a total of 47 countries. More info on Music Business Worldwide. The organisation just signed with music licensing startup Lickd, which facilitates the use of tracks in content creation. More info on Music Ally. Incidentally, Pascal Bittard, founder and president of IDOL, has been elected to Merlin’s board of directors.

The social network has again modified the Creator Studio, with new preview possibilities, especially on video stories. More info on Social Media Today. Meta also launched a new Privacy Center, to facilitate the control of data sharing. More info on Social Media Today.

The Irish start-up Minm launches a streaming service for €5 per month based on a user-centric model. More info on Music Ally.
Read Pascal Bittard’s article in favor of a user-centric system.

The streaming platform launched Qobuz Duo, a program that allows two people to share a music subscription with High Resolution audio. More info on What HiFi.

The platform offers new clickable ad formats in podcasts. More info on TechCrunch. Spotify also poached Kristiana Carlet from Yahoo and named her head of international sales. More info on Mediatel. Also, Impala, the European association of Independent Music Companies, is asking the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to investigate Spotify’s Discovery Mode. More info on Music Ally.

The social network offers new features including support for Giphy and HD videos. More info on TechCrunch. TikTok also added a an overview of the latest trending songs by region to its Trend Discovery listing. More info on Social Media Today. Additionally, TikTok is testing a new option to invite contacts on other apps to view video creations. More info on Social Media Today.
Note that the Brit Awards propose online voting for a new category via TikTok. More info on Music Ally.

TikTok’s rival social network goes public in the U.S. via a merger with video streaming software provider Seachange. More info on Music Business Worldwide.

The social network is testing a new format to react to tweets with videos. More info on TechCrunch. And now, recording Spaces is possible, with public broadcasting on Twitter. More info on The Verge.

YouTube has added a new advanced analytics option to YouTube Studio, which allows you to see how videos perform based on the main theme. More info on Social Media Today. In other news, the platform has just announced the discontinuation of all original programming except for YouTube for Kids and Black Voices projects. More info on Variety.

• 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