Streaming round-up – May 2022

by IDOL
News
27.05.22
Every month, this section offers a summary of the latest news about the main streaming platforms, in particular the latest features offered by Apple Music, Spotify, Qobuz, TikTok...

Economy

Amazon Music
Amazon Music launches in Argentina and continues its expansion in Latin America. More info on Music Business Worldwide.

Apple Music
Roku adds Apple Music to the streaming platforms offered on its smart TVs. More info on Variety. Waze now supports Apple Music integration – to complement its offer composed of Spotify, Pandora and YouTube Music. More info on The Verge. Audi vehicles will have a native Apple Music app. More info on The Verge. The partnership with Linkfire is deepening around data analysis. More info on Music Ally.

Beatport
Beatport launches a new sample label called Beatport Sounds. More info on MixMag. And acquired music discovery portal LabelRadar. More info on Music Business Worldwide.

Epic
Epic has asked a court to stop Google from removing Bandcamp from the Play Store. More info on The Verge. A temporary settlement has been reached while the dispute over in-app payments continues. More info on Complete Music Update.

Meteora
A French musician launches Meteora, a music streaming platform on the blockchain network. More info on Be In Crypto.

Meta
Meta is opening its first store next month to allow testing of Portal video phones and Quest VR headsets. More info on The Verge.

Napster
Two web3 companies, Hivemind and Algorand, are buying Napster. More info on Music Ally.

Qobuz
The high-resolution music service Qobuz expands in Latin America and Portugal. More info on Music Business Worldwide.

Snapchat
Snapchat partners with Live Nation to offer AR festival experiences. More info on TechCrunch.

Soundcloud
SoundCloud just acquired Musiio, an AI-based music curator, to improve music discovery. More info on TechCrunch. Since launching its own royalty platform in April 2021, Soundcloud has helped 135,000 artists generate revenue from their fans. More info on Music Business Worldwide.

Splice
After its partnership with Soundcloud, Splice signed with the African music streaming service Boomplay. More info on Music Business Worldwide. And launches CoSo, an application to create music assisted by AI. More info on Music Business Worldwide.

Spotify
Spotify is the first music streaming platform to launch on Roblox. More info on TechCrunch. But Spotify’s stock price hit a low in mid-May. More info on Music Business Worldwide. Spotify Stations, the lightweight listening app offering access to editorialized playlists, closed on May 16. More info on TechCrunch. The most original partnership goes to BIVB for its editorialized playlist to accompany Chablis wine tasting. More info on The Drink Business.

Tuned Global
Tuned Global partners with Reactional Music, a company specializing in personalized music for video games. More info on Music Business Worldwide.

Twitter
The Twitter story continues. Twitter shareholders are suing Elon Musk and Twitter following a chaotic settlement. More info on CNBC. For his part, Elon Musk has secured additional funding to acquire the social network. More info on The Guardian.

UnitedMasters
UnitedMasters, valued at $550 million, has launched its own Beats marketplace. More info on Music Business Worldwide.

New Features

Apple Music
Apple Music’s API that allows users to change playback speed will be added again in upcoming iOS updates. More info on The Mac Observer.

Epidemic Sound
Epidemic Sound launches a new search tool to help content creators find music. More info on Music Week.

Instagram
Instagram is changing its algorithm to favor original content. More info on Social Media Today. The social network improves its native search engine with keywords. More info on Search Engine Journal. Instagram launches a first test on NFT display. More info on Social Media Today. And prepares the release of Digital Collectibles in the US. More info on The Verge.

Linkedin
LinkedIn develops newsletter promotion options and adds links to the profile. More info on Social Media Today.

Linktree
Linktree rolls out new features to enhance creators’ NFTs. More info on TechCrunch.

Meta
Meta announces new business messaging tools, and enhanced ad creation on WhatsApp. More info on Social Media Today. The platform is also trying to push creators towards short video formats. More info on Social Media Today.

Snapchat
Snap’s new augmented reality tools turn photos into 3D. More info on TechCrunch.

Spotify
Spotify will allow artists to promote NFTs on their profiles. More info on Music Ally. The streaming platform permits some creators to publish video podcasts. More info on TechCrunch.

TikTok
TikTok is testing a new sound editing application, Mawf. More info on Dot.La. The social network also offers creators the opportunity to partner with marketers for branded content. More info on TechCrunch. To compete with Twitch, TikTok launched a livestream subscription service. More info on Fortune. At the same time, it takes its first steps toward better monetizing creators with the Pulse program. More info on Variety.

Twitter
Twitter continues to expand Spaces’ features. More info on TechCrunch.

YouTube
YouTube’s tips feature, Super Thanks, is now available to more creators. More info on The Verge. With 30 billion daily views on the Shorts format, YouTube is preparing ads on YouTube Shorts. More info on Social Media Today. YouTube’s player gets new features, including most-replayed videos, chapters, single loop… More info on TechCrunch.

Socially responsible initiatives

Spotify
Spotify launches a new fund to support independent open source projects. More info on TechCrunch.

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