Streaming round-up – Summer 2023

by IDOL
News
28.08.23
Every month, this section offers a summary of the latest news about the main streaming platforms, in particular the latest features offered by YouTube, Meta, X/Twitter, TikTok…

The figure of the month is 3.3 trillion, the number of music streams (audio and video) on demand in the first half of 2023. Worldwide, the Luminate report indicates a 30.8% year-on-year increase over the same period. More info on Music Business Worldwide.

Economy

Amazon Music
Amazon Music has increased the subscription price for Prime members. More info on Billboard.

Beatport
Pioneer has partnered with Beatport to provide access to over 11 million songs on the CDJ-3000. More info on MusicRadar.

ByteDance
TikTok’s parent company is set to launch Ripple, a new AI-powered application that can turn a hummed melody into a song. More info on Music Business Worldwide.

Merlin
Merlin signs up with Canva to enable music to be inserted into creations. More info on Music Business Worldwide. Incidentally, Pascal Bittard, founder and president of IDOL, is a member of Merlin’s board of directors.

Meta
Meta has launched Threads, a new app to compete with Twitter, but has not yet been authorized in Europe. More info on Music Ally. As a result of the Online News Act, Meta will be removing news from Facebook and Instagram in Canada. More info on TechCrunch.

Peloton
According to Goldman Sachs, Peloton paid the music industry more than TikTok last year. More info on Music Business Worldwide.

Soundcloud
SoundCloud’s latest partnerships are with Discord and Squarespace. More info on Music Ally.

Spotify
Spotify raises its subscription rates and reports strong performance for the second quarter. More info on Music Week. Daniel Ek has sold $100 million worth of Spotify shares. More info on Music Business Worldwide. Spotify’s next content expansion could be full length music videos. More info on Music Ally.

TikTok
TikTok announces a partnership with Boomplay to amplify African music. More info on Music in Africa. TikTok would like to block external e-commerce links such as Amazon. More info on TechCrunch. In Texas, academics are taking legal action to ban the social network. More info on Complete Music Update. TikTok confirms it is funding creators’ lawsuit against its Montana ban. More info on Complete Music Update.

Triller
Triller goes public with a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange. More info on Billboard. Triller and Sony Music have settled their licensing dispute. More info on Billboard.

X / Twitter
Following the launch of Threads, Twitter has reminded Meta of its intellectual property rights. More info on Complete Music Update. Twitter seeks dismissal of dispute with music publishers: according to the National Music Publishers’ Association, the social network has failed to stop rampant piracy on its platform, and owes more than $250 million in royalties. More info on Music Business Worldwide.

New features

Amazon Music
Amazon Music announces the integration of derivative products via Bandsintown. More info on Music Week.

Apple Music
Apple Music is launching a Discovery Station, based on your listening history, to help you discover new tracks. More info on The Verge.

Audiomack
With one million installations of its Creator application, Audiomack is adding a new “Connect Tab” tool to enable artists to chat directly with their fans. More info on Music Business Worldwide.

Bandcamp
Bandcamp adds a “Listening Parties” function for new releases. More info on Music Ally.

Deezer
Deezer launches an app for in-car streaming. More info on Music Week.

Instagram
Instagram now lets you download content from published Reels. More info on Social Media Today. Instagram offers the option of adding music to photo carousels. More info on TechCrunch.

Muzos
Muzos is gamifying streaming by launching a music rewards service. More info on Music Week.

Snapchat
Snap has teamed up with Linktree to enable users to add links to profiles. More info on TechCrunch.

Soundcloud
SoundCloud is tackling what it calls the “zero plays problem” with its AI-powered “First Fans” feature. More info on Music Business Worldwide.

Spotify
Spotify Desktop gets a new look and an improved library. More info on Engadget. Spotify will transfer Apple customers to its own payment system. More info on Complete Music Update.

Tidal
Tidal is the latest music streaming service to raise its prices. More info on Music Ally. Tidal is also adding high-resolution FLAC streaming for HiFi Plus subscribers. More info on Engadget.

TikTok
At the beginning of the summer, TikTok launched a premium streaming service called “TikTok Music” in agreement with the major labels and Merlin. More info on Music Week. After Brazil and Indonesia, the beta version of TikTok Music has been launched in Australia, Mexico and Singapore. More info on Digital Music News. TikTok makes it compulsory to indicate AI-generated content. More info on Social Media Today. To compete with Twitter (and Threads), TikTok is adding support for text messages. More info on TechCrunch.

Twitch
Twitch adds a new discovery feed and a “Story” feature. More info on Music Ally.

X / Twitter
Twitter now allows subscribers to post tweets of up to 25,000 characters. More info on TechCrunch.

YouTube
YouTube Music and YouTube Premium increase their monthly subscription rates. More info on The Hollywood Reporter. YouTube Music launches ‘Samples’, a feed of short videos to encourage discovery. More info on Music Ally. YouTube Music extends the “real-time lyrics” function to a wider range of users. More info on ZDNet. YouTube Music gets a pre-save function thanks to Linkfire. More info on Music Ally. YouTube announces free dubbing translation thanks to AI. More info on Digital Music News.
On the test bench, YouTube announces an AI music incubator, where select UMG artists will “explore and experiment on AI-related music tools and products”. More info on Billboard. YouTube is also testing a hum-based song search function. More info on TechCrunch. YouTube tests video disabling for ad-block users. More info on The Verge.

Going further
Read more articles
See all