“Do everything you can right now and then decide. Because now is all that matters.”
Trish Cook, Midnight Sun
Facebook and Instagram users in Latin American countries like Chile and Ecuador will now be able to add music to their Stories starting Wednesday September 4. Features like Music Stickers, Lip Sync Live, and the ability to add songs to a Facebook profile will now be available for users to choose from when publishing content to their Stories.
On the same day of this week, production music library Audio Network and Singapore-based machine learning company Musiio both partnered up to bring a new twist on artificial intelligence. Audio Network provides its clients with an AI-enhanced search function across its 170,000-strong catalog. And Musiio provides B2B clients a new way of “listening” to music at scale, searching up to one million tracks in under two seconds. Sync agencies as well as TV/movie/video game/ad houses can now be able to find a particular track for their campaign faster within Audio Network’s database.
Pandora’s users across all tiers of the service can now share their songs, albums, podcasts, playlists, or Pandora stations via Instagram Stories, as reported by the company’s blog post on Tuesday. By tapping Share and then “Instagram Stories” on the Now Playing screen, a Cover Art card will be generated on your Story where you can then add text and stickers and share as a Story, or send it as a direct message to a friend, a group of friends, or all of your followers.
Now, the details...
Compiled by Heidi Seo
Exploration Weekly - September 06, 2019
Facebook and Instagram Users Across Latin America Now Able to Add Music to Stories
Facebook and Instagram users across Latin America will now be able to add music to their Stories, starting Wednesday September 4. Updated features include Music Stickers, Lip Sync Live, and the ability to add songs to a Facebook profile. Instagram users can also choose and add song lyrics to their Stories. Alvaro de Torres, who leads Latin America music publishing business development at Facebook, wrote in a company blog post, “The region has a strong music ecosystem and we're thrilled to open up these new features for more people.” The countries included in this week’s launch are Chile, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela, Guatemala, Uruguay, Paraguay, Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Panama and Nicaragua. The delay in the launch stems from the process of licensing music for the social media platforms in other countries. De Torres adds that Facebook has partnered with local labels, music publishers, and collecting societies in Latin America to license a “vast catalog of millions of national and international songs” for users to choose from.
On Wednesday September 4, production music library Audio Network and Singapore-based machine learning company, Musiio, entered into a partnership that will bring a new twist on artificial intelligence. Audio Network was acquired for $215 million by Entertainment One earlier this year, and will now be able to provide its clients with an AI-enhanced search function to help them find the right track amongst its 170,000-strong catalog. On the other hand, Musiio claims it can provide B2B clients a new way of “listening” to music at scale, searching up to one million tracks in under two seconds. Therefore, big sync agencies, or TV/movie/video game/ad houses, will hopefully have the ability to find the perfect track for their campaign faster within Audio Network’s database. Said Matthew Hawn, Chief Product Officer at Audio Network, “Audio Network approaches Artificial Intelligence carefully with regard to music. We view machine learning and AI techniques as instruments for extending human creativity, not something that replaces it...Blending Musiio’s technology with our expert human curation will mean our artists and composers’ music is more accessible to more customers globally.”
Pandora Integrates with Instagram Stories
According to a blog post published on Tuesday by Pandora, users across all tiers of service can share their songs, albums, podcasts, playlists, or Pandora stations via Instagram Stories. In order to share music from the Pandora app via Instagram, you tap Share and then “Instagram Stories” on the Now Playing screen. A Cover Art card for that music or podcast will pop up on your Instagram Stories. From there, you will be able to add text and stickers to your Cover Art card and share as a Story, or send it as a direct message to a friend, a group of friends, or all of your followers. Those Instagram followers who do not already have a Pandora Premium account can access shared content plus a session of free, unlimited music and podcasts after viewing a short ad thanks to Pandora’s Premium Access feature.
Revenues Up 18% According to RIAA’s 2019 Mid-Year Report
A mid-year report released yesterday by the Recording Industry Association of America shows revenues are up 18% to $5.4 billion and streaming accounts for 80% of that revenue. Paid streaming services added more than 1 million new subscriptions a month, pushing the U.S. total past 60 million. Double-digit growth is continuing to be seen since 2016. At wholesale value, revenues rose 16% to $3.5 billion. In the same period this year, streaming revenues soared from $1.7 billion in the first half of 2016 to $4.3 billion. Paid subscriptions are the biggest driver, rising from 9.1 million in the first half of 2016, to 20.5 million the following year, to 46.9 million last year, and 61.1 million in the first half of 2019. Of the remaining 20% of music industry revenues, 9% each went to physical product and digital downloads, and 2% to synch. Music contributes $143 billion to the United States’ GDP every year, according to the report.
Spotify Expands Music Sharing Into Facebook Stories
Spotify is re-introducing a new way to share music via Facebook Stories. The integration includes 15-second song previews for viewers. The viewer can tap the “Play on Spotify” button in the story to open the Spotify app. According to the streaming service, the feature is designed mostly with artists and their teams in mind. It gives them another avenue to share new hits across Facebook. The company further stated, “Taking advantage of our sharing features helps to get your tunes to more people’s ears. It will also encourage your fans to interact with you and your music and help spread the love through their own Facebook Stories.” Users can activate the new feature by tapping the Share button in the Spotify app and choosing Facebook as the destination. They can then customize the story using editing tools. Viewers get to see the 15-second song clip and can tap to see more. Last year, Spotify integrated with Instagram Stories, and saw increased engagement on users’ Stories and traffic flowing back to the streaming service.
Spain’s Music Market Sees Gains in First Half of 2019 in Digital and Even CDs
According to a new report published by Spanish recording industry association Promusicae, music sales in Spain surged some 27% in the first half of 2019, with subscription streaming services income up 41% over the same period in 2018. In addition, Spain’s population spent €140.7 million euros (about $155 million) on music in streaming and physical formats. The increase in music sales from January to June 2019 was the biggest since 2002, Promusicae reported. The main driving force behind the new figures is due to “the unstoppable rise of streaming” principally by subscription but also ad-supported, says the report. Almost 77% of music revenue in Spain now comes from digital streaming and sales. On the other hand, sales of vinyl and CDs in Spain also increased in the first half of the year. Vinyl record sales increased to €7.7 million (about $8.5 million) over €5.1 million (almost $5.7 million) in the same period in 2018. And CD sales increased almost 8% over the first six months of last year, rising for the first time since 2014.
Spotify Unlocks Premium Duo Plan Into 14 New Latin American Countries
Spotify’s Premium Duo plan is now available for Spotify listeners in 14 Latin American countries, shortly after “a strong rollout” in Colombia, Chile, Denmark, Ireland, and Poland. The full list of countries where the plan is available are Denmark, Ireland, Poland, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. The plan was created “for couples who reside at the same home address” and it costs significantly less than having two Premium accounts (the price varies by country). According to the streaming service, “new perks” include a regularly updated playlist called Duo Mix, the ability to share your playlist library with each other, and an interface for managing accounts, settings and home device setup. Those users who have not tried Premium before are also eligible for the first three months of Spotify Premium Duo for free.
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