Good news. That’s what our store partners are serving up this time of year while we count our blessings and give thanks.
YouTube is busting out. Claromúsica celebrates big numbers. Amazon Music adds new features. Tidal is causing a big wave. Spotify is killing piracy.
The next few billion!
YouTube’s Chief Business Officer Robert Kyncl is way beyond thinking about his website’s future new viewers in terms of millions. According to Money.CNN.com, he’s thinking about “the next few billion.” He credits more and more people from emerging countries logging on to the Internet for the first time, and mostly through smart phones. The 1990s and 2000s brought the wired Internet. These days the wireless Internet speaks to our increasingly mobile-first planet.
“YouTube will always have most of its money come from advertising.” Kyncl continues, “The next few billion people that will come online will most likely be only monetizable through ads.” That said, the company has launched a new $10 per month subscription service, YouTube Red, another revenue stream for artists. This is the perfect time for artists to make money from YouTube through TuneCore’s Sound Recording Revenue collection service and by collecting songwriting royalties from YouTube through TuneCore Music Publishing Administration.
5 million subscribers in Latin America.
Claromúsica, which publically launched in January 2015, evolved from a digital venture back in 1996 called Beon, which was owned by Grupo Carso and run by Carlos Slim Domit. It’s a division of America Móvil Group, a company owned by the father of Slim Domit, Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim Helú, the richest or second richest man in the world, depending on the day. The online music service is a bit like iTunes, a bit like Spotify. Domit tells Billboard.com, “With Claromúsica, people can buy songs and records, subscribe to free and paid streaming services, and listen to online radio stations. Our market vision is regional, and we are in 16 Latin American countries.”
The service is most popular in Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Chile, and is used throughout Central and South American and the Caribbean. Music fans can purchase monthly or
weekly packages. The Slim family seems to have the magic touch. Claromúsica now has 5 million subscribers in Latin America—a muy caliente (very hot) market that likes all kinds of music. Slim Domit’s secret is catering to music fans’ tastes, “In the end, it all comes down to a service, and you can’t miss what people want.” Exactamente.
New offline listening, expanded catalogue & new territories.
It’s here. The ability to download songs to an SD (Secure Digital) card for offline listening, which is the size of a postage stamp. It’s the latest advance for Amazon Music. This is great news for those with Android Wear devices who now have the ability to add saved tracks and albums from Prime Music to their phones’ SD card without taking excessive storage space. Thenextweb.com shared that news and mentioned that it is also great news for music fans with Android Auto, who like to rock and roll on the road.
Cnet.de says Prime Music is also being launched in Germany and Austria where its library is small compared to Apple Music or Spotify, but its fringe benefits are huge—for $49 a year music fans get also get movies, series, e-books, photo storage…. For artists, it’s an enticing, multi-faceted service that gets their music to fans in the Alps.
1 million reasons to ride Tidal’s wave.
Another TuneCore alumnus is lighting up the music world. According to engadget.com, Jay Z’s pet project Tidal has just hit the big seven-figure mark. One million users are getting their kicks from
his streaming service. The rapper, who knows how to “Run This Town,” is “Crazy in Love” with the new figures that quiet the haters and verify that he’s on course. Jay Z tweeted, “Nothing real can be threatened, nothing unreal exists,” And yes, he put it out there, “Tidal is platinum.”
Billboard.com passed on this news from The Hollywood Reporter: To sweeten the pot for users, Tidal is adding a comedy series to the mix: No Small Talk is a standup comedy show hosted by DJ Cipha Sounds. A 35-million song library. Several thousand music videos. Tidal is creating a big wave for artists who want to get heard, noticed—and paid.
Spotify gives music piracy the beat down.
Piracy is on the wane and the super power that may be killing it is Spotify. Digitalmusicnews.com confirms that Spotify is causing a noticeable drop in music piracy. It also is reducing paid downloads from iTunes and Amazon. Here’s the math. Spotify solidly reduces illegal swapping and torrenting; 47 Spotify streams replace one illegal download. On the other hand 137 Spotify streams appear to reduce track sales by 1 unit. A European Study reports, “Our analysis shows that interactive streaming appears to be revenue-neutral for the recorded music industry.”
Airline passengers will have their choice of 30 million streamed tunes via Spotify’s new deal with Virgin America, reports Music Business Worldwide. And we relayed some great news for artists; the new feature Spotify Fan Insights gives them a clear profile (demographics, location, preferences) of the music fans that listen to their music on Spotify.
Death to piracy. Long live money-making revenue streams for artists.
SOUND BYTES
- Italy: Subscription streaming income doubles. Freemium income tumbles.
- Facebook adds song clips from Spotify and Apple Music to News Feed.
- Beats Music’s Farwell Tour. It’s rolled into Apple Music.
- Deezer partners with BMW. Drivers take Deezer on the road.
Tags: claromusic digital distribution DIY featuring indie spotify store news tidal tunecore YouTube