Our Weekly Roundup is focusing on platforms and consumers habits, changes to take into account and make sure your strategy is right.
#1. Spatial audio is going steady
As you know, Apple Music started offering the possibility to listen to music in spatial audio mode, at no additional costs. And apparently, it’s working fine since about 80% of users are doing so.
Eddy Cue, Apple’s Head of services, stated: “Since launch, the number of monthly Spatial Audio listeners has more than tripled, with more than 80 percent of worldwide subscribers enjoying the experience, while monthly plays in Spatial Audio have grown by over 1,000 percent,”
#2. Music discoverability shifting more and more clearly
We talked about the fact that we’re not about mainstream artists anymore, but rather moving towards hardcore fans, building communities around artists. It feels like a lot of analysis is covering that already. But a recent research found that discoverability is becoming more about the journey itself and the work of the artists’ universe than before. We’re not scaling anymore, we’re building strong fanbases.
Now, one of the challenges will be to spot which discovery sources are the most impactful and on who. Depending on the audience, the ability to spend money or not, the music genre… Strategy and storytelling will have to be adapted. Music marketing then becomes more tailor-made than ever before, to make sure the narrative is right, pushing potential fans to go and discover the rest of an artist’s repertoire after hearing a track on TikTok for example.
Maybe the real difficulty resides in the fact that the latest generation, discovering music mainly through TikTok, is now more focused on tracks rather than artists. And without the community built around an artist and their universe, how can careers grow according to their success?
#3. Epidemic Sound’s Copyright infringement trial, following up
As we’ve talked about a few months back, Epidemic Sound sued Meta for copyright infringement. The reason: Instagram Reels allow users to pick tracks from Epidemic’s library and use them completely free of charge. Meanwhile, no deal has been made between the two companies. Although Meta countered by stating that allegations were simply not true.
Well, now we have a Court date set for 2024, opposing Epidemic Sounds and Meta. 2023 will see some date for the pretrial, but the case is becoming more and more important, gaining traction especially in the US.
#4. Spotify, Basecamp and Deezer alliance against Apple
Speaking of platforms, Apple is under scrutiny again for their anti-competitive practices. The platforms are asking the European Union to act on the unfair taxes and prices Apple would be setting to be able to exist on the App Store (and therefore on iPhone users).
Back in 2021, the EU sided with Spotify who already seized the commission regarding abusive practices by Apple. For now, the firm hasn’t responded yet to the latest demands.
#5. Fake streams are making a comeback in analysis
As you may know, Reprtoir is based in France. And currently, one of the global analyses going on in music media is the one regarding fake streams. A study at our National Center of Music was released, stating that about 1-3% streams were actually fake. These stats are coming from numbers given by the main music streaming services used in France, and Music Business Worldwide has taken the time to run the numbers for you. These are not to be taken lightly, but we still have to point out that piracy has always been and will likely remain a strong issue for our industry.
