Streaming service Deezer has published its latest financial results, revealing that its revenues grew by 12.1% year-on-year in the first six months of 2022. That meant revenues of €219.4m ($219.6m) split between Deezer’s consumer business (up 12.2% to €155m) and its B2B revenues (up 7.9% to €57.6m). Its home country France accounted for €132.4m of Deezer’s revenues in the first half of this year though: 60.3% of the total, only slightly less than the 60.9% for the same period last year.
The Record Label Industry Association of Korea has been surveying 1,500 streaming subscribers about their activity, including their favourite DSPs. According to Korea Bizwire, 52.7% chose Melon, the well-established Korean streaming service. That put it well ahead of YouTube Music (31.2%) and four other home-grown DSPs: Genie (20.2%), Flo (11.5%), Vibe (9.2%) and Bugs (8%). What about the big global players? Apple Music polled 7.3% and Spotify 4.7% in the survey, which (as keen mathematicians will already have twigged) allowed people to choose multiple services in their answer.
Deezer has big plans for Germany, and they involve a big partner: media giant RTL. The two companies announced their partnership in November last year, with plans to add music to the existing RTL+ subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service.
Spotify’s latest test is happening in Vietnam, although thanks to the internet (and specifically to helpful Reddit users) it’s now been covered in western news reports. The test is of a feature enabling listeners to record voice reactions to music playlists, which will then be published as mini-podcasts on their Spotify profiles. The news comes shortly after another test, this time in New Zealand, with a button encouraging Spotify users to create podcasts from within its main app
Apple has been growing its music business in Africa for some time now, from Apple Music and Shazam to its Platoon artist-development team. This week, the company has been talking about some of the progress it’s seeing across the continent. It told Billboard that streams of African DJ mixes have grown by 500% in the last year, including a whopping 3,000% increase in Nigeria (which the article notes makes it “one of the top 10 countries for DJ mixes” on Apple Music)
Streaming service Audiomack is launching a new feature that will enable the keenest fans of artists to hear their new music first. It’s called ‘Premiere Access‘, can be used for new tracks or entire albums, and is based on the ‘Audiomack Supporters‘ initiative that the company launched in late 2021. That’s a tips economy where fans can buy ‘support badges’ tied to specific tracks or albums, paying between $1.99 and $249.99 (!) to show off their fandom, and contribute directly to their favourite artists. Audiomack takes a 15% cut of those revenues, and artists the other 85%, with the company saying that 25,000 artists have tried it so far.
