Scores of venues across central Sydney — Australia’s biggest metropolis —opened their doors to the music, tech, film and entertainment extravaganza from Oct. 15-22, completing SXSW's first expansion out of Austin, TX. After 7 days, roughly 300 performances (nearly 40% of which were international) and upwards of 600 speakers, the inaugural SXSW Sydney is done and dusted.

The likes of Chance The Rapper, Nicole Kidman and Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker were among the guest speakers who donned a SXSW Sydney lanyard and brought star power to the show.

This article was initially published on Billboard, which was there to soak it up. Check out three of their highlights.

Taylor Swift recently entered the Guinness World Records with the most streamed album on Spotify.

Fewer artists manage such achievements in music streaming services. This is because, firstly, there’s so much content that it’s challenging to stand out from the crowd, and secondly, new music uploaded to streaming services is likely to be listened to (and categorised) by an AI before a human hears it.

Mainstream platforms are designed to drive the right content to the right audience. It’s all about user engagement rather than the development of artists.

Niche audiences interested in a specific genre or independent artists in their region might not find what they want to listen to.

Several non-music brands and music startups have pointed out this problem and decided to do something to rally their community while supporting talents. As a result, they have built alternatives to Spotify for their niche market.

Discover in this article how you could also use a music service to attract your audience and engage with them.

Streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music have become incredibly popular in recent years, due in part to their vast libraries of commercial music.

But how do these streaming services get the rights to stream all that music? And what happens when a song is played on these services?

To stream music on services such as Spotify and Apple Music, the streaming service must first obtain a licence from the copyright owner(s) of those song libraries. This process can be quite complex and lengthy, as the terms of the licence need to be negotiated between the copyright holder and the streaming service.

Some of the things that may be included in a music licensing agreement include the length of the licence (term), the territories (single or multi-territories) in which the music will be streamed, and the amount of royalties that the streaming service will pay to the copyright holder(s).

For a music streaming service, there are usually 3 main sets of rights obtained:

• Master Rights (Record Labels)
• Publishing Rights (Song composers, writer contributors etc)
• PRO Rights (Performance Rights Organisations (public broadcasting))

Layering music into web3 and the metaverse is a complex task with lots of moving parts. Those parts can quickly devolve into technical and legal quicksand.

With those pitfalls in mind, Digital Music News published this pocket survival guide in collaboration with B2B Streaming technology provider Tuned Global.

As companies continue to dip into the metaverse, complex implementation questions are quickly surrounding the use of music.

Part of the reason is simple: just like real life, listeners want their virtual abodes to feature their favourite music.

The metaverse wouldn’t feel ‘real’ without it.

Never heard of Plern?

Here’s how an upstart Thai streaming music platform quickly topped 1 million app downloads despite heavy competition from Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music.

The Tuned Global-powered platform launched just a few months ago.

Digital Music News published an in-depth case study following an interview with Asawin ‘Ant’ Rojmethatawee, EVP of Music Streaming Business at GMM Grammy and head of Plern.

Music is an effective marketing tool and in 2021, no one knows that better than mobile network operators — telcos. 

Telcos have been bundling their phone plans with music streaming service subscriptions for almost as long as the format has existed.

But as they wake up to the advantages of bolting music-related content onto their existing offerings, some are even going one step further by launching their very own music streaming apps. 

Music Business Worldwide has interviewed Tuned Global CRO, Spiro Arkoudis to discuss the opportunities and challenges for mobile network providers who want to enter the music game and how companies such as mJams and True Digital are doing it.

In this episode of Stream by Stream, Spiro Arkoudis, CRO of Tuned Global demystifies the role of enriched metadata for the music streaming industry with Jean-Luc Biaulet, co-creator of Music Story.

What are the risks of inaccurate or sloppy metadata? How do Deezer and other digital music services boost user engagement through enriched music metadata? What criteria should Digital Service Providers (DSP) look at when they are looking for a metadata provider?

The drone industry has grown exponentially in the past few months, with the market size projected to be $63.6 billion in the next four years.

This growth is expected to occur because of its increased usage in agriculture, construction, mining, telecommunications, law enforcement, and, more recently, music entertainment.

More specifically, drones are being utilized in a lot of music events, as seen during One Republic and SZA concerts earlier in the year.

Below are some ways drones signify the future of music events.

The commercial potential of music streaming is steadily rising worldwide.

In 2020 alone, the IFPI announced that music streaming generated US$13.4 billion; that’s 62.1% of global revenue from recorded music that year.

In addition to standalone streaming services and telcos with built-in streaming apps, music is also increasingly being integrated into different verticals such as gaming, fitness and social media.

These developments make music streaming a potentially lucrative opportunity – not just for mainstream international services such as Spotify and Apple Music, but also for niche services in emerging markets where there’s still a lot of room for growth.

Music streaming may be a global phenomenon, but regionality still matters, and the demand for localised services is higher than ever.

I recently spoke with Tuned Global’s Chief Revenue Officer, Spiro Arkoudis, about the challenges and opportunities of launching streaming services in emerging markets. He shared some of Tuned Global’s insights from working in different regions across the globe.

In this episode of Stream by Stream, Spiro Arkoudis, CRO of Tuned Global talks to Hazel Savage, the CEO and co-founder of Musiio about AI in music.

What is Artificial Intelligence in a digital music world? How does AI help personalisation and user engagement for a streaming service? How have companies such as Epidemic Sound improved their user experience using Musiio AI music technology?