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All the latest news in music, tech and apps: 09/25/2018
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The Digest 09/25/2018

Hi everyone - 

The news that Apple Music is apparently converting users to premium at 2.5 times the rate of Spotify is certainly an eye-catching one, as is the claim from analyst Gene Munster that the streaming service also now has 21 million users in the US, putting it ahead of Spotify's 20 million based on last reports. Perhaps what is more interesting though is the space Apple is now carving as an opposition to... well, plenty of things. 

Apple's other news today is that it will be shutting down the advertising operation at Shazam. This shouldn't be a massive surprise as Apple has become quite the opponent to the whole ad model that drives the revenues of the likes of Google and Facebook (and Twitter, and Snapchat, and.. and... its a long list). This isn't just about revenue models though; as others have noted, Apple is now taking a stand for privacy and that lines up very nicely to its long-held position on products being of a certain quality and style. So, just as Shazam will no longer be encumbered with ads, it is no shock to see that potentially Apple's music service is stealing a march based on the same focus toward higher-quality experiences and a space in which artists are perhaps more respected than on other platforms... 

... such as Spotify, where news emerged over the weekend that the company was looking to make more playlists algorithmically driven. I suspect this is just something of a test for now, but the implications are certainly interesting here. Not only does it mean labels/artists/managers can't quite take that "first track on New Music Friday" bragging right, but it also starts to obfuscate our experiences to potentially be wholly personalised... but therefore not something shared with others at all. Is that a good thing? Tough to say - in some respects I quite like the idea of chipping away at annoying metrics that we in the industry can all get a little too obsessed with, but I still can't help but see it as Spotify further working to undermine labels (though I have to give credit to the Music ReDef newsletter for using the term "Spotify tunnelling under the labels", which put it better than I ever could). 

I think I linked to this article previously, but I'll do it again now, as the context is spot-on: "Forget the new iPhones: Apple’s best product is now privacy" Apple could be stealing a march here purely by focusing on quality and privacy - and that might be a one-two punch capable of taking down many a competitor... 

Have a great evening, 

D.  

Contents:

Apple Music estimated at 21M North American listeners, converting at 2.5 times rate of Spotify

"Adjusting for addressable market...Apple is converting potential customers into paying customers at a rate 2.5x faster than Spotify," writes Loup Ventures analyst Gene Munster. In North America, where Apple CEO Tim Cook recently claimed to have overtaken Spotify in paid customers, Munster estimates that Apple Music has 21 million subcribers versus Spotify's 20 million. The analyst suggests that while Apple's conversion rate can be attributed partly to iPhone owners having more disposable income, the bigger factor is Apple's control of iOS — which not only provides a "seamlessly integrated music experience," but built-in advertising working to persuade people to subscribe.
 
https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/09/25/apple-music-estimated-at-21m-north-american-listeners-converting-at-25-times-rate-of-spotify
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Pandora acquired by SiriusXM in $3.5bn deal

Sirius XM Holdings has acquired Pandora in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $3.5 billion. The combination brings together SiriusXM’s base of over 36 million subscribers across North America and 23 million+ annual trial listeners, and Pandora’s 70 million monthly active users. The transaction builds on SiriusXM’s position in subscription radio and as a curator of exclusive audio programming with one of the largest US audio streaming platforms, enabling SiriusXM to expand its presence beyond vehicles into the home and other mobile areas.
 
https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/pandora-acquired-by-siriusxm-in-3-5bn-deal/
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Apple Says Shazam Will Soon Be Ad-Free

Apple’s $400 million purchase of Shazam has officially closed. Which means Apple now owns Shazam. And for Shazam users, that may soon bring a much-appreciated perk: Ads on the app will soon go away. Apple’s Monday announcement of the deal closing said that the “app will soon offer its experience ad-free for all users.” Shazam allows users to identify a song playing in a bar, restaurant or an archaic technology like the car radio by letting the app listen to a fragment of the music and matching it to the millions of songs in its database.
 
http://fortune.com/2018/09/24/apple-now-officially-owns-shazam-and-says-the-app-will-soon-be-ad-free/
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With Instagram’s Founders Out, Welcome to Facebook Inc.

This feels like a new phase of Facebook, Inc. Whatever the lip service, the fact is that Zuckerberg’s guys are running all the things. If leadership is such an important part of business, as most people seem to believe, then this can’t help but drive the company’s star products closer to its central node, which is Mark Zuckerberg. A company with a remarkable and unusual ownership structure that already concentrated power in Mark Zuckerberg has now doubled down by extending that power to the far reaches of the organization’s acquisitions.
 
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/09/with-instagrams-founders-out-welcome-to-facebook-inc/571234/
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London firm to launch music streaming platform with Universal Music Group

London-listed music technology firm 7digital will today reveal a partnership with Universal Music Group, the record label behind artists such as Taylor Swift, Elton John and Lady Gaga, to create new bespoke music partner services attributed to individual artists. The deal will see 7digital power online stores for artists through which fans can buy access to streamed or downloadable music content, such as curated playlists or new music singles, alongside artist merchandise and products.
 
http://www.cityam.com/263499/london-firm-launch-spotify-rival-universal-music-group
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Spotify is testing semi-personalized playlists. What might that mean for record labels?

If Spotify was to continue down a path of personalization across all of its playlists, it could wipe out the value of getting a ‘top billing’ on a single playlist – because every user’s experience of that playlist would be unique. Spotify constantly tests new features, as seen last week when the company announced that it will allow independent artists to directly upload music to the platform through their Spotify for Artists dashboard. Yet, the potential for all playlists on Spotify to be individually customized by one’s listening habits opens a new kind of door in the world of playlists.
 
https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/spotify-is-testing-semi-personalized-playlists-what-might-that-mean-for-record-labels/
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Instagram denies it’s building Regramming. Here’s why it’d be a disaster

Instagram tells me Regramming, or the ability to instantly repost someone else’s feed post to your followers like a retweet, is “not happening”, not being built, and not being tested. And that’s good news for all Instagrammers. The denial comes after it initially issued a “no comment” to The Verge’s Casey Newton, who published that he’d seen screenshots of a native Instagram resharing sent to him by a source.
 
https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/21/instagram-reposting/
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UK issues first-ever GDPR notice in connection to Facebook data scandal

Served by the ICO, the notice has been levied against AggregateIQ Data Services (AIQ). However, there is no mention of the enforcement action on the ICO's website; rather, the document was tagged on to the commission's investigation (.PDF) "into the use of data analytics in political campaigns." AIQ has been tied to the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal as a provider of software and tools for the management of data destined for use in voter targeting. The company has also been connected to the Vote Leave campaign in the United Kingdom.
 
https://www.zdnet.com/article/uk-issues-first-ever-gdpr-notice-in-connection-to-facebook-data-scandal/
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