Spotify’s Today’s Top Fans proves that you’re the biggest fan of the most popular artists in the world

Tom Newmanin
Digital Music News

Based on the playlist Today’s Top Hits, Today’s Top Fans shows how many times and when you first discovered the biggest artists on Spotify.

With over 29 million followers, Today’s Top Hits is the most-followed playlist on Spotify. Featuring some of the biggest artists, the playlist highlights the hottest records in the world today. Spotify’s new microsite Today’s Top Fans pulls together your listening data to show your top Today’s Top Hits artists.

Using data between 2013 and now, Today’s Top Fans shows when you first listened to the artist, your top three most-streamed songs of their’s, how many times you streamed the top song, how many hours you’ve spent listening to their music and the top percentage of their fans you’re in.

To get started, simply head to Spotify: Today’s Top Fans, sign in, and scroll or swipe through. At the end, you’ll be provided with a shareable card to show off to friends on socials. Click or tap MORE ARTISTS at the end to see three additional Today’s Top Hits artists.

Fortnite’s ‘Rift Tour’ to begin next week

Kieran Webberin
Artist / Label News
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Digital Music News
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Music News

Image credit: Epic Games

Fortnite’s ‘Rift Tour’ is set to begin next and is rumoured to have performances from Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, and more.

Epic Games are teasing the biggest in-game event since Travis Scott’s performance saw a staggering 45.8 million (including replays) people view the event. According to Nielsen SuperData, the official stream for the premiere on Twitch had an average minute audience of 2.3 million.

It’s rumoured that Travis Scott received an eye-watering half a million dollars for the 10-minute performance, neither Epic nor Travis was confirmed this. 

The new event, that is currently shrouded in mystery called the ‘Rift Tour’ will kick off on Friday 6th August and run through to Sunday 8th August. In the teaser announcement, Epic invite players to “take a musical journey into magical new realities where Fortnite and a record-breaking superstar collide.”

Whilst players wait for the ‘Rift Tour’ players can expect a run of mysterious in-game events to run from July 29th through to August 8th. This will give players access to rift themed events and rewards. The ‘Rift Tour’ will be available multiple times throughout the three days, making it easier for players to watch and be a part of the event. More news onset times and who’s playing will be announced on Monday 2nd August. 

The big question is who exactly is performing? There are many rumours (so do take them with a pinch of salt), but signs are pointing towards Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga. The reason being that during the court battle between Epic and Apple there were documents that detailed plans for in-game events with both Grande and Gaga. There have also been visual cues throughout her music videos and a reference in-game to her pet pig, Piggy Smalls. 

There are also rumours of Kanye West performing in the virtual space as his new album ‘Donda’ is penned to release on August 6th. This is very much speculation though, either way, we are likely to find out Monday 2nd August via Epic’s official announcement. 

How many people stream music on Spotify? – Spotify’s Q2 2021 results reveal the latest stats

Tom Newmanin
Digital Music News

Spotify’s earnings highlight the number of monthly active users, paying subscribers and all of the latest features for streamers and artists.

Spotify reports their second quarter financial performance, detailing the number of monthly active users and paying subcribers as of the end of June 2021. See the full infographic below. To review the full earnings release document, click here. To hear the webcast Q&A, click here.

Spotify’s Q2 2021 monthly active users are at 365 million, up 22% year-over-year from 299 million. Subscribers are currently at 165 million, up 20% from 138 million in Q2 2020.

To see how these numbers stack up against their first quarter 2021 results, click here. To see how these numbers stack up against the competition from streaming services such as Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Deezer, Pandora and more, click here.

Alongside impressive numbers, Spotify also announced all of the latest updates to their platform for listeners and artists. These include a new miniplayer on Facebook, Only You – showing listeners their unique listening habits, the acquisition of podcast discovery platform Podz, launching Spotify Greenroom – their live audio Clubhouse competitor, updates to Your Library on mobile and more mobile accessibility features. New features designed for creators include Paid Podcast Susbcriptions to help podcasters earn revenue and the Fresh Find program to give developing artists tools and education.

Image Credit: Spotify

Doppler HiFi music player launches for Mac with iOS integration

Kieran Webberin
Artist / Label News
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Digital Music News
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Music News

Image credit: Doppler

Doppler for iPhone has become popular among music listeners who want to own their music in hi-res formats, now its coming to MacOS.

Doppler for iPhone has grown in popularity among music fans who like to own their music in hi-res formats such as FLAC files. Now the popular mobile version is heading to Mac after being teased back in June. 

Doppler for Mac boasts a clean and simple UI to organize and listen to your personally owned media collection. It features a seamless drag and drop design that allows the user to add music to their library with ease. It also makes it easy to transfer music and playlists between iPhone and Mac over WiFi or USB. In addition to this, there is a one-click artwork search feature, simple multi-disc merging, metadata editing, a playback queue, and so much more. 

If you have Sleeve installed on your Mac you will also be able to integrate the apps, making for a fluid music playing experience.

Doppler for Mac is a free download with a 7-day trial and then it is a $25 one-time purchase afterward. 

Universal Music Group signs licensing deal with TikTok rival Lomotif

Kieran Webberin
Artist / Label News
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Digital Music News
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Music News

Image credit: Lomotif

Universal Music Group has officially inked a licensing deal with Singapore based Lomotif, a TikTok rival.

Universal Music Group (UMG) has officially signed a licensing deal with TikTok rival Lomotif. Under the agreement, Lomotif users will be able to “create clips using songs from the big three record label and easily add UMG’s music to a clip right from the app”, according to the agreement. 

Lomotif is one of several short-form video platforms that are taking on TikTok. So far, Lomotif has racked up roughly 225 million installations, is available across over 200 countries and in 300+ languages. The platform is especially popular in Brazil, which houses 210 million residents, not to mention an ever-growing music industry that is stream-driven. Lomotif also boasts a sizeable user base, consisting of roughly 31 million MAU’s (monthly active users), according to their report. In addition to this, their audience watches approximately 300 million videos per month with a total of some 740 on-platform videos. 

Speaking on the UMG licensing deal, Lomotiff founder and CEO Paul Yang said: “Our deal with Universal Music Group will continue to grow users and increase engagement within our platform, a destination for emerging artists, and will significantly expand the types of music our community can utilize, collaborate with and share.” He adds: “With nearly 800 million videos created to date, we are heading in a great direction as a platform, and making high-value content, functionality, and features available to our community will only help us grow exponentially.”

Amazon Music partners Metropolis Studios to expand on spatial audio offerings

Kieran Webberin
Artist / Label News
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Digital Music News
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Music News

Image credit: Campaign

Amazon Music continues its push into immersive and spatial audio with partnership with Metropolis Studios.

Amazon Music has shown it’s looking to expand its immersive sounds and spatial audio capabilities by forming a content partnership with Metropolis Studios, an independent studio based in West London. The studio has recently added a 3D audio facility and will become the streaming services UK-based HQ for immersive mixing.

Metropolis worked with content expert Sonosphere on the design of the new studio as well as the specifications to help support its creative mix workflow. Loudspeakers have been installed around the room at 30 degrees separation with the studio having immersive audio monitoring designed to cater for all surround formats, including Dolby Atmos. The placement of the speakers helps create the 360-degree spatial audio, meaning that the sound of each instrument will come from its location, meaning the listener will feel surrounded by the music.

Artists who have partnered with Amazon Music to create immersive mixes are The Amazons, Emma McGrath, James Ried, and many more. The aforementioned mixes will be available late summer and boast Amazon Music‘s continued expansion and investment into 3D audio formats.

Speaking on the partnership Patrick Clifton, head of music, Amazon Music UK, told Campaign: “We have a belief that music fans want to listen to music in the highest quality possible. Any work we do to ask fans what they want always tells us that high-quality audio is really important to them and this technology now allows us to offer that.

“We also know that artists want their fans to hear music in the best quality possible and are always excited to deliver their music as it’s intended to be heard. It blows me away, its ability to capture so much more emotion in the music than we’re able to do in stereo.”

Amazon Music’s new Spotlight feature lets artists connect directly with fans

Tom Newmanin
Digital Music News

Image Credit: YouTube

Amazon announce many new features and tools for their smart assistant at their third annual Alexa Live developer conference.

With over 130,000 skills, Amazon’s Alexa helps make homes smarter and more secure, connect you with loved ones, and stay informed and entertained while at home and on-the-go. Today Alexa is built-in to hundreds of products such as PCs, wearables, smart home devices and cars. Amazon’s annual Alexa Live conference announces all of the new developer features and tools to help drive discovery, growth and engagement. While the full blog post lists more than 50 new features, we take a look at two of the most exciting Entertaining and Immersive Experiences.

Spotlight

Amazon Music’s new Spotlight feature lets artists connect directly with fans by uploading a recorded message or creating one in the Amazon Music for Artists mobile app. The message can promote new music or shine a light on the creative process. Tones and I, and Little Simz are the first two artists to record personalized Spotlight messages. You can hear these in the Amazon music app from the artist profile pages or by asking Alexa, “Alexa, play the Tones and I Spotlight”.

DJ Song Request

Millions of people use Alexa-enabled devices every day to listen to music, radio and podcasts. DJ Song Request allows radio listeners to request and dedicate songs to radio DJs via Alexa. Soon you’ll simply be able to ask Alexa to request a song on a station and who to dedicate it to. You can apply for the Song Request Skill Component developer preview today here.

Watch the video below highlighting the new DJ Song Request feature from iHeartRadio’s Chief Product Officer, Chris Williams, and Spotlight from Amazon Music’s VP, Steve Boom.

Kanye West’s ‘Donda’ Apple Music exclusive livestream breaks records

Kieran Webberin
Artist / Label News
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Digital Music News
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Music News

Image credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Universal Music Group via Pitchfrok

Kanye West’s exclusive Applke Music livestream of his tenth studio album ‘Donda’ was viewed by 3.3 million people.

Apple Music is ramping up its exclusive content in recent months, firstly by adding a weekly segment called ‘This Week in Apple Music’, which features exclusive interviews and previews. And more recently the global livestream event that premiered Kanye West’s hotly-anticipated new album ‘Donda’. The exclusive event was hosted at the Mercedez-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, which Kanye is now rumored to be living at until the album is complete.

According to TMZ, the livestream saw 3.3 million people tune, an Apple Music record. The previous record-holder was 1.8 million viewers for a Verzuz battle between Gucci Mane and Jeezy that was livestreamed last year.

The album is yet to be released and was recently delayed but according to a tweet from a former basketball player and social media personality Justin LaBoy ‘Donda’ will be available on August 6th.

Spotify ‘What’s New’ is a feed of all the latest releases from the artists and podcasts you follow

Tom Newmanin
Digital Music News

Image Credit: Spotify

‘What’s New’ from Spotify brings together all of the new single, albums and podcasts from all of the artists and creators you follow.

With over 50,000 hours of content uploaded to Spotify every day, it can be difficult to keep track of the latest releases from your favourite artists and podcast creators. Personalized playlists such as Discover Weekly and Release Radar do a good job of highlighting new and unheard tracks Spotify thinks you’ll love based on your interests, but What’s New ditches the algorithm to brings together all of the latest releases from the artists and podcast shows you follow.

You’ll find What’s New behind the new bell icon in the upper right corner of the Home tab on the Spotify app. Updated in real time, a blue dot indicator shows when new releases have been added. The list is ordered by release time/date, with the newest unheard content showing at the top, followed by older content you’ve already seen. Filters at the top of the page will allow you to view just Music or Podcasts & Shows. To add more content to What’s New, be sure to follow all of your favourite artists and creators on Spotify.

The new feature will be rolling out to all users globally on iOS and Android in the coming weeks.

Video Credit: Spotify

What is Audiomack?

Madeleine Amosin
Artist / Label News
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Digital Music News

Image Credit: Audiomack

Step this way to learn more about free music app Audiomack.

Similar to SoundCloud in that anyone can upload music and anyone can listen for free, Audiomack aims to promote emerging artists. Since 2012 Audiomack has been primarily a free music streaming service, and now has over 17 million monthly active users. Even as it has grown in popularity the platform still has a focus on boosting the online presence and careers of independent artists.

whats audiomack
Image Credit: Audiomack

Concentrating on select genres including hip-hop and EDM, Audiomack includes free mixtapes from new young artists trying to find an audience. On the platform are albums, podcasts, songs and mixtapes, with trending charts and curated playlists. Audiomack also offers an ad-free Premium tier for $4.99 a month.

Audiomack is available as an iOS and Android app as well as on desktop. Free features for artists include unlimited uploads, stats, monetisation, scheduling tools and embeddable players to share uploads elsewhere online.

It’s not just new artists on the platform – there’s also big-name artists like Eminem, who chose to release his 2018 Machine Gun Kelly diss track “Killshot” on Audiomack. Eminem’s spontaneous release also highlights the continued organic DIY nature of the platform, despite licensing deals with the Big Three record labels of Warner, Sony and Universal Music. At the start of this year, Billboard announced that Audiomack streaming data would be included in its charts.

Audiomack’s accessible and forward-thinking platform make it one to watch in the streaming world for the future.