If you’re tired of spending hours scrolling through your music library trying to create the perfect playlist for your next party or workout session, say hello to PlaylistAI – the ultimate playlist curation tool.
PlaylistAI, a newly launched app, uses the same OpenAI GTP-3 technology that powers ChatGPT to help you create the perfect Spotify or Apple Music playlists. With PlaylistAI, you can create playlists from AI prompts, images, videos, and even your most-listened-to music with a selection of features:
AI Prompt
With the AI Prompt feature, you can simply describe what you’re in the mood for and PlaylistAI will do the rest. Want a playlist of “pop music from the early 2000s” or “upbeat dance music for working out”? PlaylistAI’s got you covered. And if you’re feeling stuck, PlaylistAI will even suggest prompts based on your connected music service.
Image
You can also use the image feature to transform music festival posters or any other image of artist names into a playlist. We tested this out with a Just Like Heaven festival poster and loved it. It may not always identify the artists correctly, but once the kinks are worked out, it will be one of your favorite features.
Rewind
PlaylistAI lets you rewind and relive your listening history with personalized playlists featuring your top tracks and artists. You can even choose to omit certain artists or tracks that you don’t want to hear.
Video
The video feature lets you select a video with multiple songs in it, and creates a playlist from the songs playing in the video – TikTok videos included!
Currently, the app can only connect with Spotify and Apple Music, but don’t worry, YouTube and other services are on the way. PlaylistAI is available for iOS and is free to download, with a pro version available for $2.99/m. So what are you waiting for? Download PlaylistAI today and say goodbye to boring playlists forever!
From Facebook’s new revenue-sharing deal with musicians to Joni Mitchell’s return, we’ve gathered the biggest music news stories of the week.
Buckle up, everyone! The final full week of July 2022 was a whirlwind of news and activity. Maybe it’s because we’re nearing the busy fall release schedule, but free time is in short supply. The industry needs this fall to continue its successful recovery from the COVID-19 shutdown, but rising sickness rates—not to mention concerns over the MonkeyPox—have some analysts concerned. As for you and I, our only option is to keep on keeping on. At least we have one another!
We cannot ease your workload or give you more hours in the day, but we can help you stay informed. Below you’ll find the biggest stories of the week, all covered by the best outlets in tech and entertainment. Click around, learn what’s happening, and use the weekend to prepare for the end of the month.
But let’s be honest. There is no way we can hope to cover everything that happens. If you see a headline we missed that people need to know, please do not hesitate to send james@haulix.com an email. We’ll include your links in the next update.
Meta announced today that creators on Facebook can now earn money through their Facebook videos that use licensed music. The company is launching “Music Revenue Sharing” to allow video creators to include licensed music in their videos on Facebook and earn a share of in-stream ad revenue. The company says this opens up a new way for both creators and music rights holders to earn money. Although creators have been able to use licensed music in videos, they haven’t been able to monetize them until now.
With this new feature, whenever a creator uses licensed music in their videos on Facebook that are 60 seconds or longer, they can earn money on certain videos through in-stream ads. Creators will receive 20% revenue share on eligible videos, with a separate share going to rights holders and to Meta, though the company declined to share specifics.
Meta says Facebook Reels are not eligible for monetization through Music Revenue Sharing at this time. It’s possible that the company may expand Music Revenue Sharing to Reels in the future.
HarbourView Equity Partners, the global alternative asset management company founded by Sherrese Clarke Soares, has acquired the recorded music rights catalog of country star Brad Paisley and the publishing catalog of multi-Platinum band Lady A.
Paisley is one of the genre’s most decorated solo artists. Over the past 20 years, Paisley’s songwriting and showmanship have won him numerous awards, including three Grammys, two American Music Awards, 14 CMA Awards and 15 ACM Awards, among others. A member of the Grand Ole Opry since 2001, Paisley has written 21 of his 24 No. 1 hits, and became the first artist to achieve 10 consecutive Billboard Country Airplay No. 1 singles, amassing nearly 4 billion on-demand streams throughout his catalog.
Since their debut over a decade ago, Lady A has ushered more than 18 million album units, 34 million tracks sold, nearly five billion digital streams and 11 No. 1 hits. The trio, which consists of Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood, earned the biggest first week streams of their career with their No. 1 album Ocean. Known for their 9x Platinum hit “Need You Now,” which is the highest certified song by a country group, they have earned CMA Vocal Group of the Year trophies three years in a row, as well as five Grammy awards, Billboard Music Awards, and more, and were recently inducted as members of the Grand Ole Opry.
Since launching nine months ago, HarbourView has acquired over 35 catalogs to date. Paisley and Lady A are the first publicly announced catalog transactions in the country genre. Other catalogs HarbourView has acquired include Hollywood Undead, Dre & Vidal, and Luis Fonsi.
It’s not easy being one of the world’s biggest social media platforms. You’ve got to keep tweaking the formula to stay relevant for new audiences and against new competitors, but every change risks alienating some of those who use the app. Instagram’s been alienating stills photographers for some time buy betting big on video – particularly its TikTok-inspired Reels. But the social media giant has clearly decided this is where its future lies.
It’s just announced a raft of updates for Reels, which is going to make them even more ubiquitous. Almost all video posts will now automatically be shared in the Reels format whether users like it or not. And, unless you opt out, people will be able to use any of your public posts (including still images) in their own Reels. If you’re a creative who uses Instagram to promote your work but haven’t yet adopted Reels, now might be the time to get started with our Instagram Reels tutorial. Or if you’ve decided that you’ve had enough altogether, see how to delete an Instagram account.
Apple Music has raised the subscription price of its student plan in the US, UK, and Canada, as first reported by 9to5Mac (via TechCrunch). While it’s increasing the price from $4.99 to $5.99 / month in the US and Canada, student users in the UK can expect a similar jump from £4.99 to £5.99 / month.
Apple hasn’t acknowledged the changes yet, but the new pricing information is currently available on Apple Music’s webpage. Students subscribed to Apple Music have also started seeing the price increase on their iPhones and iPads’ subscription pages. It’s unclear when exactly Apple implemented these changes, but, as 9to5Mac points out, it was likely rolled out sometime between June 21st and the 23rd — an archived Apple Music webpage shows the old £4.99 student price on the 21st.APPLE QUIETLY UPPED THE SUBSCRIPTION PRICE FOR STUDENTS ACROSS SEVERAL COUNTRIES IN MAY
Apple Music’s student plan, which is reserved for those enrolled in a college or university, was previously the most affordable full-featured plan on offer. Pricing for the $9.99 / month individual and $14.99 / month family plans remain unchanged, and the same goes for the $4.99 / month voice plan. While students might look to the voice plan as a way to save an extra buck, it offers more limited access to Apple Music, as you can only control it through Siri.
Some of the celebrity guests at Joni Mitchell’s private hootenannies have sworn that she has been an enthusiastic participant in the living room sessions in her Santa Barbara-area home. But until now, most fans had to take these reports on faith. At the Newport Folk Festival on Sunday, an all-star Mitchell tribute concert proved to also include a surprisingly full-scale return to public singing by the star herself.
The 13-song “Joni Jam” had Mitchell getting by with a little help from guest vocalists Marcus Mumford, Celisse, Wynonna Judd, Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes and the organizer of the set, Brandi Carlile. But Mitchell was clearly the vocal star of the set as she took on numbers from classic originals “Both Sides Now,” “Big Yellow Taxi” and “The Circle Game” to a few of her favorite songs: “Why Do Fools Fall in Love,” Gershwin’s “Summertime” and “Love Potion #9.”
While seated for most of the set — as were those around her, in an ensemble that also included Lucius, Allison Russell, Blake Mills, Shooter Jennings and Phil and Tim Hanseroth — she and the others stood for moments like an extended bit of guitar playing she did on “Just Like This Train.”
As the competition among streaming platforms intensifies, Apple Music becomes the latest service to offer HiFi audio.
The rumors are true. After months of speculation, Apple announced this week that it’s bringing both spatial audio with Dolby Atmos and lossless audio to its music streaming service in June.
News of Apple Music‘s pending update is not surprising. The company has been leaning into spatial audio for some time, with both AirPods Pro and AirPods Max utilizing the technology. For the uninformed, Dolby Atmos is a format that allows creatives to mix music in a more immersive way. It’s sort of like creating a sound bubble around you. The nice thing is that so long as you have Apple headphones with an H1 or W1 chip, you’re good to go. So long as a track is recorded in Atmos and you have the hardware to support spatial audio, Apple Music will automatically play the highest-level quality. That goes for the built-in speakers on the latest iPhones, iPad, and Macs as well.
Apple’s HiFi streaming will feature 16-bit at 44.1 kHz or standard CD-quality audio. That can also go up to 24 bit at 48 kHz on Apple devices. It’s also offering hi-resolution lossless audio that maxes out at 24 bit at 192 kHz. Interestingly, Apple is also using ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec), which it made open source back in 2011. Once it launches, you can enable it by going to Settings > Music > Audio Quality.
The biggest surprise of Apple’s latest announcement is that HiFi streaming will be available to Apple Music users at no additional cost. That approach runs counter to the rest of the streaming market. Other services tack on an extra charge for lossless audio, including Spotify’s upcoming HiFi tier. Additional HiFi streaming services—Qobuz, Deezer, Amazon Music HD—also cost more and have weaker catalogs, with the majority priced at $15 a month and Tidal Masters costing $20 per month.
HiFi is having a moment. The question is whether or not the addition of HiFi streaming will convince consumers to switch to Apple Music. The most likely converts are people who already have AirPods and see the addition of HiFi as a way to make the most of their setup. If that market is large enough to impact Apple Music’s subscriber count significantly remains to be seen.
Apple’s music streaming platform is going above and beyond to support labels impacted by COVID-19.
If there is an upside to be found in the rise of COVID-19, it’s knowing who will step up and help those in need. There are websites dedicated to following how companies of all sizes are reacting to the virus, and it should go without saying that certain businesses are doing (giving) more than others. For every business that refuses to protect workers or help them feel safe amidst an economic pinch, others are lining up to prove they understand the bigger picture. We are all in this together, after all, and Apple Music is one of many companies that want to make their investment in seeing the business of music continue known.
MusicBusinessWorldwide is reporting that Apple Music is quietly making an advance fund with $50 million available for independent labels and distributors, to support the indie sector with vital cashflow during the uncertainty of global COVID-19 lockdown. The site claims sources close to the story say Apple is set to inform independent labels and distributors later today (April 7) that any amongst their ranks who meet a minimum quarterly threshold of $10,000 in Apple Music earnings can qualify for one-off advance payments on future royalties out of the new fund.
Some quick math suggests any label generating 500,000 streams or more per month on the platform would qualify for this fund.
But there is a catch, or more specifically, at least one. Qualifying indie labels and/or distributors must have a direct distribution deal in place with Apple Music. This rules out indie labels who are distributed by major record companies (including those that go through The Orchard, ADA and Caroline).
Apple’s goal for the fund is to enable labels to pay artists and continue operations while the COVID-19 pandemic plays out. It is currently unclear when touring will happen again, and several reports point to overall music streaming consumption declining during this time. Artists everywhere are in a tight spot, and the labels behind them are feeling the pinch as well.
In other news, Apple Music is continuing to grow. The company saw a rise in new accounts last month despite the music streaming volume as a whole beginning to slip. It is the opinion of HaulixDaily that the current decline in streaming will pass as people get more comfortable with this ‘new reality.’ The industry is resilient. As long as we stick together and help those who need assistance, nothing can stop us from moving forward and continuing to influence positive change.
A new video from Spotify criticizes the company’s control over the mobile market with the blistering message, “Apple comes between you and the music you love to listen to.”
The streaming wars are never-ending. A decade after the launch of Spotify, consumers have more choices than ever when it comes to streaming providers. There are dozens of companies competing for billions in potential revenue, and the two biggest names are currently locked in a brawl that seems unlikely to be resolved anytime soon.
This week, Spotify was integrated into Siri, the AI assistant included with all Apple devices. Why it took so long for such an obvious thing to happen confused many, but Spotify laid out the truth in a blistering indictment of Apple and its numerous platforms in a video featuring their signature animations. Check it out:
The video can be summarized in one blistering comment:
“We don’t love it when Apple comes between you and the things you love to listen to.”
Spotify’s video explains how Apple sets itself up to be a “referee and player” in the world of audio streaming. The company sites the 30% subscription fee the app store requires Spotify to pay as proof of this claim, as well as the fact Apple does not allow subscription through any other means. Spotify also accuses Apple of using its position of power to continually move the goalposts of the streaming business in a way that benefits its platform, Apple Music. Additionally, they accuse the company of hiding their deals, including the three months of free premium service given to all new subscribers.
At the time of this post on October 8, Apple has not yet responded to Spotify’s claims.
The article published earlier this week reveals Apple Music now has 28 million subscribers in the U.S. while Spotify trails with 26 million. The news post also claims that Apple’s streaming music service has been adding subscribers in the world’s biggest music market faster than its rival with a monthly growth rate of 2.6-3% compared to Spotify’s 1.5-2%.
Globally, Spotify remains the streaming champ, boasting over 96 million paid subscribers compared to Apple Music’s 50 million. Spotify has over 200 million subscribers on its free tier as well.
Apple’s main advantage over its rival are the 900 million iPhones in use around the world, each one with iTunes installed and a credit card on file. If consumers grow tired of Spotify or otherwise dislike the service, making the switch to Apple Music is easier than joining any other competitor in the field.
Still, the news that Apple Music has surpassed Spotify in the US comes as a surprise to much of the industry. Spotify has long been considered the Netflix of music streaming, and its recent acquisition of several podcast businesses and services , not to mention the recent Hulu partnership, has positioned the company for additional growth in the years to come. The fact Apple Music has now surpassed Spotify, at least in U.S. paid subscriptions, is sure to make investors a little wary of what the future may hold.
Apple recently announced plans for its own video streaming platform, which it will likely bundle with Apple Music. If that comes to pass, Apple’s streaming division will grow even faster than its current rate, which would shrink Spotify’s lead in the marketplace.
Consumers are replacing pre-orders with pre-adds and pre-saves, but is something important being lost along the way?
Fast-rising pop sensation Billie Eilish will release her debut record, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, this Friday, but the teenager’s album is already being considered a massive success. Despite not yet being released, the LP has already accrued more than 800,000 pre-adds on Apple Music, which allows users to register to add an album to their streaming collection before it ships, with Eilish setting a new record for the service.
That volume of pre-adds for Eilish’s album is a sign of how the industry is continuing to evolve. Speaking to Music Business Worldwide, Apple Music boss Oliver Schusser said:
“While most services focus the majority of their efforts around playlists, Apple Music still emphasizes albums because we understand their value as a storytelling tool for artists to create context around their music.
To that end, pre-adds are great early indicators of engagement around an artist and the intention of the fans. To actively pre-add an album, much like the pre-order we invented with iTunes, means that the fan is excited about the content and wants to be among the first to enjoy it the moment its available. That kind of engagement is very valuable to an artist and to us.”
Spotify offers a service similar to Apple Music. The company’s pre-save feature allows users to register to have the album added to their library and to receive an alert regarding the content’s availability. The reliability of the notifications depend on how many pre-saves a user registers, but the content is always added as soon as its made available.
While the figures for Eilish’s album are great, pre-adds and pre-saves are not a perfect replacement for pre-orders. Schusser was right to say the numbers can tell a lot about excitement for a release, and they can also help predict initial performance, but the tools currently available to artists through streaming platforms do not provide context about their audience.
If a user pre-saves or pre-adds an album, what does the artist get? Do they know my name? Where I live? My email address? Do they receive anything other than a counter that tells them I am one of the however many people that have decided to request notification of their release becoming available?
Streaming services also do not offer any data that informs artists as to whether or not consumers who pre-save their release actually listen to it.
The real winner in the rising popularity of pre-saves and pre-adds are the streaming services offering them. By using that functionality, consumers are providing the platforms with additional insight into their listening habits. Their actions are strengthening the algorithms that recommend content and create playlists. Whether they know it or not, consumers are strengthening the services they use more than the artists they’re hoping to support.
Still, streaming is here to stay and there is no getting around that fact. If the industry is lucky, Spotify, Apple Music, and similar platforms will make more listener data available to them as time progresses. That seems more likely than a rise in royalty rates based on recent events, but it’s still not going to happen overnight.
The streaming war between Apple Music and Spotify is heating up.
Spotify has spent the past week coming under fire for its efforts to combat a proposed 44% rise in mechanical royalty rates. The streaming giant tried to distract from the controversy by introducing a new subscription bundle offering Hulu for free, but the music industry isn’t letting the company slide, and a statement posted to its blog earlier this week didn’t make matters any better.
Today, March 15, Apple issued a lengthy statement regarding Spotify. The comments were made in response to Spotify’s new complaint to the European Commission regarding Apple’s so-called ‘app tax,’ but the tech company also took shots at their competition’s war against raising royalty rates.
“Just this week,” Apple wrote, “Spotify sued music creators after a decision by the US copyright royalty board required Spotify to increase its royalty payments. This isn’t just wrong, it represents a real, meaningful and damaging step backwards for the music industry.”
Elsewhere in the statement, Apple claims Spotify was masking its “financial motivations in misleading rhetoric about who we are, what we’ve built and what we do to support independent developers, musicians, songwriters and creators of all stripes,” but it did not substantively address Spotify’s claims or even mention the European Commission.
Those claims, which became public on March 13, were made against Apple’s ‘app tax’, which sees the Cupertino company charge a 30% commission on in-app digital purchases via the iOS App Store. That percentage then falls to 15% in a streaming subscription’s second year.
Spotify co-founder and CEO, Daniel Ek, said: “If we pay this tax, it would force us to artificially inflate the price of our Premium membership well above the price of Apple Music. And to keep our price competitive for our customers, that isn’t something we can do.”
Elk added, “Apple also routinely blocks our experience-enhancing upgrades. Over time, this has included locking Spotify and other competitors out of Apple services such as Siri, HomePod, and Apple Watch.”
Apple’s blog post on the situation denied Elk’s claims. “We’ve approved and distributed nearly 200 app updates on Spotify’s behalf, resulting in over 300 million downloaded copies of the Spotify app. The only time we have requested adjustments is when Spotify has tried to sidestep the same rules that every other app follows.”
Spotify, in a statement issued shortly before noon on Friday, fired back against Apple’s latest comments. A representative for the company said, “Every monopolist will suggest they have done nothing wrong and will argue that they have the best interests of competitors and consumers at heart. In that way, Apple’s response to our complaint before the European Commission is not new and is entirely in line with our expectations. We filed our complaint because Apple’s actions hurt competition and consumers, and are in clear violation of the law. This is evident in Apple’s belief that Spotify’s users on iOS are Apple customers and not Spotify customers, which goes to the very heart of the issue with Apple. We respect the process the European Commission must now undertake to conduct its review.”
The war between these two companies will likely continue for the foreseeable future. Follow HaulixDaily on Twitter and Facebook for more updates.
The latest report from the Recording Industry Association of America shows consumer interest in premium streaming music subscriptions is on the rise.
Numbers can be deceiving. When asked to discuss their growth, streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music will often quote their global user statistics instead of those related to a specific country or continent. That isn’t necessarily wrong by any means, but it can lead consumers and investors alike to perceive a company’s standing in a different light.
In January, Spotify announced it now welcomed over 200 million users every month. That figure, which refers to the platform’s total global user count, included 96 million paying premium subscribers. No further details were given related to where paying subscriptions came from, nor has any similar information been provided to the media since.
A new report from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has shed a bit more light on the streaming market. According to the study, 50 million US consumers paid for streaming music services in 2018. Use of such platforms rose 33% over 2017’s numbers, and it’s likely to grow further still in 2019.
“Tremendous output from the artist community fueled a historic milestone of 50 million subscriptions to music services, which in turn helped drive U.S. music’s third consecutive year of double-digit growth,” RIAA Chairman and CEO Mitch Glazier said in a statement.
“Rejuvenation in the industry means more opportunities to find and break new artists for fans to enjoy,” Glazier said.
Additional data found in the report reveals that 75% of music industry revenue now comes from various forms of streaming. Physical sales of vinyl records continued to increase, up 8% to $419 million, the highest level since 1988.
Unfortunately, other forms of physical media were not as successful. Revenue from CD sales are down almost 34%, to $698 million; music video sales fell more than 28%, to $28 million; and sales of “other physical media,” including cassette tapes, was off nearly 22%, to $9.6 million.
Total music revenue for 2018 totaled just under $10 billion — a significant recovery from the low of $6.7 billion in both 2014 and 2015 — but the industry is only back to a level close to what it was in 2007 when the total was $10.7 billion.
The RIAA did not comment on how the rising popularity of streaming services is impacting the lives of artists. The most popular performers have reported big earning from Spotify and the like, but many smaller and mid-size artists have found it harder to rely on recorded music to pay their bills.
Regardless, it appears the streaming boom will continue for the foreseeable future. Follow HaulixDaily on Facebook and Twitter for more industry news and insight.
Who is paying for music? According to a new report from the UK, almost everyone.
A new study released by the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA), a UK trade association, claims that the number of paid streaming music subscriptions will soon overtake the number of people accessing the same services for free.
The report, which was released on February 5, surveyed usage of Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Deezer, and YouTube Music, among others. The trade association found that more males already pay to stream (24.3%) rather than for free (23.9%), and more 25-34 year-olds also choose paid-for (34.9%) than free (27.9%). By a narrower margin, the same is now also true for 35-44s and 45-54s. You can view a full table of insights below. For women, more chose to stream music for free (19.1%) instead of paying to stream (16.8%).
For the time being, more people still stream for free (21.5%) rather than pay (20.6%), but the current conversation rates indicate a victory for paid-for services could come later this year.
Speaking on the results of the study, ERA CEO Kim Bayley said, “Ten or fifteen years ago popular opinion had it that it was all over for the music business and people would no longer pay for music. These figures are a striking vindication of the innovation and investment of digital services.
She added, “What is all the more remarkable is that the likes of Spotify and YouTube also offer fantastic free services, funded by advertising. These figures suggest that music fans increasingly believe that the added features offered by paid-for services, and the curation which enables them to navigate literally millions of tracks, are definitely worth the money.”
The ERA based its data on their recurring entertainment survey which every quarter for the past five years has quizzed a panel of 1,500 people on how they consume music video and games, tracking changing service and format preferences.
