Its no secret that the music streaming market has had a booming twelve months, with 2012 seeing many established digital music services establishing a foothold in the Australian market, including the Swedish-based market leader Spotify, major competitor Deezer expanding, the launch of internet radio service Pandora, Australia’s first service Rara, JB Hi-Fi Now, Rdio, Mog, and more all looking to get a slice of what is now a booming $1 billion industry.
Now another new contender is throwing their hat into the very busy ring, with The Australian reporting that radio and entertainment body Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) is preparing to launch its own music subscription service called Songl in a matter of weeks.
Songl, a joint venture with record label majors Sony and Universal, is confirmed to launch pricing and details in the opening weeks of March, with the rolling out the web-based platform soon after. Currently in Beta testing, the official website for the service claims “you’ll be able to enjoy your music anywhere, anytime on any device… all for less than the cost of a CD every month.”
SCA’s on-demand digital music service will follow a subscription model and will be introduced across many of the radio network’s major subsidies including Today FM and Triple M. Additionally the new competitor is moving in across a number of devices including online, mobile and smart phones, tablets, and smart TVs, allowing users to access its library across multiple platforms in hopes to directly compete with the likes of Spotify, Rdio, and Deezer.
The company that currently supplies media content for Foxtels’ audio music channels such as Air, Digital Music Distribution (DMD), are handling the roll-out of Songl, with DMD CEO Mark Shaw telling The Australian: “We’ve had a lot of time to watch the market and see what’s going on overseas to incorporate the best into Songl.”
The news of one of Australia’s major radio networks entering the streaming service could be seen as a case of ‘if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em’l; that and the news coincidentally follows the news of the PPCA’s significant court victory over Commercial Radio Australia (CRA), in which the Federal Court overturned a previous ruling in an appeal from the PPCA that now allows them to seek license fees from CRA for internet simulcasts.
Songl, a joint venture with record label majors Sony and Universal, is confirmed to launch pricing and details in the opening weeks of MarchEssentially maning that music that is streamed online through internet radio, or simulcasts, is now considered as a separate broadcast, and therefore requires separate licensing fees. The unanimous ruling declared that musicians and labels should be entitled to receive royalties when commercial radio streams music online, agreeing with the PPCA’s declaration that “internet simulcasts of radio programs fall outside the definition of a ‘broadcast’ under the Copyright Act and are therefore not covered by existing licences granted to Australian commercial radio stations,” in the words of the body’s press statement.
Southern Cross Austereo entering the market could be seen as a sign that if the radio body is now forced to pay additional fees, then they may as well be supplying their own content – through a subscription based service – and have users front some of the cost directly. Combining a ‘free’ model such as traditional radio broadcasting and online streaming radio, with a model that charges a small fee to access content.
SCA’s Songl introduction also recognises the growing popularity of streaming services as it continues to encroach on radio’s market share. Particularly given statistics that show that more and more users are accessing digital music libraries through their smartphones.
As music blogger Alan Cross points out, a new report from the NPD Group reveals that more than half of smartphone and tablet users (such as iPhones and iPads for instance) are using their devices to listen to music, with 56% of smartphone users rocking out, with 39% of them doing it daily. Smartphone users are listening to internet radio (65%), while those listening to on-demand music services like Spotify or Deezer is growing (at 30%), with an overall 39% of stats showing listeners.
It’s not just consumers listening to music in their cars and on-the-go, with the same NPD Group statistics demonstrating that sales of wireless streaming speakers, such as the popular Sonos brand, more than tripled in 2012.
“Products that enhance listening like streaming speakers and soundbars with Bluetooth and even premium headphones have experienced tremendous growth over the past year is evidence that consumers aren’t only satisfied with music on-the-go they increasingly want to use these devices for a better in-home music experience,” said NPD Group’s Ben Arnold.
While Southern Cross Austereo’s Songl is the latest in a string of on-demand digital music services that have sprung up in the last six months or so. Microsoft launched its new Xbox Music platform late last year, while the company’s main rival Apple, is still struggling to get its own Pandora-like music model off the ground, having tripped on nearly every possible hurdle in developing its own music service.
An unlikely contender also emerged in a secret project called Daisy, a new streaming service that is the brainchild of Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor and Dr. Dre’s headphone makers, Beats By Dre, that the music masters claim will revolutionise the industry, and is rumoured to launch later this year.
