Taylor Swift recently entered the Guinness World Records with the most streamed album on Spotify. However, fewer and 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.

Indeed, 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. Consequently, 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?

In order 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 favorite music. The metaverse wouldn’t feel ‘real’ without it.