A Little Knowledge... #63

Welcome to A Little Knowledge #63 – our free weekly LinkedIn newsletter.

📬 BULLETIN NEWS: Musi app offers “free” music streaming – and gathers closer scrutiny 

Is it possible to build a successful music streaming platform without striking licensing deals? Actually, maybe. Or, as this week’s Wired piece puts it: “Musi appears to have pulled off something remarkable: Building a booming business in streaming music without taking on any of the legwork of striking deals with labels and distributors.”

• You can download the app and stream Kendrick Lamar’s “Meet The Grahams” within Musi’s DSP-like interface inside a minute, and no money will have changed hands. It all feels very close to the DSP experience you already know.
• So how does it work? Well, selecting and playing the Olivia Rodrigo song “Vampire” simply plays the official Vevo video within the app.
• Ads surround the video, so Musi seems to be making money when users stream the YouTube video inside its app. But does Rodrigo make any money? That’s unclear.
• One key question is: is Musi a "DSP" as we understand it in the general sense? Enough people like it to push it into Apple's top five streaming apps.
• Spotify are trying to tempt users into its paid tier by offering lyrics, AI DJs, algorithmically created playlists – and other things that Musi doesn't offer.
• But do all of The Kids really want all of that stuff? Musi suggests that at least some of them may be happy for now with YouTube in a differently-shaped box.

👉 Read all of our coverage of the Music Streaming Economy here: Music Streaming Economy

📱MUSIC ALLY: NOW ON WHATSAPP

The Music Ally WhatsApp Channel is a simple way to stay on top of music business news: every afternoon (UK time), we’ll post the lead story, and also links to the rest of the day’s news. Click here to sign up.

🇯🇵 COUNTRY PROFILE: Japan has huge potential for digital services

Country Profiles are one of our most popular and data- and insight-rich resources. Our reports are based on speaking to the people on the ground, and are packed with info you need to know. Japan is the world’s second largest music market and, while it remains sensitive to change, it has huge potential for digital services.

• The streaming market in Japan continues to grow at a relatively fast pace, although it faces the dual challenges of resistance from a conservative music industry and the demands of an aging market.
• Erika Ogawa, general manager, Believe Japan, says that digital penetration has continuously grown in the past few years
• Japan’s vibrant domestic hip hop market is leading the move towards digital music consumption, and although other genres are lagging behind, Ogawa is confident this will change with time
• Older generations will continue to represent a strong market: one third of the Japanese population is over 65 and that one tenth of the population is over 80

 👉 For more insight, subscribers can read the latest Japan Country Profile in full here, and everyone can browse all music industry news relating to Japan here.

💼 MUSIC ALLY JOBS

The latest and best jobs for the global music business, trusted by both top music industry companies and experienced professionals on top of their game.

Are you looking for a job? Click here to see the full list of vacancies!

🤔 A LITTLE SOMETHING EXTRA...

 And finally… our daily Bulletin newsletter is loved by subscribers for its instant industry analysis - but secretly, the part they like most is the ‘A Little Something Extra’ section at the bottom of the email. Here's a few of the best recent links:

• Snakes almost on a plane: "Bag of snakes found in passenger's pants at Miami International Airport."
• You may have noticed a lot of fast-cut cooking videos on your timeline, complete with obviously AI-generated voiceovers. Presumably, they are end-to-end created by AI-AdBots without much oversight – because sometimes you get served a post where the AI voice messes up and goes full scat-jazz skibby-dibby-dabba-vocals by mistake.
• Back in 2021, a 17-second snippet of an unknown song with no other online mentions was uploaded to the internet. Since then, over 50,000 Reddit users have been trying to discover what it is, and where it is from. And now they’ve figured it out. Readers familiar with Rule 34 Of The Internet will be able to guess.

This is only a glimpse into this week's The Knowledge newsletter – subscribe for FREE and every Friday it’ll arrive in your inbox with:

🎓 Exclusive access to selected courses in our LEARNING HUB; 🛠️ The best new platforms in TOOLS; 🌍 Highlights from our latest COUNTRY PROFILE REPORTS; 😵 💫 Some great and/or strange music in SOMETHING 4 THE WEEKEND; 🕰 A look back in TIME MACHINE; 🎧 The Music Ally Focus PODCAST; and 🤔 more links to our favourite unusual stuff in A LITTLE SOMETHING EXTRA.