7digital Share Discussion Threads

[jrpooing] 29/4/2017 20:34

Presumably 7dig are there for non Apple Music peeps. The world is not completely overrun with iOS devices?

[slartybartfaster] 29/4/2017 17:26

NOT GOOD IMO
According to a new report from Recode, Musical.ly is about to release a new update to its mobile app with a major change. The company is switching from 7digital to Apple music for its music catalog.
Musical.ly’s video social network app has skyrocketed last year, raising $100 million at a $500 million valuation and reaching 40 million monthly active users. And yet, the app is mostly used by teens, a user base with a short attention span. Musical.ly is slowly fading away from the top charts of the App Store and Play Store.

So the company is trying something new. Until now, Musical.ly partnered with 7digital, a primarily B2B music streaming and downloading company. 7digital negotiates deals with content companies so you don’t have to. This way, companies like Samsung, Canonical/Ubuntu and Musical.ly can provide a music streaming service without doing the heavy lifting.

7digital’s catalog is available in around 80 countries while Apple Music is available in more or less 113 countries. By switching to Apple Music as the song snippet back end, Musical.ly can launch in new markets.

But that’s not all. While terms of the deals are unknown, this deal looks like a great opportunity to promote Apple Music. Apple’s bottom line isn’t going to change over night with this kind of deal. But it could lead to more Apple Music subscriptions.

Apple Music is available by default on every Apple device, and you can download a free app on Android (side note: is it less buggy than it used to be? I haven’t tried it lately). But Apple Music is still lagging behind Spotify. Apple Music has 20 million subscribers, Spotify has 50 million paid users — and Spotify’s growth doesn’t seem to be slowing down.

So if you are an Apple Music subscriber, you’ll be able to listen to full songs on Musical.ly, turning Musical.ly into a sort of music discovery service.

Musical.ly will also promote Apple Music in its app, which could create a new revenue stream for the app thanks to affiliate fees. And if this works, I could see Apple acquiring Musical.ly and promoting it heavily to iOS users.

Update: 7digital CEO Simon Cole says in a statement that Musical.ly’s relationship with 7digital is not ending. Cole also says that Musical.ly is working with “a number of suppliers,” including 7digital. Maybe the Apple Music integration is going to focus mostly on promoting Apple Music instead of iTunes purchases as Musical.ly currently shows a button to buy a song on iTunes.

7digital has just signed a renewal agreement with musical.ly which will see us not only continue to power the service, but to do so in double the number of territories – we now work with musical.ly in 60 countries worldwide. musical.ly is one of the world’s fastest growing social video networks and as such, the company works with a number of suppliers and 7digital will continue to be one of them – we have in no way ended our working relationship.

Update #2: Musical.ly just sent out a push notification saying that you can now stream full songs using Apple Music if you’re a subscriber. Apple Music is replacing the iTunes button. It’s unclear if Musical.ly is still using 7digital for the music snippets.
hxxps://techcrunch.com/2017/04/28/musically-partners-with-apple-music-for-its-music-snippets/

[michaelmouse] 29/4/2017 13:12

sweenoid - I'm sure IMG shareholders are still feeling sore following their recent experience. Qualcomm shareholders are also suffering at the hands of Apple:-



However, Qualcomm and IMG have suffered because they were too reliant on Apple.

7dig don't have a contract with Apple. 7digital work with musical.ly and they have a recently renewed contract. If anything the two situations above would undoubtedly make musical.ly cautious about any exclusive relationship with Apple and rightly so.

My guess is that if (and it's a big if) Apple are involved with providing a similar service to musical.ly then it would probably only cover the regions that 7digital doesn't.

Anyway, it's all wild speculation. Cole has already stated that nothings changed.

All much ado about nothing at the moment, and besides which, 7digital have a broad and expanding client base and are not reliant on any one customer unlike IMG.

[tiger60] 29/4/2017 12:43

I understand what you are saying as per IMG but a contract is legal binding whether Apple is involved or not, but it maybe these contracts reside side by side. We just dont know the details

[sweenoid] 29/4/2017 12:37

Its never a competition with Apple -it's a massacre, they won't be argued with or mucked around-look at how they shafted IMG -
It's quaint that people believe that any pre-existing signed agreements are gonna mean diddly-squit IF Apple are involved, just reference IMG's experience :-(
Hope I am wrong
S

[tiger60] 29/4/2017 11:46

It is a strange one. With the renewal just a few weeks ago the strategy to partner with APple must of been under discussion at that time. We are not seeing the full picture here. If we are cut out surely there are punitive costs to cover 7dig.

Also like to know the contract length agreed with musical.ly, maybe 7dig can provide a bit of clarification above and beyond Cole's initial reply

[hausofmaus] 29/4/2017 09:31

Another thought - we don't know what services 7DIG are providing musical.ly with - could be complementary to what Apple, etc will offer.

[bloomer2] 29/4/2017 09:25

Well I would not be surprised to see Apple snap up Musical.ly - seems to fit their strategy. 7Digtital are in an industry where there are always going to be setbacks. Question is whether they can thrive (or survive!) in that sort of environment.

[hydrus] 29/4/2017 08:42

Based on Cole's statement one has to assume they will still have a contract in place. However will there be longer term limitations on growth in the Musically relationship if Apple are getting involved?

[hydrus] 29/4/2017 08:38

The article is pretty clear about 7dig being replaced though. 'Citing sources familiar with the company's plans, Recode on Thursday said Apple will soon replace UK-based 7digital as Musical.ly's music snippet provider, an unexpected move for the Cupertino tech giant. 'Not good if true but of course maybe they are wrong.

[michaelmouse] 29/4/2017 08:27

sweenoid - 7Digital have already confirmed that their contract with musical.ly remains in place after recently being renewed.



"Contacted by Music Ally this morning, 7digital CEO Simon Cole confirmed that the partnership is not being replaced.

“To confirm the announcement we made two weeks ago, we’ve just re-signed a deal with Musical.ly, extending the number of territories,” said Cole. “We are unaffected by any other deals they may be doing with third parties, and that we will earn more money from Musical.ly this year than we did last year.”

[pet lover] 28/4/2017 13:45

Apple is reportedly partnering with Musical.ly, the lip-syncing video app that’s become a popular social network for younger teens. The deal will see Apple Music providing the songs for the service, offering snippets of tracks for users to record themselves pretending to sing, while also promoting Apple’s own streaming service inside the app. The partnership comes as Musical.ly expands to 90 new countries, with licensing agreements allowing it to increase the number of territories it supports from 30 to 120.

MUSICAL.LY SURGED IN POPULARITY LAST YEAR
The deal is something of a step up for the Shanghai-based Musical.ly, which had previously relied solely on British provider 7digital (which it will still be working with) to provide songs for use in its app. The service has been available for three years, but saw a huge boost in its user base in 2016, as tweens and younger teens started using it as a Snapchat-esque social network. The company says it now has 100 million users — enough to score it a valuation of $500 million and investment of $100 million last year.

MTV turned to the app earlier this month when it started looking for new stars of My Super Sweet 16 — a reboot of the mid-2000s show about obscenely wealthy teenagers and their birthday parties. But, as Recode notes, Musical.ly may not be riding the wave of popularity it once was: the app has slipped down the iTunes in recent months. Those teens can be fickle, after all.

Correction April 28th, 7:30AM ET: Clarified that Musical.ly is still working with 7digital to provide songs for the service. The British company’s CEO confirmed to The Verge in a statement that 7digital now powers Musical.ly in 60 countries.

[pet lover] 28/4/2017 13:35

"7digital has just signed a renewal agreement with musical.ly which will see us not only continue to power the service, but to do so in double the number of territories – we now work with musical.ly in 60 countries worldwide. musical.ly is one of the world’s fastest growing social video networks and as such, the company works with a number of suppliers and 7digital will continue to be one of them – we have in no way ended our working relationship."

[pet lover] 28/4/2017 13:33

According to a new report from Recode, Musical.ly is about to release a new update to its mobile app with a major change. The company is switching from 7digital to Apple music for its music catalog.

Musical.ly’s video social network app has skyrocketed last year, raising $100 million at a $500 million valuation and reaching 40 million monthly active users. And yet, the app is mostly used by teens, a user base with a short attention span. Musical.ly is slowly fading away from the top charts of the App Store and Play Store.

So the company is trying something new. Until now, Musical.ly partnered with 7digital, a primarily B2B music streaming and downloading company. 7digital negotiates deals with content companies so you don’t have to. This way, companies like Samsung, Canonical/Ubuntu and Musical.ly can provide a music streaming service without doing the heavy lifting.

7digital’s catalog is available in around 80 countries while Apple Music is available in more or less 113 countries. By switching to Apple Music as the song snippet back end, Musical.ly can launch in new markets.

But that’s not all. While terms of the deals are unknown, this deal looks like a great opportunity to promote Apple Music. Apple’s bottom line isn’t going to change over night with this kind of deal. But it could lead to more Apple Music subscriptions.

Apple Music is available by default on every Apple device, and you can download a free app on Android (side note: is it less buggy than it used to be? I haven’t tried it lately). But Apple Music is still lagging behind Spotify. Apple Music has 20 million subscribers, Spotify has 50 million paid users — and Spotify’s growth doesn’t seem to be slowing down.

So if you are an Apple Music subscriber, you’ll be able to listen to full songs on Musical.ly, turning Musical.ly into a sort of music discovery service.

Musical.ly will also promote Apple Music in its app, which could create a new revenue stream for the app thanks to affiliate fees. And if this works, I could see Apple acquiring Musical.ly and promoting it heavily to iOS users.

Update: 7digital CEO Simon Cole says in a statement that Musical.ly’s relationship with 7digital is not ending. Cole also says that Musical.ly is working with “a number of suppliers,” including 7digital. Maybe the Apple Music integration is going to focus mostly on promoting Apple Music instead of iTunes purchases as Musical.ly currently shows a button to buy a song on iTunes.

7digital has just signed a renewal agreement with musical.ly which will see us not only continue to power the service, but to do so in double the number of territories – we now work with musical.ly in 60 countries worldwide. musical.ly is one of the world’s fastest growing social video networks and as such, the company works with a number of suppliers and 7digital will continue to be one of them – we have in no way ended our working relationship.

[pet lover] 28/4/2017 13:07

Musical.ly has two platforms the other being, live.ly

It may just be that the cheap music content 7Dig supports Musical.ly,stays the same, but the Live.ly app music ties in with Apple.

[pet lover] 28/4/2017 12:48

Tiger, spend the weekend in the shops and look for the Hi Res sticker on new products.

[tiger60] 28/4/2017 12:39

Well 7.59 to buy at the moment, so this is heading down. It fails to get any momentum or interest.

[pet lover] 28/4/2017 12:36

Last Musical.ly news was bug fix on 26/4/17

[pet lover] 28/4/2017 12:34

Yes little chance of a bid but we do have to ask why / how 7dig ended up in the article as being kicked off.

Best to keep an eye on Musical.ly news.

[tiger60] 28/4/2017 12:31

Well the last point is a given if we have got a renewed contract and expanded territories covered from 30 to 60.

I would love it to be point 2 but doubt it very much. 7digital is not a simple company.

[pet lover] 28/4/2017 12:26

Well it might be one of these reasons.

1/ 7dig has yet to be told the contract they signed two weeks ago, is / is about / or has been pulled.

2/ Apple bid for 7Dig over the weekend.

3/ 7 Dig get paid for doing nothing and Apple support Musical.ly.

4/ any other reason.

From a shareholders point of view it has to be very good news as Mr Cole has said today, 7 Dig will make more this year than last year from Musical.ly.

[tiger60] 28/4/2017 12:19

So how do both contracts co exist?

[pet lover] 28/4/2017 11:56

Tech site Recode has reported that social-music-videos app Musical.ly has struck its most significant partnership yet, with Apple Music. However, B2B firm 7digital has denied its claim that the deal replaces its own agreement with Musical.ly.

“Starting on Friday, Apple Music will be the service that supplies the songs, replacing U.K.-based provider 7digital, according to people familiar with the companies’ plans,” claimed Recode.

“Apple’s extensive licensing deals will allow Musical.ly to expand the number of countries it supports from 30 to 120.”

However, 7digital announced to investors on 13 April that it had renewed its contract with Musical.ly, doubling the number of territories in which 7digital provides access to music for the app from 30 to 60.

Contacted by Music Ally this morning, 7digital CEO Simon Cole confirmed that the partnership is not being replaced.

“To confirm the announcement we made two weeks ago, we’ve just re-signed a deal with Musical.ly, extending the number of territories,” said Cole. “We are unaffected by any other deals they may be doing with third parties, and that we will earn more money from Musical.ly this year than we did last year.”

Recode’s report is still intriguing, if the details it provides on Apple and Musical.ly’s plans are true. “Connecting with Musical.ly gives Apple a new marketing venue: The app will promote Apple’s paid service to its own users, and will allow paying Apple Music subscribers to listen to full songs within the app,” claimed the piece.

In December 2016, Musical.ly – whose app enables its predominantly-young audience to share videos of themselves lip-synching and dancing to music clips – claimed that it had 40 million daily active users, having grown rapidly during that year.