Deezer Seeks Musical Edge on Spotify; Tencent Music Signs Rights Deal with Alibaba

David v Goliath: Deezer seeks musical edge on Spotify — www.reuters.com 
 From Brazilian gospel to Puerto Rican reggaeton and Dutch hip-hop, music streaming company Deezer is scouring the globe for gaps in the market where it can survive and thrive against Spotify and Apple.

Spotify Expected to Launch in South Africa Within Months — variety.com

Spotify is expected to follow in the footsteps of Deezer, Google Play and Apple Music with a launch in South Africa in the next few months, according to a local report citing a recent recruiting ad from Spotify for a senior editor/music programmer in South Africa.

Owner of Music Piracy Network That Delivered ‘Gut-Punch’ to Artists Pleads Guilty — www.billboard.com 
 Artur Sargsyan, the owner and operator of Sharebeast.com, a file-sharing site popular among music fans before it was shut down two years ago, has pleaded guilty to criminal copyright infringement.

Is Mighty, a Spotify-Compatible Portable Music Player, Going to Replace the iPod? — www.laweekly.com 
 The new Mighty, an $86 ultra-small music player, syncs with your Spotify playlists and plays them offline. Can it replace the increasingly obsolete iPod?

Spotify: Too Late to Become the Netflix Challenger It Could Have Been? — variety.com 
 When Spotify and Hulu announced a joint effort this week to sell their streaming services at a combined discount rate to select niche markets, it was touted as a savvy marriage of audio and video content.

Tencent Music signs rights deal with Alibaba — www.ft.com

The deal, announced Tuesday morning by Tencent, gives Alibaba the right to stream music from some of Tencent’s exclusive deals with international music labels such as Sony and Universal Music, in exchange for reciprocal rights to Alibaba’s catalogue of Chinese and Japanese classics.

Facebook VP: ‘We understand and respect the value of all artists’ — musically.com 
 What is Facebook’s music-licensing strategy going to be? It’s one of the big music-industry questions of 2017, with rumours flying thick and fast.

Spotify to host largest ever music quiz as marketers urged to back Grenfell fundraiser — www.thedrum.com 
 The UK marketing community has been urged to help raise funds for the survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire through what hopes to be the largest ever music marketing quiz, organised with the aim of raising £50,000.

Neil Finn explains the intense processes behind livestreaming the creation of his latest record — www.thelineofbestfit.com 
 Neil Finn, the frontman of Crowded House, was diving into the world of livestreaming long before your mate decided to ‘go live’ on the bus into town.