Spotify Expands Audiobook Offering To U.S. Premium Subscribers – Update

Spotify is set to release its annual ‘Wrapped’ feature once again this year, where music fans can look back at their favourite releases of 2023.The feature arrives at the end of each year and shares stats, rankings and summaries with subscribers about their most listened to songs, albums, podcasts artists and genres.The streaming service has already begun teasing the rollout of this year’s ‘Wrapped’. Last year saw Taylor Swift named as the most streamed artist in the UK, while Bad Bunny took the global title for the record-breaking third year in a row.Spotify has not yet shared an official date that users will be able to access their ‘Wrapped’ roundup, but it’s usually any time between the final days of November and the first week of December.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Wellington Paranormal,” the series spinoff from 2014 breakout hit film “What We Do In the Shadows,” is launching an audio companion piece. It is produced by Frank Podcasts, a new New Zealand-based podcast network, headed by Mike Minogue and Tim Batt. The podcast will feature actors, writers, directors and more, delving into the making of the Jemaine Clement produced and Taika Waititi executive produced TV series, “Wellington Paranormal.” The show is hosted by Minogue (who played Officer Minogue in the series) and Karen O’Leary (Officer O’Leary), with Maaka Pohatu (Sarge) and Tom Sainsbury (Officer Parker) as recurring guests.

Newgrange Signs Business Affairs & Development Chiefs

Spotify have confirmed that all songs on the platform must have a minimum of 1,000 streams before they can earn any royalties.The new regulations come following weeks of speculation about the new policies the streaming service would be introducing, including rumours that the company would be making it harder for artists to generate royalties from their music.These new amendments were finally outlined in a new blog post by Spotify yesterday (November 21), which noted several new policies that are being implemented in the hopes of containing the volume of content on the platform and minimising the risks of fraud.In these new policies, it was confirmed that Spotify would be introducing a payment threshold for 2024 – meaning that songs must hit 1,000 streams on the service before they can earn any royalties.According to Spotify data, there are around 100million songs on the service, yet only around 37.5million meet the new requirements to generate revenue.This means that around 60 per cent of tracks will not qualify for the new threshold, although Spotify did recall that these songs make up less than one per cent of the total number of streams on the service.Unsurprisingly, artists have been quick to share their take on the new changes to the royalty structure on Spotify, with some highlighting the negative impacts it will have on emerging talent.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Middle East streamer OSN+ is joining forces with Anghami, the Arab world’s rival to Spotify, in what is being touted as a landmark deal. The combination of OSN+ and Anghami will become the first platform in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to provide customers premium movies, TV series and music.

Naman Ramachandran Production company Camelot Films U.K. is poised for growth with the launch of Camelot Media, a new production base in Malta, and a burgeoning slate. Camelot, the company behind Amazon film “Prizefighter,” featuring Ray Winstone and Russell Crowe, has secured financial support from Malta Enterprise, who are responsible for the country’s economic development.

have risen 366 per cent since 2020.The Met have said despite this statistic, investigators do not target any specific genre in their work: “The Met works closely with social media platforms to identify content we believe could provoke or cause violence,” said a spokesperson for the Met (via DJ Mag).

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor TikTok has long touted the app as a place to discover new music — and its ability to propel songs into viral hits. Now TikTok is hoping to derive incremental revenue from music fans who use the app. The company’s new Add to Music App feature lets users save songs from TikTok to third-party music streaming services.

K.J. Yossman U.K. production studio Content Kings is expanding to the Middle East with a new office in Dubai, Variety can confirm.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Spotify has launched its audiobook perk for Premium subscribers in the U.S., offering access to more than 200,000 audiobooks — available for no extra charge, but limited to only about two titles per month. The rollout comes after the audio streamer launched the audiobooks catalog for paying members in Australia and the U.K.

Spotify has confirmed the streaming thresholds for its new royalty model.Reports emerged last month that the streaming giant’s restructuring would mean that less popular tracks wouldn’t earn any royalties, despite the company reporting profits and subscriber gains.According to a Billboard report, a track would have to meet a minimum annual streaming threshold before it would start to generate royalties.However, the streaming threshold at which tracks will generate royalties has now been confirmed in a Consequence guest column by Kristin Graziani, president of music distribution platform Stem.“After doing some analysis on what Spotify has actually communicated to distributors, we can say that in reality, these changes are intended to benefit emerging and growing artists,” Graziani wrote.According to the article, Spotify is introducing three new policies in 2024. Firstly, all tracks will have to reach a minimum streaming threshold of 1000 streams within 12 months to be paid a royalty.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Unscripted queer reality dating series “Boys Like Boys” is to air on Warner Bros. Discovery’s TLC channel in Taiwan in early 2024, making it the first local LGBTQ+ dating reality show to air on linear TV in the territory. The show is an original production by GagaOOLala, Asia’s out and proud LGBTQ+ streaming service, which is pitching an expanded array of queer content at the Taiwan Creative Contents Fest (TCCF) that launches Tuesday in Taipei. “Boys Like Boys” had its premiere at the Kaohsiung International Film Festival and is now available worldwide on GagaOOLala and WeTV in the Philippines and Thailand, where the ‘Boys Love’ genre has become highly popular.

A24’s Priscilla by Sofia Coppola catapults from four screens to 1,300, Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers from Focus Features expands to 60 from six and two new indies have wide debuts — What Happens Later from Bleecker Street, directed by and starring Meg Ryan, opens at 1,400 locations and Daisy Ridley-starring The Marsh King’s Daughter from Roadside Attractions at over 1,000.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Trevor Noah is entering his next act as a podcast host. The former host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” launches his deep-dive interview show, a Spotify original podcast, next week. In each episode of the new podcast, Noah will have an extended discussion with a single guest.

Steven J. Horowitz Senior Music Writer Spotify has announced its 2023 Capsule Collection, featuring exclusive merchandise from Peso Pluma, Daft Punk, Rosalía, Tyler, the Creator and Tems. Each week, a different artist will release a new merch package.

Michaela Zee CBS has pulled “Loteria Loca” from its November schedule and will be replaced by “NCIS” encore events, leading to the premiere of “NCIS: Sydney” on Nov. 14 at 8 p.m. ET.

Jungkook, a member of K-pop boyband BTS, has broken the record for the fastest song to reach 1billion streams on Spotify.Today (October 31), Spotify announced on Twitter that Jungkook’s debut solo single, ‘Seven’ featuring Latto, became the fastest song to reach 1billion streams on the streaming platform on Monday (October 30).On October 30, Jung Kook's "Seven (feat. Latto)" became the fastest song to reach 1 Billion streams in Spotify history.

Spotify has revealed that Taylor Swift has broken two new records on the streaming platform.The singer released her re-recording of ‘1989’ on Friday (October 27), the fourth album in a series of re-recordings. It follows an ongoing dispute between the superstar and Scooter Braun, former owner of her previous label Big Machine Records – read here for a refresher of the situation.Since ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ was released, Spotify has said that Swift broke two new records.

Taylor Swift continues to make history with her music and this time 1989 (Taylor’s Version) has broken a record that the singer and songwriter set herself.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic On the day of the release of “1989 (Taylor’s Version),” Taylor Swift set a Spotify record in becoming the artist with the most streams in a single day in the streaming service’s history, according to a statement from Spotify on Saturday on X. The company added that, on top of that, “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” had set a 2023 record as Spotify’s most-streamed album in a single day so far this year. Spotify did not release overall numbers for the album or Swift’s total as an artist, as is its custom when announcing records being broken.