Universal and Sony Music, the two largest music companies in the world, have inked licensing agreements with the music streaming and discovery serviceAudiomack. The company signed a deal with Warner Music in 2019.
“Audiomack serves a unique listener base that is distinct from the audiences found on competing platforms,” said Vanessa Wilkins, Audiomack’s Director of Music & Data Partnerships.
Now boasting more than 17 million monthly active users, Audiomack was launched 2012 by Dave Macli and David Ponte. The company originally focused on the mixtape community and says it was the first platform to feature music from now-popular hip-hop artists that include A Boogie wit da Hoodie, Migos, Fetty Wap, Kevin Gates, and Chance The Rapper. The service has grown to encompass multiple genres, including hip-hop/rap, R&B, Latin, electronic, Afrobeats, dancehall/reggae, and more, and has seen particular growth in Africa: According to the announcement, as of January 2021, Audiomack is the No. 1 iOS app in the Music category in Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Senegal, and Kenya. The company plans to ramp up production in 2021 of their popular video series “Trap Symphony,” “Fine Tuned” and “Bless the Booth.” Along with those developments, the company’s editorial arm, Audiomack World, plans to expand written content, with a focus on sharing the stories behind its most popular artists.
In 2015, the platform rolled out its Audiomack Monetization Platform (AMP), which combines ad revenues and distributes to artists by stream count, and later added a premium subscription tier for listeners, which costs $4.99 per month and offers added functionality in addition to removing ads.
