JOOX is a new strategic partner that gives Merlin members access to new audiences in Asia, including Hong Kong, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand, as well as South Africa. The agreement between the parties licenses Merlin content via JOOX’s ad-supported and premium tiers, as well as its karaoke feature and library.
The music streaming company says it’s thrilled to work with Merlin, bringing a vast new library of unique content to its users across Asia and South Africa.
“JOOX always strives to bring users a wide range of music entertainment content from around the globe in different languages and genres, catering to music lovers’ various tastes,” said Posh Yeung, Senior VP of Joox. “We are thrilled about our strategic collaboration with Merlin as it reinforces this goal by unlocking abundant content from hundreds of thousands of artists via Merlin’s membership for our users.”
JOOX is a music app with more than 30 million songs in its music library from all over the world, JOOX connects listeners easily to their favorite artists, songs, albums and personalized playlists. Users can discover great new music with recommended songs and radio stations that fit their taste and mood. The JOOX app is now available on iOS, Android and Desktop (Windows/Mac), allowing users to enjoy a free high quality music experience anytime, anywhere, on most devices.
Merlin is the other side of the coin, a music licensing organization that provides for leading independent artists and music companies across the globe. Members benefit from Merlin’s premium deals, but work directly with key digital partners. Merlin’s membership consists of independent labels, distributors, and other rights-holders, representing tens of thousands of independent labels and hundreds of thousands of artists from every country in the world.
The deal will drive new value for Merlin members, including access to new audiences, while offering a richer music experience for JOOX users. The deal will also facilitate Merlin members’ access to marketing and promotional activities on the JOOX service.
“In every deal we strike, Merlin strives for the absolute best, not only for our members, but for each of our digital partners,” said Jeremy Sirota, CEO of Merlin. “Our agreement with JOOX is one that expands access for our members across new markets while also driving value back to JOOX. We’re truly pleased to explore new ideas and features with them in order to help Merlin members make the most of this exciting music platform.”
Merlin’s currently represents an estimated 15 per cent of the global market share. Merlin’s membership includes independents such as Armada Music, Better Noise, Cinq Music Group, Dim Mak, Entertainment One, Foundation Media, Kontor, Mad Decent, Mom & Pop, Mushroom Music, Ninja Tune, [PIAS], Republic of Music, Secret City, Secretly, state51, Stone Throw, Sub Pop, Symphonic Distribution, Tommy Boy, Warp, and hundreds more. Merlin now has deals with over 30 digital services, including Apple, AWA, Boomplay, Deezer, Facebook/Instagram, JioSaavn, KKBox, Pandora, Snap, SoundCloud, Spotify, Tencent, TikTok, Triller, Yandex, and YouTube Music, and is in conversations with dozens more.
Last year, Merlin deepened its strategic partnership with TME (Tencent Music Entertainment), a subsidiary of Tencent, when it expanded its relationship to include TME’s social community, WeSing, a dynamic online karaoke service in China, in addition to its existing participating in the music streaming services QQ Music, KuGuo and Kuwo. It was also a banner year for Merlin in which 81 new members joined from countries across the globe, including first-time members from Burkina Faso, Ghana, Peru, Singapore, Slovakia, and the United Arab Emirates. In a year full of challenges, Merlin says it nearly doubled its global team and amplified its role to better support and serve its members and its digital partners around the world.