Digital music

Targeted by western sanctions, Sber has to part with key digital assets

May 20, 2022

Just weeks after Yandex sold its news aggregation and online entertainment services, another key player of Russia’s online ecosystem, Sber, has deprived itself from important digital assets.  A company called Novye Vozmozhnosti (New Possibilities) is the new owner of the music service SberZvuk (previously Zvooq.ru, acquired by Sber in Aprill 2021); the video streaming service Okko (aquired …

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Yandex wants make online marketing tools more accessible to musicians and small entrepreneurs

January 23, 2022

Yandex announced almost simultaneously — yesterday and today — two acquisitions. The NASDAQ-listed Russian digital giant is absorbing BandLink, a service for musicians, podcasters and labels to create micro sites, the news agency TASS reports. BandLink helps them promote their releases and concerts (including with personalised links for social media), analyze audiences and identify their …

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After a new acquisition, Sber wants to become a central player in the Russian digital music market

April 20, 2021

Yesterday Sber, the state-controlled financial and digital giant, announced a binding agreement to fully acquire  Muzlab, a leader in the Russian B2B audio streaming market. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed, but industry publication VC.RU heard it was between 500 million rubles ($6.5 million) and 1 billion rubles ($13 million at the current exchange rate).  Muzlab has developed a …

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‘The Sound of Stars:’ Yandex Music uses algorithms to turn cosmic bodies into art

April 12, 2021

Yandex Music announces today The Sound of Stars, a playlist of audio compositions celebrating the 60th anniversary of the first human flight into space.  To create the playlist, the Yandex Music team used algorithms to convert the physical properties of stars, pulsars and galaxies into music, with each of the nine tracks dedicated to a …

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From Moscow to Berlin, digital music startups attract top investors

September 28, 2020

As the global digital music market pursues solid growth, last week saw three deals involving companies from Russia or with Russian founders. Sberbank acquires Zvooq Just a day before touting its transformation into a tech “universe,” Sber announced the acquisition of Zvooq, one of the most established Russian music platforms. No details about the transaction were disclosed.  Founded in 2010 by UK …

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Spotify launches in Russia and 12 other Central and Eastern European countries

July 17, 2020

Yesterday, Spotify launched in Russia as well as 12 other markets: Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia, and Ukraine. Music lovers from these countries can now enjoy Spotify’s 50 million tracks and 4 billion playlists, as well as localized music personalization features. Russia is the 17th-biggest streaming market in the world and on pace to be the 10th-biggest streaming market …

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Midemlab 2020: A call to Eastern European music startups (application deadline: Feb. 29)

February 28, 2020

The 13th edition of Midemlab, the leading international music startup competition, will take place on June 2-5, 2020 in Cannes, France, in partnership with East-West Digital News. This year, Midemlab launches a brand new “Music Live Experiences” category that will spotlight the most innovative solutions around Live Music for bands, fans, venues, producers, promoters and more.  …

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Midemlab contest: A call to Eastern European music startups (application deadline: March 20)

February 19, 2019

The 12th edition of Midemlab, the leading international music startup competition, will take place on June 4-7, 2019 in Cannes, France, in partnership with East-West Digital News. Russian startups are welcome to participate. This is an opportunity for them – as well as for projects from other CEE countries – to find new business partners, raise funding, …

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Mail.Ru Group agrees full acquisition of music rights owner UMA for $97 million

December 28, 2018

LSE-listed Mail.Ru Group, which owns Russia’s largest social networks Vkontakte (VK) and Odnoklassiki (OK), has signed an option agreement to complete the acquisition of United Media Agency (UMA), an aggregator and distributor of digital content. UMA is, in particular, the owner of music rights in Vkontakte and of BOOM, a top music app. “Mail.Ru Group’s relationship …

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Why piracy still rides high on Russia’s Internet

May 28, 2017

“We tried fighting Internet piracy, but unfortunately piracy won,” wrote an heir to famous Soviet writer Andrei Strugatsky on his Facebook page, adding that it is “completely impossible” to defeat the enormous amount of illegal content. Two out of three Russians believe that viewing and downloading pirated content is legal, according to a survey conducted …

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Report: Russia’s online economy accounts for nearly 2.5% of GDP

October 13, 2016

The Russian online economy reached 1.94 trillion rubles (roughly $31 billion at the average exchange rate) in 2015, according to “The Runet Economy,” a study released last month by the Russian Association for Electronic Communications (RAEC). This amount is equal to 2.4% of Russia’s gross domestic product, slightly more (0.2 percentage points) than in 2014. Due …

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