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Warner Music’s ‘behaviour’ to harm artists: Spotify

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New Delhi, Feb 25 (IANS) Popular audio streaming platform Spotify, which has been sued by Warner Music Group (WMG) over licensing rights in India, on Monday said WMG has revoked a previously agreed upon publishing licence for reasons wholly unrelated to Spotify’s upcoming launch in the country.

Spotify, which was set to launch its services in India within a few weeks, hit a hurdle when the music label WMG filed for an injunction in a Mumbai court, in an attempt to leverage Warner/Chappell Music’s (WCM) local Indian publishing rights.

According to a Spotify spokesperson, the WMG instructed the WCM to seek an injunction in an attempt to leverage the WCM’s local Indian publishing rights, to extract concessions in the WMG’s global renewal negotiations for musical recordings.

“All other major labels and publishers have agreed on economics and to license their music, and Spotify has also entered into a licence with the local collecting society, while the WCM remains the lone hold-out needed for a Spotify launch in India,” the spokesperson told IANS.

Spotify, which has over 200 million users globally, had planned to launch its service next month. It has secured a licensing agreement with T-Series.

The WMG has some big-ticket artists like Katy Perry and Led Zeppelin in its kitty.

“The WMG’s abusive behaviour would harm many non-Warner artists, labels and publishers, and prevent Spotify from competing in the market, leaving us no choice but to file for a statutory licence,” the spokesperson said.

According to Spotify, the statutory licence, which allows for application to Internet-based services, prevents the WMG’s abusive practices, while ensuring all rights holders are compensated fairly.

“Under the statutory licence, Spotify will pay the WCM and their rights holders rates that are in-line with rates Spotify agreed to pay the leading Indian music entities, ensuring that everyone involved will benefit from the new audiences and significant revenue the Indian market will bring.

“We will continue to assess our options at this stage,” the Spotify spokesperson said.

–IANS
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Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones

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CasinoDays India

International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.

Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.

The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.

Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile

The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.

CasinoDays India

The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.

“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.

Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings

Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.

 

CasinoDays India

Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).

Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.

The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.

Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.

Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities

The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.

On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.

Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.

“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.

The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.

 

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