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News October 27, 2015

Australia’s Songl streaming service closes after 18 months

Australia’s crowded music streaming market has taken another scalp. Songl, set up by Sony Music Entertainment Australia, Universal Music Australia and Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) has been shut down after 18 months. It will cease operations on September 25.

“Songl was a consumer-facing music streaming service we have jointly been committed to for the past two years,” said a statement from SCA. “However, all stakeholders have moved their focus from this service into other music and content-based commitments that will enable each stakeholder to diversify their offering.”

The statement added that subscribers will be “seamlessly” moved to the Omny platform, which will focus on “international expansion” from its base in Melbourne.

Songl was run by Sydney-based Digital Music Distribution (DMD). DMD will now be rebranded Songl Solutions, and focus on offering music streaming and live music events for brands. It says it will also concentrate on its “core business” of supplying music streams to Foxtel’s 32 music channels and digital music library Satellite Music Australia.

Songl launched in March 2013 with DMD’s chief executive Mark Shaw hailing it as the “premium product in the market” and “created specifically for the Australian market” because it was a local product unlike most of its rivals. It offered a premium model for a $12.99 monthly fee and the Songl Free ad-funded version.

Its points of difference were a video player, and playlists compiled by musicians, celebrities and music industry executives. Users were able to stream programs on SCA’s radio stations as they went to air, share their playlists through a Facebook integration, and sync up to 1000 songs on their iPad, iPhone and Android devices.

Songl is the second streaming casualty this year. In February, Deezer closed its Australian office, unable to compete with market leaders as Pandora and Spotify which had superior services and better customer savvy.

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