With the official launch of Apple Music and the Jay Z-powered relaunch of TIDAL earlier this year, streaming service platform are the phenomenon which took the music industry by storm in 2015. Now, another giant has announced its plans to launch its own service.
Back in 2013, the broadcaster launched its Playlister service which allowed users to stream individual tracks that had been played in a radio show without having to listen to the show in its entirety or skipping to the relevant part. Currently, users of the service can only listen to a 30-second clip of each track, meaning they’ll have to hop over to YouTube or Spotify to listen to the track in full. However, once this new service is launched, users will be able to access the full track and build their own playlists from the tracks on offer. But there will still be a caveat to this service: users will only be able to access tracks 30 days after their initial broadcast.
The BBC elaborated on their plans in a recent edition of British Bold Creative, saying: “Through this digital music offer, we would reinvent our role as a trusted guide, in partnership with our audience and with the UK music industry. We would make this product a champion for new UK music. We would also use it to increase our support for specialist genres, independent artists and labels—those who are less supported by the wider broadcast and digital market but for whom there are enthusiastic audiences.”
They have also said the expanded service has not been designed to rival other streaming services such as Spotify and Tidal, but rather the service is there to turn their DJs and presenters into curators, guiding listeners and suggesting new music to them. It’s also worth mentioning that this is not a commercial venture and will fall under their public services. “We want our digital music offer to benefit audiences and artists,” they added. “We are working with the industry to develop this proposal in a way that achieves that objective. This distinctive music discovery product would mean that the BBC could stay a key catalyst for the UK music industry, and it would be part of an exciting digital future for music on the BBC.”
