A Little Knowledge... #9

📬 BULLETIN NEWS: Tencent Music talks up Lucy, its first 'hyper-real' virtual artist. 

There are various startups around the world building virtual (avatar) artists at the moment, not to mention major labels – Sony Music and Universal Music both have projects bubbling in different parts of the world. Now a music streaming giant has joined them.

• In its financial earnings call last week, Tencent Music showed off Lucy, its recently-launched virtual artist.
• “Our first hyper-real virtual pop idol,” as executive chairman Cussion Pang described her on the call with analysts. “With a record-grade, automatically generated vocal print developed by TME Lyra Lab’s LyraSinger Engine, Lucy as a highly productive segment has created three chart-dominating original songs across different styles within just one month of her debut.
• Pang also noted that Lucy has received 'partnership interest' from global brands including Elk, Coca-Cola and KFC.
• Lucy joins a growing roster of TME’s virtual artists that also includes Xiaoqin, Shanbao and Anko.
• In November 2022, TME also talked about its investment in AI music, announcing that it had released more than 1,000 songs with “AI synthetic voices”.

👉 Music Ally archive: Tencent Music 

🌎 COUNTRY PROFILE: While facts remain hard to find about Morocco’s music industry, several factors point to a market that is growing fast

Actual numbers about the music industry in Morocco are pretty hard to come by. The IFPI doesn’t report specific numbers for the country, although its most recent Global Music Report stated that recorded music revenues in the MENA region (which includes Morocco) grew by 35% in 2021, making it the fastest-growing region in the world.

• The IFPI figures also revealed that the MENA’s recorded music market is dominated by streaming, which represents 95.3% of the region’s revenues.
• The groundwork certainly seems in place for Morocco’s music market to grow: Spotify launched in Morocco in November 2018 followed by Apple Music in April 2020, joining the likes of Anghami, Deezer and YouTube in the country.
• The majors’ presence in Morocco remains relatively low-key, but it is growing: Warner Music recently bought Qanawat Music, a leading music distributor in the MENA region, which has an office in Casablanca, Morocco’s largest city, and Universal Music opened an office in Morocco in June 2020 to focus on “A&R, creative and commercial partnerships”

👉 Read the full profile here Ⓜ️

🤔 A LITTLE SOMETHING EXTRA...

And finally… our daily Bulletin newsletter is loved by subscribers for its instant industry analysis - but secretly, the part they like most is the ‘A Little Something Extra’ section at the bottom of the email. Here's a few of the best recent links and a couple of Knowledge extras:

• Had enough of other people? Enjoy Wired’s suitably-grumpy explainer of ‘how to mute everyone on social media’.
• A charming and fascinating archive video of UK vinyl-cutting legend George "Porky" Peckham explaining how music is put onto vinyl.
• Now we ain’t saying he’s a gold digge… No wait, he IS. And a very rich one to boot. Can someone sell us a shovel?
• 3D-printed cheesecake, anyone?

This is only a glimpse into this week's newsletter – subscribe for FREE to The Knowledge and every Friday it’ll arrive in your inbox, with:

🎓 Exclusive 50% discounts on selected courses in our LEARNING HUB 🛠️ The best new platforms in TOOLS, 😵 💫 Some great and/or strange music in SOMETHING 4 THE WEEKEND, 🕰 A look back in TIME MACHINE, 🎧 The Music Ally Focus PODCAST, and 🤔 more links to our favourite unusual stuff in A LITTLE SOMETHING EXTRA.

A Little Knowledge is taking an Easter break next week. We'll be back on Wednesday 19th April. See you then!