Chile punches above its weight when it comes to streaming and releasing music.
In spite of the South American country’s population size (roughly 19m compared to neighboring nation Argentina’s 45m), every year, over 1,500 Chilean albums are released by independent artists and labels.
According to global recorded music industry body IFPI, streaming commands a 72.8% market share of recorded music revenues in Chile.
To further highlight just how much the nation’s music fans love streaming, back in October 2019, Spotify reported that Chile’s capital, Santiago, which has a population of roughly 6.8 million, was responsible for over 400 million plays of reggaetón per month.
Meanwhile, last month, Midia reported that Spotify’s slowing revenue growth in 2020 compared to 2019 “indicates that [Spotify] is for the first time meaningfully under-performing in the [global] market… due to the rise of local players in emerging markets”.
Chile is a great example, therefore, of one such territory witnessing the rise of local streaming players. And a particularly important one just stepped into the light.
PortalDisc, already the largest local music download platform in Chile, last month launched what it calls the first 100% Chilean music-focused streaming service.
PortalDisc originally launched 12 years ago and also offers marketing, radio promotion and international distribution services to Chilean artists.
PortalDisc’s app offers users a fully localized experience, which Tuned Global says it achieved by using custom metadata to divide the content into regions and Chilean music genres.
“We offer a hyper-localized and hyper-targeted music streaming service for Chilean music lovers and local artists, which a mass international streaming service can’t do.”
Sebastian Milos, PortalDisc
For anyone concerned that the launch of a new niche service will pull users away from platforms like Spotify in Chile, Con Raso, Tuned Global’s Managing Director, suggests that rather than competing with mainstream services, localized services such as PortalDisk’s new app “complement them by focusing on a specific type of content as experts in their area”.
The app features PortalDisc’s full catalog of over 130,000 Chilean songs from 300 national labels and more than 7,000 independent artists, covering what the company says is “the full range” of the country’s musical styles, geographical regions and historical eras.
Available on Apple and Google Play, PortalDisc offers a free version that allows users to stream 50 different tracks per month and a premium version with unlimited access.
PortalDisc explains that the app was built and launched in a very short time frame using Tuned Global’s music white label streaming platform which allows PortalDisc to manage their users, subscriptions and content independently and to report to rights holders.
Sebastian Milos, Founder and Director of PortalDisc, said: “We offer a hyper-localized and hyper-targeted music streaming service for Chilean music lovers and local artists, which a mass international streaming service can’t do.
“We couldn’t have done it so quickly without Tuned Global. Their suite of features such as live, video or podcast provide an exciting roadmap for the future of our streaming service.
“We look forward to offering a new great alternative way for artists, labels and other distributors in the Chilean market.”
“The streaming world is changing quickly and users increasingly use more than one service. We have believed in and supported niche and local music streaming services, such as PortalDisc in Chile, for many years now.”
Con Raso, Tuned Global
Con Raso, Managing Director of Tuned Global, added: “The streaming world is changing quickly and users increasingly use more than one service.
“We have believed in and supported niche and local music streaming services, such as PortalDisc in Chile, for many years now.
“These services do not compete with mainstream services, on the contrary they complement them by focusing on a specific type of content as experts in their area.
“This focus allows them to engage with superfans and support local music industries and artists.”Music Business Worldwide
