Apple Music and musical.ly ink partnership | Music Business Worldwide

musical.ly has partnered with Apple Music so that its users can stream full length songs within the app.

Starting today, musical.ly users (‘musers’) who are also Apple Music subscribers will be able toplay a song from start to finish inside musical.ly.

The integration also allows them to save their favorite songs to a custom “musical.ly playlist” in addition to listening to playlists curated by musical.ly at http://ift.tt/2pGnbos.

Founded in 2014 by creator Alex Zhu and longtime friend, Luyu Yang, musical.ly has grown to over 200 million users.

Its users typically share video clips of themselves singing along to hit songs.

“At musical.ly we are focused on providing our passionate community of musers with the best experience possible when it comes to discovering new music,” said Alex Hofmann, President of musical.ly, North America.

“At musical.ly we are focused on providing our passionate community of musers with the best experience possible when it comes to discovering new music.”

Alex Hofmann, musical.ly

“The integration with Apple Music gives musers a new listening experience and further layers into their connection with the music they are already creating content to in musical.ly.

“We are excited about the possibilities this creates for musers to share and discover new music with their friends.”

Last October, musical.ly launched a new program called #NextWave to support music discovery on the app.

Every month, the #NextWave folder contains 15 songs from new and emerging artists.

The artist that has the most videos created to their song in the #NextWave folder, earn a campaign on musical.ly’s homepage, providing exposure to over 200 million users.

#NextWave winners so far include Anne-Marie’s “Alarm,” Charli XCX’s “After the Afterparty,” Timeflies’ “Gravity, Marian Hill’s “Down,” and MadeinTYO’s “Skateboard P.”

In addition to #NextWave, musical.ly recently launched the #FirstListen and #FirstLook series featuring exclusive sneak peeks of songs and music videos.

#FirstListen launched with Kygo x Selena Gomez’s #ItAintMeFIRSTLISTEN followed by a sneak peek of Zedd x Alessia Cara’s #StayFIRSTLISTEN.

musical.ly has attracted major artists and entertainers including Olly Murs, The Vamps, Jonas Blue, Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Selena Gomez and Ariana Grande.Music Business Worldwide

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