The Australian affiliate of Universal Music has reached an exclusive arrangement that enables all its pre-release music to be digitally serviced to media and press outlets via the Play MPE software.
It’s the second major coup in a week for the digital promo service, after Warner Music Australia announced its own, exclusive contract on Oct. 31, which when combined with Universal’s content represents roughly 50% of the music played on Aussie radio.
Universal’s support trumpets a shake-up in the space for secured promo distribution in Australia, which until now had been dominated by the software suites provided by broadcast technology specialists Radio Computing Services (RCS). Other labels using the software include EMI, Shock, MGM, Liberation and Inertia.
“We just want to offer alternatives,” Play MPE’s media liaison Stephen Green tells Billboard.biz. “We’ve listened to what radio stations have told us they want out of the system, we’ve listened to what record companies say they want out of the system and we obviously believe that our system delivers all of those variables. We haven’t just come into the market all guns blazing.”
The latest deal, announced today, also sees Universal embrace the D-Star Spins airplay tracking software.
“Play MPE is already in place with our sister companies, so it made sense to continue the association locally,” comments Martha Pavlakis, director radio/TV at Universal Music Australia, in a statement. “The model allows us to easily upload and instantly release tracks to radio and business partners with efficient results. The use of Dstar spins to track those results completes part of the service for us.”
Destiny Media Technologies has already established the Play MPE digital delivery platform in the U.S. and in Canada, where the brand was launched last year. Sydney-based creative production firm Shooting Star Picture Company represents the software in Australia and New Zealand and launched trials Down Under in May this year.
