BRISBANE, Australia — Moodagent has arrived in Australia, as part of the subscription streaming platform’s wider push into Asia Pacific.
The new Australian affiliate is led by industry veteran Tom Mee, who’s tapped as GM of Australia & New Zealand.
Until recently, Mee served as head of artist and label marketing ANZ at Spotify, and in executive positions with Universal Music Australia and Warner Music Australia before that.
He’s joined at the Sydney office by director of music and editorial Toni Pipicelli and regional marketing director Bushra Abel.
The mood-based listening platform will come online in NZ “shortly,” reads a statement.
Moodagent confidently claims a personal and interactive user experience, based on its back-end blend of machine learning, audio analysis and “tens of thousands of hours” of human musicology.
The service’s interactive playlists, or “moodagents,” are activated by mood sliders for Sensual, Tender, Happy, Angry and Tempo. Feel angry? The listener can let that out, and the playlists stay in your lane.
The app can be downloaded from the Apple App Store and Google Play, with its premium tier priced at A$11.99 ($9.30) per month.
Headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, Moodagent was founded in 2001 by Mikael Henderson (chief product officer) and Peter Berg Steffensen (chief innovation officer).
The business also boasts offices in Berlin, Delhi, and Mumbai, and has a stated goal of being present in 25-plus countries by the end of 2023.
Australian music fans already have a wealth of choice at their fingertips, with the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music and other streaming brands established here.
According to trade data published in March by ARIA, the myriad streaming platforms powered Australia’s market in 2020, posting total growth of 14% in 2020, for income of A$362 million ($275 million).
It was the sixth successive year of growth for the recorded music industry, though to take some shine off the results, the rate of growth for subscription service appears to be slowing.
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