Symphonic Distribution acquires Streaming Promotions

The acquisition comes at a time, the company said, when artificial streaming and bots are making the process of promoting music difficult for many independent and established artists. "Streaming Promotions’ mission is to increase our client’s footprint and traction on streaming platforms with no payola or fake streams,” the website reads.

Symphonic Distribution’s head of territory in Africa, Tamsanqa Ngxeketo, told Music In Africa: “This is quite a significant moment in the African music industry and I believe that this will give our clients additional marketing support, which will ultimately enable them to reach a wider audience organically and legitimately. Streaming Promotions has relationships with more than 1 500 playlist curators on Spotify and over 3000 playlists.”

Symphonic said Streaming Promotions will remain an independent entity, offering its services to artists and labels around the globe while using Symphonic’s infrastructure to expand its business.

Streaming Promotions was founded in 2015. The service has been used by big names such as Baha Men, Enrique Iglesias, Tim McGraw and many more, as well as managers, digital press and publicity, social media managers, booking agents and tour managers.

“I am so pleased to welcome Streaming Promotions to the Symphonic family,” Symphonic chief creative officer and general manager Randall Foster said. “User-generated playlists and content is perhaps more important to artist development and fan acquisition today than ever before and I feel confident that Michael Sloane and team will be a great addition to our marketing mix, further cementing our commitment to helping independent artists and labels succeed.”

Streaming Promotions CEO Michael Sloane said: “Upon forming Streaming Promotions seven years ago, we have sought to build communities around artists in an organic and authentic way.

“In conjunction with Symphonic, we will be able to continue this mission and help find new fans for even higher quality talent. I’m thrilled to join forces with such a talented team to round out marketing services, building a platform for artists to grow and thrive. The future is very bright.”

The move follows Symphonic Distribution's $37m fundraising in a Series B funding round earlier this year. The company made its foray into the African market in May last year after opening shop in Brazil. At the time, Symphonic said it had secured key partnerships and aggregators that focus on African genres like Afrobeats, gqom and gospel. Additionally, Symphonic announced that it had inked distribution deals with Nigerian streaming startup MePlaylist in October 2020.