Australian streaming service Songl is ending its consumer-focused subscriptions. The platform was a joint effort between Southern Cross Austereo, Sony Music, and Universal Music. Existing subscribers will be transitioned to a personalized ratio service called Omny, which sources its music from other platforms such as Spotify or Rdio.
Despite dropping the consumer listening option, Songl isn’t going away entirely. The team will rebrand as Songl Solutions, a business-centric service. The rebranded company will offer music streaming products and live music events for brands. It will also supply music to television company Foxtel and Satellite Music Australia.
Based on Techgeek’s assessment of Songl’s start as a streaming service, it seems that the company was never able to make an impact on the Aussie listening environment in its 18 months on the market. Its mobile apps never took off, and it didn’t offer the same quality of design or library as the more globally established services. The takeaway from this rough start seems to be that in markets where internationally-known services already have a foothold, it’ll be a real challenge for a local upstart to break in and get enough attention to succeed.