Sony Music Entertainment (SME) is officially bringing a portion of its catalog to Duolingo’s music course under a newly inked partnership agreement.
The major label and the language-learning app (NASDAQ: DUOL), which set in motion a music-focused expansion last year, unveiled the licensing pact today. At present, north of 60 SME recordings, including releases from Hozier, Meghan Trainor, and Whitney Houston, are said to be live on Duolingo Music.
(Having been available on iOS devices for some time, the app’s music offering is gradually rolling out on Android, according to Redditors.)
As described by the involved parties, that means users can explore everything from reading music to “differentiating notes by sound, sight, and key” with the mentioned Sony Music tracks.
All told, Duolingo’s music lessons now feature works from a total of more than 40 artists, and the company intends to shed additional light on the latest updates at the annual Duocon event next month.
For a bit of supplemental insight into the audience and revenue at hand, though, Duolingo reported over 34 million daily active users for Q2 2024, when revenue spiked 41% YoY to $178.3 million. Monthly active users exceeded 103 million, per the breakdown, including about eight million paid subscribers.
“Partnering with Duolingo gives us the opportunity to bring our artists’ music to a new platform that promotes learning and cultural exchange,” summed up Sony Music SVP of sync licensing Jessica Shaw. “Music has the power to unite and inspire, and this partnership will help learners engage with music education in a meaningful and enjoyable way.”
Beyond the educational byproducts of the tie-up, the Sony Music-Duolingo union underscores the ongoing embrace of licensing deals with well-established platforms that hadn’t previously embraced music.
Earlier this week, Universal Music and Meta announced a bolstered partnership encompassing, among other things, the integration of UMG’s catalog on WhatsApp for the first time. And in June, on the heels of extensive licensing woes, Twitch formally launched a DJ program with the majors as well as Merlin onboard.
Additionally, Merlin itself reupped with Meta in June and debuted that same month Merlin Connect, billed as a one-stop licensing solution tailored for “promising” emerging tech platforms.
In the bigger picture, the trend of bringing music to popular and heretofore unlicensed services appears to represent the logical next step for rightsholders after kicking off lucrative social media partnerships and then metaverse/gaming unions with the likes of Roblox as well as Fortnite.