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Deezer, the Paris-based music streaming service, has secured $130 million in what is being called the largest-ever funding round for a startup in France.

The fundraising – led by Access Industries, the Len Blavatnik-owned U.S. company that bought Warner Music Group last year – should help drive the Spotify-like service as it makes a push to launch in more countries.

Deezer, which is popular in France but has been slow to reach audiences abroad, went live in Canada, Australia and New Zealand in April.

“This investment comes at the right moment to change the scope of ambition,” CEO Axel Dauchez told the European edition of the Wall Street Journal. “We have proved the model. We have proved that in some countries that have never monetized before we are currently generating revenue for the music industry.”

In December, the French company was dramatically outpacing Spotify in its user base – with 20 million users to Spotify’s 12.5 million, though the Swedish service has far greater brand recognition internationally.

But unlike Spotify, which now has a sizeable U.S. userbase, Deezer said last year that it plans to bypass the U.S. and Japan from its list of countries, claiming it’s “due to market saturation and low growth forecasts” and the fact that the two represent “only” 25 percent of global music consumption.

Spotify initially sidestepped the U.S., too, while the company negotiated partnerships with American record labels.

However, the Swedish service never specifically snubbed the U.S.

For Deezer, it remains unclear if its plans have changed. [YahooMusic]

The Web made licensing music drastically more efficient. Now a small button on the ubiquitous SoundCloud streaming player makes licensing music even easier.

SoundCloud, a music hosting and sharing platform with more than 20 million users, has partnered with music licensing platform Getty Images to bring together their groups of creators and licensors.

Audio comments from Getty Images COO Nick Evans-Lombe and SoundCloud CEO/founder Alexander Ljung) ”It’s really exciting because it’s taking away the complexity with respect to sync licensing,” director of Getty Images Music Melinda Lee says. “Many times you hear a track and you don’t the owner, the name of the song, the publisher, how many publishers.”

Not that licensing music is terribly complex these days. Getty Images helped change that when it purchased Pump Audio in 2007 and delivered a streamlined approach to finding and acquiring music for a variety of needs.

Now anyone interested in licensing music through Getty need not use its platform as the starting point. The SoundCloud streaming player and widget will now have a “license” button if the artist has opted to make the track available for license.

In addition, SoundCloud will get a branded collection of music at both Getty Images Music and SoundCloud websites.
Since SoundCloud represents millions of diverse creators around the world, the partnership taps a unique collection of tracks. In a statement left — fittingly — in an audio recording, SoundCloud CEO/founder Alexander Ljung emphasized that the partnership opens up licensing opportunities to both professional and casual creators and covers everything from music to sound effects.

“Really exciting to see what happens with this,” he said.

Getty Images Music is a part of Getty Images, the first company to license digital imagery online. Getty Images Music offers production music for a variety of uses and budgets.

In the last year, the Getty Images Music catalog has grown 40% with the help of partnerships with Elias, Atom Factory, Ah2, Indaba Music, Tribe of Noise and the artists and labels in its Guestlist initiative. Getty also added a Hispanic division through its partnership with MuuseMe.com.

SoundCloud users will have to choose between potential licensing opportunities and potential track sales. The FAQ at SoundCloud explains the URL used for the buy link is the only available location in the streaming player and widget that allows SoundCloud to identify a track as being available for licensing. Because of this “technical limitation,” it explains, users must pick between one of the two options.

One number SoundCloud users will want to consider when making that decision is 35%. That’s the percent of sync licensing revenue Getty pays to the artist. Getty keeps the remaining 65%.

Read more at http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/digital-and-mobile/soundcloud-partners-with-getty-images-music-1007975102.story#dUuj1LRKiOXfygV9.99

Speaking of essential reading, Don Passman’s industry bible All You Need to Know About the Music Business will be released in its eighth edition Dec. 4. Be assured the dust jacket will be loaded with endorsements from high-profile figures. For example, Katy Perry says, “I read this book when I was 13 and then things turned out okay for me.” Passsman’s client Tom Waits offers, ”I’ve spent years trying to get Don to open up like this to me. Never has he been so eloquent, so patient, or so thorough. It cost me a fortune to get these diamonds from Don: Now you can have them. For your own. At a fraction of the cost.” And Adam Levine cuts to the chase (he’s busy), stating, “If you want to be in music, you have to read this book.” [HitsDailyDouble]