Music Industry News Roundup #2
It appears that Music 3.0 blog readers liked the News Roundup concept, so here’s the second addition, although it’s a bit abbreviated because of the July 4th holiday.
Google Play offers 4 free months. If you’re a brand new subscriber, you can get Google Play and YouTube Red bundled together for what amounts to $40 value for a free trial. There is a catch though. If you’ve ever been a subscriber, even for a free trial, you’re not eligible.
How well is YouTube Red doing? Much better than you think, according to analyst Mark Mulligan. He says it’s reaching between 5 and 10% month over month growth, and there’s an appetite for the service, especially in the U.S. That said, it’s still only reaching slightly less than 90% of the current YouTube users, so some aggressive marketing is needed.
YouTube Red is going cheap. As a result, Red is trying to drum up business with a $0.99 for 3 months. The catch? The Christmas holiday season doesn’t apply. These 3 articles show that Google/YouTube is starting to get more aggressive in the marketplace, which will affect both Spotify and Apple Music. Price war, anyone?
People still refuse to pay for music. According to a BPI Briefing study, 2/3rds of adult Internet users stream music at least once a month. The bad news? Only 1 in 10 are willing to pay for it. Most surprising? It’s people between 16 and 24 that are more likely to pay for it.
Facebook changes its Newsfeed again. Everyone but consumers seem to be up in arms about Facebook’s new Newsfeed algorithm. The new one places more emphasis on posts from family and friends first, and posts that entertain and inform second. Ads and commercials come in last.
When music becomes more popular faster. An interesting article on Poly-Graph shows how there have been more music videos that exceed a billion views recently. How much so? Out of the 17 that have passed a billion, 15 have come in the last year. Adele’s “Hello” made it in only 87 days!
Automated rights might not be the way to go. Anti-piracy firm Rightscorp is questioning its own viability after some dismal first-quarter financial results. The company is hired by record labels and publishers to collect money from copyright infringers, but the pirates are either getting better at it, or it maybe piracy just isn’t as bad as it used to be.
The Consent Decree still stands. What may be the biggest story of last week, the U.S. Department of Justice refused to change what’s known as the Consent Decree. Music publishers want to be allowed to negotiate their US digital rights outside of the blanket licences offered by ASCAP and BMI, but the DoJ ruled against it. What more, the DoJ ruled that both ASCAP and BMI must accept 100% licensing – meaning that if a licensee clears a track with one writer, it doesn’t need to bother doing so with his or her co-writers or co-publishers. Publishers and songwriters aren’t happy, to say the least.
That’s the News Roundup of what went on in the music industry last week. Let’s see what this has brings.
