Category Archives for "Music Industry News"
October 4, 2018
Sony And Warner Music Invest In Tencent Music Before IPO
The giant Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) streaming service out of China has filed for an IPO to go public in the US, which is a big deal in itself. What’s just been revealed is that both Sony Music and Warner Music have invested $200 million in the company prior to the IPO according to the […]
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October 3, 2018
Spotify Wants Your GPS Location If You’re Signed Up For A Family Plan
Recently I posted about how the streaming services are losing subscribers through family plans, when a user invites people into a plan from outside the family. This is especially the case for Spotify, who reportedly is suffering from this problem more than other streaming services. Now the company has taken the unusual attempt to stop […]
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October 1, 2018
The “Stairway To Heaven” Copyright Lawsuit Headed Back To Court Yet Again
Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway To Heaven” is certainly one of the the era’s most iconic rock songs but it’s been wrapped up in a lawsuit that can’t seem to come to a close. The estate of the late Randy California of the band Spirit sued the members of Led Zep for stealing parts of “Stairway To Heaven” from […]
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September 28, 2018
Sony Music Sued For Under-Reporting Streaming Revenue
Here’s one to keep an eye on as it can open up a whole new set of artist/label lawsuits. The estate of the late 60s pop start Ricky Nelson has filed a class action lawsuit against Sony Music over streaming royalties. The suit alleges that Sony assessed an intercompany charge on international streaming royalties, and as […]
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September 27, 2018
5 Tips For Making Low-Budget Music Videos
A music video for a song is pretty much a requirement these days since YouTube is such an important tool for getting music out to both current and potential fans. That said, video production can get crazy expensive, especially if you’re hiring pros, but it doesn’t have to be that way. You can do it […]
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September 26, 2018
Looking At What Artists Get Paid In A Spotify Direct Deal
As previously posted, Spotify is now doing both direct deals with artists, and allowing them to directly upload their content onto the platform. There have been a lot of announcements to that effect, but not much on exactly what an artist receives when it comes to royalty payout – until now. Music Business Worldwide did […]
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September 24, 2018
There’s More Behind Spotify’s Artist Direct Upload Strategy Than Meets The Eye
In a surprise announcement, Spotify will now allow indie artists to bypass distributors like CD Baby and TuneCore and directly upload their songs to the platform. Best of all, there will be no charge to do so, relieving artists from paying the nominal fees that distributors charge for the service. The upload feature will be available via the […]
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September 21, 2018
Ticketmaster Wants You To Buy From The Secondary Ticket Market
We all love to go to concerts but a lot of us don’t go as much as we’d like to primarily because of the prices. While the face value of a concert ticket might be reasonable, the fact of the matter is that we usually can’t find good tickets available as they’re purchased before we […]
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September 19, 2018
Music Modernization Act Passage Averts An Artist Boycott Of Sirius XM
The Music Modernization Act overhaul of music copyright passed the Senate unanimously yesterday, following the House of Representatives previous unanimous vote as well. While this is excellent news for the industry, the bill must now go back to the House for approval since it was changed quite a bit from the original bill, then go to […]
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September 17, 2018
Amazon Music Making More Of Its Own Exclusive Recordings
Amazon Music has introduced a new series of exclusive recordings called “Produced By…” with the first batch coming from Grammy-winning artists that include Al Green, John Prine and Margo Price. The twist is that Amazon doesn’t actually own these recordings, as the original label retains all the rights. The premise of the “Produced By..” series […]
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September 14, 2018
This Huge Online Platform Isn’t Paying Any Music Royalties
The music industry constantly beats up YouTube because of its puny royalty stream, but it consistently overlooks another huge service that isn’t paying anything – Twitch. The Amazon-owned platform has 2.2 million broadcasters and 15 million daily active users who are all consuming music, but unfortunately, artists, songwriters, labels and publishers aren’t seeing a dime […]
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September 13, 2018
How The European Union Copyright Reform Could Change The Music Business For The Worse
As much as artists, managers, labels and publishers rail against YouTube, there’s no denying that it’s been beneficial to the industry in at least two ways. First, it’s the foremost place for new music discovery, and secondly, it provides an additional revenue stream. The major complaint against YouTube has always been about the royalty amount […]
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September 12, 2018
Spotify And Nielsen Deal Could Mean More Money For Artists
One of the things that’s most valuable to artists, management and labels is the demographic information of exactly who is listening. In these days of targeted advertising, the more we know about an audience the better we can serve them. While artists really need this info, the fact of the matter is that advertisers might […]
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September 10, 2018
A Glimpse Of The Future? It’s Hard To Post Classical Music Online Without A Copyright Violation
Back, Bartok, Schubert, Puccini and Wagner wrote their compositions hundreds of years ago before the idea of copyright was even a glint in an intellectual property attorney’s eye, so they’re in the public domain. But are they? It turns out it’s getting tougher and tougher to post the music of the classical greats by a performer […]
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September 5, 2018
The Family Plan Comes Back To Bite The Streaming Platforms
At one point in time the Family Plan tier with multiple users on one monthly bill seemed like a great way to get more people on board with music streaming, especially when it was new. This strategy actually turned out to work too well though, as so many users are now on Family Plans that […]
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