Category Archives for "Music Industry News"
YouTube has constantly been at odds with the recorded music industry for its meager payouts, and now it’s found a way to even cut the payout on some of its biggest content creators in areas other than music as well. The video service recently started using artificial intelligence tools to flag offensive videos on the platform […]
Continue readingIf there was ever evidence that Facebook wants to take YouTube down, it’s with the report that the company has offered the music industry a boatload of money for music licenses so that its users can use popular music on their videos without legal repercussions. Ever since Facebook video was launched in 2015, the social […]
Continue readingIt hasn’t been widely known, but Apple Music’s licensing deal with the major labels ran out in June. Since then things have been chugging along as if they still were in contract while a new one was negotiated. The first of those three deals, this one with Warner Music, has just been announced, with Sony […]
Continue readingI guess that the vinyl comeback is here to stay, as another new pressing plant is about to come on line, this one in Austin. When band manager Caren Kelleher found that she couldn’t get timely vinyl delivery for the bands she manages, she decided that it was time for a vinyl plant that specialized in […]
Continue readingFor 20 years Edison Research has been conducting its Infinite Dial study that measures media and technology consumption in the United States. As always, the latest edition has a number of interesting discoveries, but it also identifies the new trends that may be in front of us, yet we find difficult to see. Here are […]
Continue readingLet’s face it, concert ticket prices for major acts are astronomical for anything but the nosebleed section of the venue, as the secondary market gets their hands on already high-priced tickets and increases the price. If that wasn’t bad enough, a new scheme hatched between Taylor Swift and Ticketmaster may bring the ultimate price of […]
Continue readingSpotify just bounded over it’s last major roadblock to going public with its new licensing agreement with Warner Music, and now it’s final hurdle is convincing the SEC that its direct listing is on the up and up. This means that the company looks to meet its goal of being listed on the New York […]
Continue readingThings have a way of coming full circle, when something old becomes new again. Hit songs come back around, old commercials and marketing come back (Coke), audio formats (8-track and cassette tapes), and even products become hot again (witness the MacDonald’s Schezwan sauce thanks to a Rick And Morty episode). Probably the last thing that […]
Continue readingThere’s a lifespan in the entertainment business where something is small and hip than not many people know about, then it’s discovered by the press as more people flock to it, then it’s homogenized by large corporations wanting to get in on the trend, then it ends up pricing out the very people that started […]
Continue readingArtists and bands that are just getting started or playing in a new location always have the same fret: Will anyone show up? Unless you’ve already received some sort of visibility either through your music or social media, the answer is usually that there won’t be as many people as you’d like, and that could […]
Continue readingEven though most of us have changed to listening to music via online streams, physical product is never going away. People still buy CDs and vinyl is a very hot commodity, even though the sales number aren’t what they once were. So what does it take to get people to actually buy your product? Nick […]
Continue readingWe keep hearing about the trickery taking place on both Spotify and Apple Music where artists are trying to game the system by posting album length songs of silence that repeat over and over in order to boost royalties. Thankfully, most streaming services are now on the lookout for these fakes, but there is one […]
Continue readingWe now live in a singles world, and nowhere is this more obvious than in the recent Nielsen Music Half-Year Report. Album consumption has taken a dramatic turn for the worse, as even superstar artists aren’t seeing anything near the numbers of the past. For instance, here’s the top 10 (for the U.S.): 1 Ed […]
Continue readingIf you haven’t been paying attention, Spotify recently settled a lawsuit over unpaid mechanical royalties to songwriters. The suit maintained that the company didn’t have the license to play some of the music available, while Spotify claimed that it didn’t have the information to adequately disburse the payments. Instead of fighting the lawsuit in court, […]
Continue readingIt wasn’t that long ago that the recorded music industry was completely in the doldrums, knocked down to less than half its peak business by a failing physical recording business that showed no signs of being replaced by downloads. Everyone predicted the worst as there was absolutely no faith that the fledgling streaming services could […]
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