Category Archives for "Music Industry News"
February 26, 2018
The Pros And Cons Of Spotify Becoming A Hardware Company
There have been a number of recent reports lately that Spotify is looking to launch its own series of branded streaming hardware products. This is supported by its search for an “Operations Manager – Hardware Product” as well as several listings for hardware related positions on its website. Let’s look at the pros and cons […]
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February 23, 2018
Facebook Signs Another Music Licensing Deal
Facebook isn’t in the music streaming business yet, but it sure looks like it’s going that way. The platform recently signed another music licensing deal, this time with ICE Services, which is a licensing group and copyright database that represents PRS in the UK, STIM in Sweden and GEMA in Germany. The deal covers not only Facebook, but Instagram, Oculus and Messenger […]
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February 22, 2018
Spotify Gets Legally Scammed From Bulgaria
It’s not everyday that you hear of a big tech company getting scammed, but when it’s done legally it’s especially unusual. A report in a recent Music Business News described how someone from Bulgaria used a pair of playlists to take as much as a million bucks in royalties from music tech giant Spotify. Here’s […]
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February 21, 2018
You Won’t Believe The Prices For These Vinyl Records
The price of new vinyl albums is going through the roof these days and some industry execs think that we’re fast approaching buyer fatigue as a result. While you might find a few at $16, it’s not uncommon to see a premium release go for anywhere from $40 to $60, which can strain most collector’s […]
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February 19, 2018
Universal Music Making Close To $18 Million A Day
The recorded music business is definitely feeling better these days as all the major labels have reported big increases in revenue recently. The latest of these is Universal Music Group, who reportedly saw an income stream of close to $18 million every day in 2017. This represents a sales increase of around 11% from the […]
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February 16, 2018
Inane Lyrics Won’t Receive Copyright Protection
If you expect your lyrics to be protected by copyright, you’d better make sure they say something “creative,” according to a judge’s ruling in a copyright infringement battle over Taylor Swift’s 2014 #1 hit “Shake It Off.” Two songwriters, Sean Hall and Nathan Butler, had filed a lawsuit in federal court in Los Angeles last year stating […]
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February 14, 2018
Facebook Appears To Losing Young Users To Snapchat
Every few months there’s a new study that finds that Facebook is losing the youngest generation to some other social network. In the meantime, the network giant just gets larger and stronger. This latest study from research firm eMarketer states that less than half of U.S. Internet users ages 12 to 17 will use Facebook […]
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February 12, 2018
Sony Launches A New EDM Label Liquid State In China
China is becoming a hot place for music, as Western influences gradually seep into the country. Last year hip-hop became a dominant force in Chinese music (although mostly with Chinese artists, not American imports) and now it looks like electronic music is hitting there too. As a result, Sony Music has launched a new label […]
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February 9, 2018
Spotify Will Finally Add Songwriter And Producer Credits
One of the things that music consumers love about vinyl records is the liner notes on the album cover. Those of us who grew up in the vinyl era know that we’d frequently buy an album based on the credits that were listed, as many times it indicated a level of quality or taste that […]
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February 8, 2018
Best Buy To Stop Selling CDs, And Maybe Target Too
If ever there was a moment where you saw a format die, it’s this one. Best Buy has informed all record labels that it will no longer stock CDs in its stores as of July 1st. Not only that, if labels don’t play ball with Target’s new terms, that company won’t stock them either. This […]
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February 7, 2018
Believe It Or Not, Apple Music Is About To Surpass Spotify In The US
When we look at streaming subscriber numbers, it always looks as if Spotify is in a commanding lead with over 70 million paid users as compared to Apple Music’s 36 million. But as we’ve seen so many times before, statistics can be deceiving. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required to […]
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February 5, 2018
YouTube Introduces Official Artist Channels
Up until now, official artists video channels were part of the record label-owned Vevo, much to the chagrin of Google-owned YouTube, but now the platform is fighting back by launching its own version of artist channels. Starting this week all unofficial channels will be consolidated into one YouTube artist destination. Vevo stands for “Video EVOlution” and […]
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February 2, 2018
NOI LOOKUP May Make It Easier To Get Paid From Spotify
Spotify has been in running battles with songwriters and publishers for the last year over the fact that the platform was playing music without complete copyright information, and therefore without a license. This has resulted in several lawsuits against the streaming giant, with more threatened. A new free service launched recently by SXWorks, a subsidiary of […]
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January 31, 2018
Songwriters Getting A 44% Boost In Pay From Streaming
While payouts averaging $0.005 to $0.007 to artists from streaming seems pretty minimal, it’s even worse for songwriters, who generally only see about a tenth of that revenue. That’s why the recent ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board’s (CRB) that awards songwriters a 44% increase is so important. While still just a fraction of what […]
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January 29, 2018
Legendary Producer Quincy Jones Wants To Create Music Stock Index Fund
One way to invest in the stock market reasonably safely is by investing in an index fund, which is a type of mutual fund with a portfolio constructed to match or track a market index, such as the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (S&P 500). Advantages of an index fund include broad market exposure combined with very low operating expenses, so it becomes sort of […]
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