Category Archives for "Music Industry News"
December 22, 2017
SiriusXM To Pay A Higher Royalty Next Year
In a move that will mean more money in the pockets of artists, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) recently ruled to raise the rates that the SiriusXM satellite service pays to copyright holders by 41%. The move raises the rate from 11% of revenue to 15.5% beginning on January 1st, 2018. The rate stays in […]
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December 20, 2017
The Christmas Season Has An Effect On Music Streaming Habits
One of the things not considered very often by artists, bands and even record labels is the affect that seasonal changes have on listening behavior. The Economist recently did a study and found that the weather conditions due to the time of year, and especially the Christmas season, made a decided difference on consumer music […]
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December 18, 2017
“Slow Ticketing” Taking The Scalpers Out Of The Ticket Market
Tickets for your favorite artist go on sale at 10AM, so you either go to the box office, or wait near your computer for the hour to hit so you can score the best ticket possible. And what do you find? All the best tickets were already purchased, leaving you with dreck, which means you’re […]
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December 15, 2017
Tidal Running Out Of Money
Despite its celebrity owner, Tidal always seemed to be in an uphill battle against the deep pockets of Apple, Google, and Amazon, and the big funding of Spotify. Now comes multiple reports that the music streaming service will run out of cash by the middle of next year unless things take a dramatic turn upwards. […]
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December 11, 2017
YouTube May Launch It’s New Remix Streaming Service In March
YouTube has repeatedly tried to get music fans to buy into its paid subscription services Music Key and Red but hasn’t had too much success so far. So little success, in fact, that its subscriber numbers have never been published. That said, the company has big expectations for its new service, which carries the code […]
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December 8, 2017
The Most Streamed Artists On Spotify Might Surprise You
Spotify just released its list of most streamed artists for 2017, and while many are household words, the extent of their popularity might surprise you. For instance, Ed Sheeran was the platform’s top streaming artist with over 6.3 billion streams this year, dethroning Drake who was number one in 2015 and 2016. Rihanna was the top streaming […]
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December 6, 2017
Corporate Radio Takes Another Big Hit
I’ve reported on the bankruptcy status of the top corporate radio group, iHeartRadio, for some time now. It’s bad enough when the biggest station owner is in deep financial trouble, but did you know that the #2 station group now has a similar problem? Yep, Cumulus Media has filed for Chapter 11 and is around […]
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December 4, 2017
The One Reason Behind The Spotify-Tencent Stock Swap
It’s been reported that Spotify and Chinese Tencent Music Entertainment Group are in talks to acquire 10% of each other, and should the deal go down, there’s no other way to look at it than a strategic maneuver that has nothing to do with their subscribers. No, this all about stockholders – actually potential stockholders […]
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December 1, 2017
What’s The Top Market For Many Artists? It’s Mexico City
Whenever we think of the top music market for an artist, the major city centers of New York, Los Angeles or London immediately come to mind. One that’s been off the radar but is coming fast is Mexico City, and it’s already the #1 market for a diverse number of artists like Diplo, Adele, Dua Lipa, Radiohead, Shania Twain, Harry […]
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November 29, 2017
Music 360 Report Finds That More And More People Create Their Own Playlists
Playlists are clearly becoming the next big thing online as nearly three-quarters of those who stream music in the U.S. create their own online lists both for themselves and others. More than half of all music listeners create playlists, and 32% share their lists with others, up from 24% in 2016, according to Nielsen Music’s […]
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November 27, 2017
Distribution And Label Service Company Ditto Music Expands
There are plenty of music aggregators that will get to songs to all the streaming platforms, and Ditto Music is one of the least expensive ones. At $19 a year for unlimited uploads, it’s hard to go wrong. The company does so much more though, as it’s becoming a bigger player in “label services,” and […]
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November 24, 2017
Spotify Adding A Ton Of Jobs And Still Acquiring Companies
For a company that can’t yet turn a profit, Spotify is sure acting like one. It keeps on hiring more people and renting super expensive office space like it’s going out of style. Word comes that it will soon double its UK workforce of 200 people, and that it just rented about 60,000 square feet […]
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November 22, 2017
Vetz Allows You To Own A Piece Of Drake’s Music
If you ever wanted to own a piece of an artist’s music, or have your fans own a piece of yours, it’s now possible thanks to a company called Vetz.co. Vetz has set up a system called an ISO (Initial Song Offering) so that an artist can raise some cash by selling ownership in a […]
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November 20, 2017
Despite Predictions, Blockchain Will Not Be The Future Of The Music Industry
Just about every month for the past couple of years there’s been an article or post by a major publication about how blockchain technology is going to revolutionize the music business. It’s supposedly the savior of the industry because finally “artists will get paid,” record labels will be able to charge CD-level prices again, and […]
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November 17, 2017
UnitedMasters Aims To Be A Record Label Alternative
If you’re an artist, there’s less and less of a need to be with a record label today, since so much of what a label once provided can now be accomplished on a DIY basis. What record labels are really good at though, is turning an artist into a superstar, since the infrastructure required for […]
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