Industry
Warner scraps unrecouped balances for heritage artists
WMG, the world’s third largest music rights company, has just confirmed that it is introducing a “legacy unrecouped advances program”, which will go into effect on July 1., www.musicbusinessworldwide.com
Believe muscles in on the majors
According to Believe’s calculations based on Top 200 annual chart data from market monitor SNEP, Believe finished 2021 as France’s No.2 biggest company in terms of annual distribution market share of frontline domestic artist albums. www.musicbusinessworldwide.com
More and more musicians are releasing their own music: Here's why
Kylie Minogue’s latest album, Disco, was released on her own label, Darenote. Dave and Little Simz, who are up against Adele and Ed Sheeran at this year’s Brit Awards, have full ownership of their music. www.bbc.com
Unlabelled: Do you really need a record label to succeed in 2022?
We take a look at some of the issues facing the music industry and what it means to be independent in 2022. musictech.com
Catalogs
Bob Dylan Sells All Recorded Rights to Sony Music
Bob Dylan has sold the rights to his masters to Sony Music Entertainment, the company announced. Dylan sold his publishing rights to Universal Music Group for over $300 million just over a year ago. au.rollingstone.com
Def Leppard Sells Stakes in Publishing, Masters to Primary Wave Music
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Def Leppard have sold stakes in its publishing and master income to Primary Wave Music. The band’s repertoire includes 11 studio albums, which have sold more than 110 million copies. variety.com
Round Hill Music buys catalog from White Snake’s David Coverdale
David Coverdale is best known for his role in Whitesnake, of which he was a founding member. He was also the lead singer of Deep Purple from 1973 to 1976, featuring on their albums Burn and Stormbtinger. www.musicbusinessworldwide.com
Hipgnosis and Blackstone acquire 80% of Kenny Chesney’s recorded music royalties
Country superstar inks deal covering his discography from his 1994 debut In My Wildest Dreams through 2017’s Live in No Shoes Nation that also covers his neighboring rights and SoundExchange royalties. The acquisition also covers any future Greatest Hits. www.musicbusinessworldwide.com
Music catalogs are fetching huge deals. Are they overvalued?
Songwriters like Bruce Springsteen, John Legend and Bob Dylan are cashing in on the growing demand for popular songwriting catalogs from publishers, private equity firms and others looking to capitalize on the music business’ recovery. www.latimes.com
Markets
Music streams up by 23% in Spain as subscriptions grew
Spain is now a market dominated by streaming - it’s 85% of overall music consumption - and paid subscriptions are finally having an impact too. musically.com
Emerging markets: 'It's silly to make perfect the enemy of progress'
Spek is one of the key music industry executives exploring trends in the Middle East and North Africa, China, India and other high-potential markets. musically.com
Music industry seeks more subscription growth in China
Music Ally has been talking to sources in China to get a sense of the market’s development in 2021. China’s recorded music market grew by more than 33% in 2020 according to the IFPI. musically.com
The future of music distribution: emerging markets, social and more
Emerging markets will represent the majority of global music subscribers by 2026, according to Midia Research MD Mark Mulligan. musically.com
Music distribution trends: evolution, expansion and education
Keynote from Mark Mulligan at the NY:LON Connect conference was followed by a panel about the future of music distribution focused on emerging and growth market. musically.com
Live music
"Fasten your seatbelts!" says ASM's John Boyle
“It feels like 2022 is going to be a special year for stadium shows. I’m not certain about the volume of shows relative to 2019, but maybe more importantly, there is a lot more excitement", says ASM Global executive John Boyle. www.theticketingbusiness.com
‘We’re fed up’: Inside the chaos and confusion of live music in 2022
After a glimmer of hope by the end of summer 2021, the UK’s once-thriving live music scene was plunged into chaos by the Omicron variant of Covid. Roisin O’Connor speaks to artists, festival organisers, venue owners and experts on the obstacles they face this year. www.independent.co.uk
Patti Smith Partners With Substack For Livestream Event
Patti Smith has teamed up with Substack for a special night of music, readings and conversation on Feb. 2. The event has seen Smith streaming live from the iconic Electric Lady Studios exclusively for her Substack subscribers, with viewers having the ability to request songs and readings. www.pollstar.com
The Awesome Power Of TikTok For Touring
For announcing and building momentum for tours, i.e. selling tickets, TikTok can be an incredibly effective tool with artists putting links in their bio to the ticketing platform of their choice. www.pollstar.com
Let the Music Move on the Future of Live Music
With the complications of international touring post-Brexit combining with the impacts of Covid on live venues, we talk to Let the Music Move. audiomediainternational.com
Platforms
Music subscriber market shares Q2 2021
MIDiA’s annual music subscriber market shares report is now available here (see below for more details of the report). Here are some of the key findings. The global base of music subscribers continues… www.midiaresearch.com
TikTok generated $2.3bn of in-app spending in 2021
The music industry still tends to think of TikTok as an ad-supported business. However, the company’s revenues from consumer spending are growing. musically.com
Bandcamp shares rare stats including how much better it is for new music
Bandcamp has shared a rare look at some of the stats driving the popular indie destination including it’s superior track record of new music discovery and monetization. www.hypebot.com
SoundCloud and music: 'It's about watching artists and fans connect'
SoundCloud has been reinventing itself over the last few years. You could say it’s going back to its roots: although it’s still a music streaming service, its focus has returned to tools for musicians, more than going head to head with Spotify and other big streaming services. musically.com
YouTube Music emerges as leading streaming platform in Korea
According to big data platform Mobile Index, as of December, YouTube Music held the third-largest market share in Korea (19.22 percent), only after Melon (37.28 percent) and Genie (19.24 percent). The relatively new service began with a 1.7 percent share in 2019. www.koreatimes.co.kr
Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo launches a ‘Weezify’ streaming app
“Tired of Spotify? Come on over to Weezify,” tweeted Rivers Cuom, the frontman of veteran rock band Weezer. This particular alternative streaming service has a very specific focus however. “A Spotify-like player for all of Rivers Cuomo’s demos (1975-2017). musically.com
Merlin inks multi-year deal with music licensing platform Lickd
Independent label agency Merlin has inked a multi-year deal with UK-born Lickd, a platform that lets video creators legally use copyrighted music and audio in their videos. The deal comes four months after Lickd secured £5.1 million in new funding, which included investment from both Warner Music and Epic Game. www.musicbusinessworldwide.com
Distributor Symphonic adds royalty analytics for TikTok
Fresh from its $37m funding round, distributor Symphonic is launching a new feature to give musicians more insight into their TikTok earnings. Artists will be able to see how many TikTok videos have been created using their music; how many views, likes, shares and comments those videos got; and relate that back to the royalties they are earning. musically.com
Triller and Boomplay team up for African music playlists
Boomplay has been building its reputation as one of the key local streaming services across Africa, growing to more than 65 million monthly active users. Now it is teaming up with short-video service Triller, with plans for mutual playlists and promotion. musically.com
Believe inks global licensing deal with TikTok rival Kuaishou
Paris-based Believe and Tunecore, its DIY digital music distributor platform, have signed a global licensing agreement with Kuaishou, a China-based short-form video platform. The deal comes six months after Warner Music struck a global licensing deal with the platform. www.musicbusinessworldwide.com
TikTok Algorithm For Artists and Creators [2022 Guide]
Last December, the New York Times got their hands on an internal company document designed to break down the main principles of TikTok’s recommender system. In this piece, we’ll dig down into how the short-form video recommendation works on TikTok, reviewing the main insights uncovered by the New York Times. music-tomorrow.com
@music_zone est un média indépendant direct-to-reader qui se situe au cœur de l’actu music business, music & tech et digital music à l’international, et qui a besoin du soutien de ses lecteurs pour exister et se développer.