| Top-Level Domain Name .music Now Available to the Music Industry — IFPI, Recording Academy, A2IM, NMPA, Others On Board October 10 The .MUSIC registry has officially launched the .music domain name and its verified MusicID system. This new initiative allows members of the music industry to register .music domains on a first-come, first-served basis. The .music domain is designed to provide verified digital identities for artists, creators, songwriters, industry professionals, organizations, and brands, ensuring a secure online presence. Only verified members of the global music community are eligible to register and use .music domains........ Read More |
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| What's Really Happening With the Streaming Slowdown? August 13 Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony Music Entertainment (SME), and Warner Music Group (WMG) have each released their financial results for Q2 2024, providing insight into the ongoing debates about a potential slowdown in music streaming. The short answer to whether these reports shed light on the issue is "absolutely." A deeper look reveals........ Read More |
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| Spotify launches new basic plan in the US, audiobooks excluded June 25 Spotify is introducing a new “Basic” subscription plan in the US, which excludes audiobooks. This change follows criticism over the bundling of music and audiobooks, which negatively affected songwriter compensation in the US. Previously, Spotify’s “Premium” plan included ad-free music, unlimited skips, and 15 hours of audiobook access per month for........ Read More |
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| Google DeepMind and YouTube show off their "Music AI Sandbox" May 16 The "Music AI Sandbox" is a suite of tools designed to assist musicians in creating music in new ways. This project is a collaboration between Google’s AI division DeepMind and YouTube. The launch featured demos from musicians like........ Read More |
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| Will Europe Ban TikTok Now? April 30 European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hasn't ruled out the possibility of Europe banning TikTok, echoing concerns raised by the US's legislative moves against the platform. The potential for a European ban arose during a debate in Maastricht........ Read More |
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| Bill That Could Ban Tiktok In US Moves Forward March 13 A bill with the potential to effectively ban TikTok in the United States unless its parent company, ByteDance, divests it, is swiftly advancing through the House of Representatives. Reports suggest that President Joe Biden has thrown his support behind the legislation, despite mounting opposition from civil liberties and technology industry factions. TikTok has launched a vigorous campaign urging its users........ Read More |
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| Who won Grammys for 2024? See the full winners list here February 06 Taylor Swift secured the prestigious Album of the Year title at the 2024 Grammy Awards for her acclaimed work, "Midnights," marking her fourth win in this category, an unparalleled achievement in Grammy history. In addition to her Album of the Year triumph, Swift triumphed in........ Read More |
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| How to use AI for content creation and digital marketing, according to creators January 08 Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a pivotal force reshaping numerous tasks, simplifying processes across various domains, including editing and copywriting. The tech sphere, in particular, has witnessed the burgeoning impact of AI, prompting industries to grapple with its multifaceted opportunities and ethical considerations. In this realm of AI evolution, creators, influencers, and entities within the creator economy have embarked on a journey........ Read More |
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| Spotify’s Royalty Model Tries To Keep Up With The Rapid Rise Of New Music October 30 Spotify, the leading streaming music platform, is revamping its royalty model to keep up with the rapid increase in new music releases. These changes include introducing a minimum threshold for royalty qualification, penalties for streaming fraud, and restrictions on short "noise" tracks. The music industry is witnessing a seismic shift as technology-driven innovations........ Read More |
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| Analysts Report Up to 10 Percent of Music Streams Are Fake September 26 Around 10 percent of music streams may potentially be fraudulent, according to a recent report that delves into the state of the streaming industry. The report, written by Anna Nicolaou for The Financial Times, primarily explores Universal Music Group (UMG) and Deezer's "artist-centric music streaming model." UMG and Deezer intend to introduce this new model, targeting "professional artists" with at least 1,000 monthly streams........ Read More |
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| 50 Years of Hip-Hop: A Culture of Vision and Voice August 11 Hip-hop is a cultural movement that originated in the African American and Latinx communities in the South Bronx, New York City, during the early 1970s. It has since become a global phenomenon with a significant impact on music........ Read More |
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| Is Voice Licensing A Future Revenue Stream for Artists? — DJ Fresh Thinks So July 12 AI voice cloning can re-create an artist’s voice using machine learning and hours of samples. Unauthorized mash-ups, such as the Drake and the Weeknd collaboration, gained popularity........ Read More |
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| Progress on WAV files and covers! June 03 Until recently WAV files really did not display cover art anywhere. This was in spite of the fact that we were always able to embed covers for you properly into WAV files. Players simply did not show them........ Read More |
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| What’s the Best Tool for Tracking Spotify Data? June 01 Spotify's dominant position in the streaming and social platforms has become a key indicator of success for artists in today's music industry. Spotify For Artists, the platform's own analytics tool, has proven to be a valuable resource for artists to understand their Spotify data. However, once artists have become proficient in using Spotify's analytics, there are various additional services available........ Read More |
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| As Major Label Market Share Falls on Spotify, Can we Expet even More Indie Investment from The 'Big Three'? March 30 The major record labels, including Universal Music, Sony Music, and Warner Music, are losing market share on Spotify, according to recent reports. Spotify's latest annual investor report revealed that the combined market share of the major labels and Merlin, a global digital rights agency....... Read More |
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| Collecting Royalties on Your Own LIVE Performances February 20 Did you know that you can collect royalties on your own live performances? Whether you are an....... Read More |
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| Grammy awards 2023: list of winners February 6 The 65th annual Grammy awards saw major wins for Harry Styles, Kendrick Lamar, Adele and Beyoncé....... Read More |
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| Vinyl Sales in the US Hit Highest Levels Since 1991 January 9 In the week leading up to Christmas 2021, a record 2.32 million vinyl albums were sold in the US, according to data from Luminate. This marked the highest number of vinyl album sales....... Read More |
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| Annual Music Streams Top 1 Trillion — In the US Alone December 2 Music streaming has disrupted illegal distribution, but analysts warn that anti-consumer behavior, like too many exclusives, may lead to piracy becoming more appealing. The market size of music streaming increased to $30.33 billion in 2022, with a total of....... Read More |
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| Apple launches Platoon for Artists app to manage content, streams and revenue August 28 Apple acquired artist services and music marketing agency Platoon in 2018 and has let it operate more or less independently since. Prior to being acquired by Apple....... Read More |
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| Grammy Awards 2022: Winners and nominees April 4 Olivia Rodrigo won best new artist, Silk Sonic took home record and song of the year, and Jon Batiste won album of the year at the 64th annual Grammy awards....... Read More |
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| Apple Music Now Uses Shazam Technology to Pay Rights Holders in DJ Mixes February 9 Adele was the big winner at the 2022 Brit Awards, which were presented at the 02 arena in London on Tuesday (Feb. 8). She won artist of the year, Mastercard album of the year for 30 and song of the year for “Easy on Me.” She lost in just one category....... Read More |
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| Apple Music Now Uses Shazam Technology to Pay Rights Holders in DJ Mixes September 11 Apple has announced the creation of a process to properly identify and compensate individual creators involved in making DJ mixes that are streamed on Apple Music. The process reportedly uses technology from Shazam....... Read More |
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| Apple Music begins rolling out lossless streaming and Dolby Atmos spatial audio June 8 Last month, Apple announced it would soon add lossless audio streaming and Spatial Audio with support for Dolby Atmos to its Apple Music subscription at no extra charge. That upgrade has now gone live, Apple announced this morning....... Read More |
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| Grammy Awards 2021: Winners and nominees March 16 The winners of the 63rd Grammy Awards have been announced at a star-studded hybrid in-person and online event in Los Angeles. Here are the winners and nominees in the key categories....... Read More |
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| Artists Fear Retribution If They Speak Out Against Streaming Royalties, Lawmakers Say December 8 British lawmakers have stated that artists are hesitant to participate in the ongoing investigation into streaming royalties for artists, musicians, bands. “Because they ALL fear action may be taken against them” if they do so. The House of Commons’ Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee (DCMS Committee) has just announced recently...... Read More |
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| Here Is the Complete List of Winners From the 2020 American Music Awards November 24 Los Angeles, CA (November 22, 2020) – Dan+Shay, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift and The Weeknd, all topped the winners circle at the “2020 American Music Awards” (AMA) with three wins a piece, bringing Taylor’s record for most career AMA wins to a whopping 32. See the rest of the winners here...... Read More |
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| 3 Things To Know About Spotify's Controversial New 'Pay For Influence' Tool, Discovery Mode November 15 Spotify has announced that it would soon be testing a controversial new tool called ‘Discovery Mode’ that will allow artists and record labels to influence the algorithm that selects what music is played when users use the streaming platform’s auto-play or personalised radio functionality. Artists and labels aren’t required to pay anything up front for this, but by opting in, they agree to being paid a lower recording royalty rate for...... Read More |
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| BMG Cancels an "Unacceptable" Royalty Deduction — But Will Artists Be Getting That Money Back? October 12 Last week BMG has announced that it is eliminating the so-called "controlled composition clause" from its record deals in America. The decision will affect both new deals and those relating to catalogue, a lot of which BMG acquired from other record companies. This standard US record industry practice forces artists who are also songwriters to accept a reduced mechanical royalty on...... Read More |
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| How much can a livestreamed music performance earn you? September 18 With the Covid-19 situation worldwide, online performances have erupted and the music industry is starting to see how profitable a livestreamed performance can be. Artists around the world have taken to the internet to stream to their fans and connect in spite of the lockdowns, quarantines, and other obstacles...... Read More |
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| How Much Does Spotify Pay Per Stream? August 18 The following information – sourced from Spotify royalty data shared directly with Digital Music News – will help you find out if your compensation is comparatively fair or not. Spotify pays most artists between $.003 and $.005 (one-third of a penny to one-half of a penny) for each stream. However, the precise per-stream rate can vary based upon a...... Read More |
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| Despite the COVID-19 Pandemic, Vinyl and Streaming Thrived During 2020’s First Half July 09 According to the midyear Nielsen Music/MRC Data report, the U.S. music industry posted a 9.4% increase with 361.2 million album audio consumption units (330.3 million by half time 2019), despite having to overcome a bigger-than-expected drop in physical music formats due to the COVID-19 economic downturn...... Read More |
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| Ascap Launches Covid-19 Resource Center For Musicians March 22 ASCAP announced over the weekend that they have released a COVID-19 resource center called "MUSIC UNITES US." Their press release reads as follows..... Read More |
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| Billboard 200 Album Chart to Include YouTube Streams December 30 On December 13th Billboard announced that official video plays will be included into their weekly album chart, the Billboard 200. The signature chart ranks the most popular albums of the week based on several factors: traditional album sales, track sales equivalent albums, and streaming equivalent albums. Now, Billboard is expanding its streaming component to include...... Read More |
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| It is here - Amazon Music HD, lossless streaming tier for $12.99 per month September 27 This month Amazon has launched Amazon Music HD, an upgraded tier for Amazon Music Unlimited that features both lossless CD-quality streams for over 50 million tracks, and millions of better-than-CD, hi-res quality tracks. Read More |
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| UMG Kept a Secret List of Masters Destroyed In the Fire — The New York Times Just Published It June 25 Nirvana, Aretha Franklin, Tupac, Elton John and hundreds more legendary artists lost masters in a 2008 Universal Music fire, a disaster dubbed “The Day the Music Burned." Read More |
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| Here Is the Complete List of Winners From the 2019 Billboard Music Awards May 13 The 2019 Billboard Music Awards hit the MGM Garden Arena in Las Vegas on May 1. With Kelly Clarkson hosting and Cardi B leading the nominees with 21 noms in 18 categories (and absolutely dominating the acceptance speech game), it was a massive night for many A-listers. But for Drake, it was history-making: He became the most-awarded artist in BBMAs history, nabbing 12 awards to bring his all-time total up to 27. See the rest of the winners here...... Read More |
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| Grammys 2019 Winners: The Complete List February 12 The 61st Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Sunday (February 10). Kendrick Lamar led with eight nominations. But we expect two women to dominate with both Lady Gaga and Kacey Musgraves winning four apiece. Among these are three of the four most prestigious prizes with Gaga taking both Song and Record of the Year for “Shallow” from her hit film “A Star is Born” and Musgraves winning Album of the Year for “Golden Hour.” Check out all the winners below...... Read More |
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| CD Baby artists earned over $100 million in 2018 January 15 Indie distributor and publisher CD Baby announced this week that it paid out “well over” $100 million dollars to its member artists in 2018. The nine-figure milestone represents a 25 percent increase over 2017, when CD Baby paid out $80.1 million...... Read More |
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| Where are your music royalties? November 17 There is a published list of performers, who have been credited royalties for covered sound recordings, to a fund called the AFM & SAG-AFTRA IPRD Fund. However, the fund is simply missing contact information to pay out....... Read More |
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| Rap Is Leading the Music Industry’s Resurgence August 13 The U.S. record industry – which is only just beginning to recover from a dismal two-decade slide – continues to be on the upswing. In the first half of 2018, total consumption in both streams and sales grew 18 percent, according to Nielsen’s mid-year report. The business is, as described by Nielsen Music general manager Erin Crawford, “still in the thick of an exciting growth spurt.” In 2016, thanks mostly to the explosion of music streaming, the U.S. music industry....... Read More |
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| Spotify Stock Downgraded Ahead Of Earnings July 20 Spotify (SPOT) is experiencing a surge in price estimations on Wall Street ahead of its second-quarter results. Wall Street expected to see $1.4 billion in revenue in Q1 2018. Instead, the music streaming company only reported $1.36 billion. In fact, since Spotify’s outrageously successful public offering, valuations continue to rise....... Read More |
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| Spotify ends misconduct policy after music-industry revolt June 08 Spotify Technology rescinded a short-lived policy that penalised artists for misconduct, bowing to pressure from irate musicians and record labels. The policy, which was implemented in May, saw the streaming service remove singer R Kelly’s and rapper XXXTentacion music from their playlist in response to respective...... Read More |
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| U.S. Senate Introduces a Bill to Give Music Producers Federal Copyright Protections March 23 After years of struggle, music producers and sound engineers can finally get federal copyright protection under US copyright law. And legally required payments. The news was delivered via the Recording Academy (the group that heads the Grammys). The bill, called the Allocation of Music Producers Act (AMP)...... Read More |
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| Grammys 2018 Winners: The Complete List January 28 The 60th annual Grammy Awards are a wrap! While JAY-Z entered Sunday as the top nominee, it was Bruno Mars and Kendrick Lamar who left the night's biggest winners. But with 80-plus awards to hand out, there were plenty of victors. Check out all the winners below...... Read More |
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| Facebook signs deal with Universal to give users access to licensed music December 22 Universal Music Group has licensed music to the social network so that its users can add song to their videos and share them. This also applies to Facebook’s Instagram and its virtual reality arm Oculus...... Read More |
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| Record sales: vinyl hits 25-year high November 6 While streaming may be the dominant form of music consumption, vinyl is seeing an impressive renaissance among music consumers. Sales of vinyl in 2016 reached a 25-year high as consumers young and old have once again embraced physical formats of music. The numbers for 2017 are even better. Nielsen Music reported that sales of vinyl increased 3.1 percent through the first nine months of the year compared to 2016, with 9.35 million discs sold through September compared to...... Read More |
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| Streaming Continues To Power The Music Industry's Growth At 2017 October 20 The RIAA (the Recording Industry Association of America) released its look at how the U.S. music industry is doing at the six-month mark recently, and the major takeaway from the report is that streaming is bigger—and more valuable—than ever before. Revenue from recorded music accelerated in the first half of 2017 in the U.S. as more consumers shelled out for subscription streaming services. Retail revenue jumped 17% in the first six months of the year to...... Read More |
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| Spotify, YouTube Music to End Free Streaming In 2-3 Years, Sources Say August 24 According to several sources interviewed by Digital Music News, free music streaming across Spotify and YouTube may come to an end in the near future. The sources say the big three major labels (Sony/BMG, Universal, and Warner) may make moves to kill free music streaming...... Read More |
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| Information Is Beautiful Updates Its Streaming-Royalties Chart July 24 The site Information Is Beautiful updated his infographic for streaming royalties. What can be seen there: Napster ($0.0167 per play) and Tidal ($0.0110) come out well; Apple Music ($0.0064), Google Play Music ($0.0059) and...... Read More |
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| Spotify Surpasses 140M Active Users – Up By 100M In Just Three Years June 20 Spotify Vice President Brian Benedik revealed in a blog post last Thursday that the streaming service has reached 140 million monthly active users. The figure represents a 40m climb on the figure Daniel Ek announced this time last year – and is up by a very impressive 100m people compared to May 2014. The streaming service pulled in $3.3 billion revenue last year...... Read More |
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| Here Is the Complete List of Winners From the 2017 Billboard Music Awards May 22 Drake was the big winner at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards. The rapper took home 13 trophies, beating Adele's record of 12 awards from last year's Billboard Music Awards. Drake now holds the record of most awards won in one night. See the rest of the winners here...... Read More |
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| U.S. Music Industry Sees First Double Digit Growth in Almost 20 Years as Streaming Takes Over April 11 U.S. recorded music sales grew 11.4 percent from $6.9 billion in 2015 to $7.7 billion in 2016. The primary driver of that growth was a doubling of paid streaming music subscriptions which helped the American music business experience its biggest gain since 1998. Back then, the industry enjoyed revenue of $13.7 billion. The revenues from streaming platforms were up 68.5 percent to $3.93 billion, up from $2.33 billion...... Read More |
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| UMG Alone Earns $4.5 Million a Day from Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube February 25 The huge growth in streaming and subscription services again helped Universal Music Group offset steep declines in physical and download sales during 2016. Under Vivendi ownership, UMG posted their best financial performance thus far. UMG’s overall revenues rose to $5.57 billion, which is 4.4% more than 2015’s $5.41 billion. The label group's earnings before interest...... Read More |
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| Facebook Developing Copyright ID System to Stem Music Rights Infringement December 30 Facebook is working to develop a copyright identification system - similar to YouTube's Content ID - that would find and remove videos containing copyrighted music. In a recent snapshot search of 33 of today’s top songs, the National Music Publisher’s Association identified 887 videos using those songs with over...... Read More |
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| Streaming Price War Breaks Out As Google Offers 4 Free Months Of Play November 28 A four month free trial subscription – this is the offer from Google Play Music for the 'Cyber Week', which began last Friday (November 24). The trial is available in the US and UK, and when it ends, the subscribers will be asked to pay $/£ 9.99 per month for their unlimited access to the service. For the whole year, including these 4 free months, the cost per month will average just $6.66. A day before (November 23), Spotify reintroduced an offer which charges new customers...... Read More |
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| YouTube, GEMA Deal Finally Brings Music Videos To Germany November 8 An ongoing royalty dispute that reaches back to 2009 has kept music videos off YouTube. A new deal with German collecting society GEMA will finally change that. GEMA and YouTube have reached a deal that makes sure GEMA members get paid for video streams. Also, YouTube users in Germany will no longer see a blocking message...... Read More |
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| Streaming Helps Drive 8.1 Percent Growth in Revenue for U.S. Recording Industry October 4 After almost 20 years of constant decline caused by piracy and falling prices, the music business is enjoying a weak recovery thanks to the growth of paid streaming services. The U.S. music industry experienced an 8.1 percent growth in overall revenue during the first half of this year, the Recording Industry Assn. of America (RIAA) has reported last month. Total music industry revenue hit $3.4 billion, up from $3.17 billion in the first half of 2015, representing...... Read More |
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| Amazon and Pandora set to launch new music streaming services September 12 Amazon.com and Pandora Media are planning to launch new versions of their streaming music services in coming weeks, the New York Times reported. The music streaming business has become a rather aggressive one, especially after Apple joined in. But pricing for monthly subscription hasn’t substantially changed among the very few major players in that market. The monthly fee of $9.99 is more or less standard everywhere. Amazon and Pandora, however, are planning to undercut competitors like Spotify and Apple Music by charging as little as...... Read More |
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| Apple Proposes Simplified Royalty Scheme for Music August 08 Last month Apple proposed a radical change to the way musicians are paid when their music is streamed online, and the suggestion could hurt rivals like Spotify and YouTube which are offering free streaming. Right now it is not very clear how royalties are calculated...... Read More |
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| Music Downloads Will Not Be Dead In 5 Years July 15 Over the past few days, there have been a number of publications on music news websites claiming that the death of the digital download is coming fast. According to Nielsen's research, download rates of singles have dropped by 42% over the past four years, and if this trend continues the music download might be dead by as early as 2020. More importantly, the rate of decline appears to be...... Read More |
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| Music Downloads Are Collapsing at a Faster Rate Than CDs June 20 According to PricewaterhouseCoopers projected figures shared with Digital Music News, revenue from physical formats is falling at a (compound annual) rate of —12.3%. That’s a drop from $1.8 billion in 2015 to just under $1 billion in 2020. But that’s nothing compared to paid download: according to the forecasted figures, paid music downloads will fall at a (compound annual) rate of —14.3%, from $2.3 billion in 2015 to just over $1 billion in 2020. These projections suggest that by 2020, the revenue that paid downloads and physical music generate for the music business...... Read More |
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| Twitter will serve up Spotify links as 30-second clips May 30 Twitter will now let you listen to Spotify music clips right from your timeline. The social media first launched audio cards in 2014 with iTunes previews and later worked with Nielsen SoundScan, but Spotify's music wasn't included till now. The new partnership between Twitter and Spotify allows...... Read More |
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| Apple Music Gives 50% Discount to Students May 09 Apple launched a new plan to boost subscribers to its streaming music service and competitor to Spotify, Nielsen SoundScan, Tidal and others. It's introducing an Apple Music student plan which will discount the service by 50 percent for those who are...... Read More |
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| U.S. Judge Rules Copyright for 'Happy Birthday to You' Invalid February 11 A federal judge has ruled that the music publishing company that has been collecting royalties for the song 'Happy Birthday to You' for decades does not hold a valid copyright to the popular celebratory song. U.S. District Judge George H. King ruled that the copyright...... Read More |
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| Lady Gaga Refuses to Play Along December 17 No one will argue, that there are many artificial things in the music industry. What is presented to us from the musicians on and off the stage is so fabricated, that we can’t help but feel like that’s not who they truly are. The camera and the online world show similar picture - inauthenticity is seen from a mile away. This is what Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, AKA Lady Gaga, points in her talk at Yale University’s Emotion Revolution Summit, which was organized by the Born This Way Foundation and the Yale Centre for Emotional Intelligence. Lady Gaga is a star who “has it all.” Fame, money, fortune, legacy and more, but in the video (below), we are seeing that she is not satisfied with...... Read More |
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| Apple Music launches on Android November 18 Apple has launched an official Android app for its Apple Music streaming service, just over four months after its debut on iOS. The new app is available for download here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apple.android.music&hl=en The Spotify rival's core features have survived the translation, including its ...... Read More |
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| Bandcamp Opens Up Artist Patronage (You Can Call Them Subscriptions) to Everyone September 29 Bandcamp, probably the best-known independent music streaming website, has made its artist subscription service available to all its users. In November 2014 the concept was first revealed, and the function was launched as a beta in early 2015. With the service, artists can charge their fans an annual or monthly fee of any price, giving those fans access to all future music they upload. They can also restrict special features to subscribers, including a subscriber-only blog, demos or ...... Read More |
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| Bon Jovi Leaves Mercury Records After 32 Years August 25 "Here's the last song you can sell," Bon Jovi sings on Burning Bridges - his farewell song to Mercury Records, who he's been with for 32 years (one of the longest label marriages in music history). The title track of Burning Bridges, is a sing-along directed at Mercury Records with some pretty harsh lines: "After 30 years of loyalty/they let you dig the grave/now maybe you can learn to sing or ...... Read More |
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| David Byrne calls for transparency from labels and streaming services August 05 David Byrne has been a strong critic of the insignificant royalties artists receive from both streaming platforms like Spotify and commercial radio broadcasts. In a new op-ed for The New York Times, he's calling for transparency in how streaming revenues are divided. Byrne's piece, titled "Open the Music Industry's Black Box", outlines that no one of the major labels and streaming services gives a clear view of how royalties are paid and ...... Read More |
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| The Value of a Single Music Stream: Infographic July 08 How much money will a single stream of your song generate? It depends on the service, but in any scenario many different parties end up splitting fractions of a penny. Below you will find the data from Spotify and Pandora, two of the most popular music streaming services in the United States. Spotify has upped its public numbers, announcing that it now has 75 million active users, with 20 million of them paying for its premium subscription tier. Pandora’s active listeners are 79.2 mission at the end of...... Read More |
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| Apple Music revealed June 11 Apple has stepped into the music streaming world, with the unveiling of its long-awaited streaming service at WWDC 2015 this Monday. Apple Music, as it’s known, was built by the team behind the Beats Music service that Apple acquired in 2014. “We love music, and the new Apple Music service puts an incredible experience at every fan’s fingertips,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “All the ways people love enjoying music come together in one app — a revolutionary streaming service, live worldwide radio and...... Read More |
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| Billboard Music Awards 2015: Winners May 19 The 2015 Billboard Music Awards took place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on May 17. The show was hosted by Ludacris and Chrissy Teigen with Taylor Swift, Sam Smith and Iggy Azalea amongst the biggest winners. Taylor Swift won eight out of her 14 nominations, including top artist, top female artist and top Billboard 200 Artist for 1989. Other winners included Sam Smith, Iggy Azalea and Pharrell Williams scoring three trophies each. Full list of winners:..... Read More |
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| What is Tidal? April 28 At the end of March some of the biggest names in music joined Jay Z for the launch of his premium music streaming service Tidal. Here are some facts about it. Tidal is membership-based streaming service, similar to Spotify, which offers music and exclusive video content. Tidal currently has more than 25 million songs and 75,000 music videos in its library...... Read More |
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| Spotify Is Now Worth More Than the Entire US Recording Industry… April 23 Last month the revenue from streaming services had surpassed CD sales for the first time in history. Now, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that after securing $400 million in fresh funding, Spotify is now valued for $8.4 billion and worth more than the entire US recorded music industry. The nearest competitor – Pandora, sits at around $3.5 billion. According to the RIAA, the revenue of the entire industry as of 2014 was..... Read More |
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| Industry Sets Friday as Global Record Release Day March 6 Starting this summer, the new music will be released on same day of the week worldwide. The music industry has decided to streamline the process by making Friday the global release day for new records. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPA) posted on their website: “Release days currently vary from one country to another, causing frustration for consumers when music fans in other parts of the world can access new releases before them. As well as helping music fans, the move will benefit artists who want to harness social media to promote their new music. It also creates the opportunity to reignite excitement and a sense of occasion around the release of new music.” They believe it will have an added benefit..... Read More |
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| Indies labels' fear over iTunes changes February 19 According to Billboard, indie labels have fears about some of the recent changes to the Apple's download store. One of these changes is in the carrousels at the top of pages. (These are the sections with rotating graphics that cycle through a half-dozen artists or albums.) Previously chosen by editorial iTunes staff, what is featured is now determined by sales velocity..... Read More |
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| Americans Streamed 164 Billion Songs Last Year, And That Could Help The Music Industry January 20 Year 2014 has gone and we can say that streaming music is taking over the world. Is this good or bad for the music industry? The final numbers show that last year Americans streamed 164 billion songs. Yes, billion. This equals half a billion per day. The growth of streaming music is 54% and it seems that this trend will continue in 2015. It is obvious that the way in which people listen music has changed. On the other side, the album sales (both physical and downloads) have 11.2% decline. From 1.34 billion in 2012, the sales drop to....... Read More |
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| Spotify's Year in Music 2014 December 19 The end of year 2014 is almost here and Spotify reveals the most popular songs and artists across its more than 50 million global users. No.1 streamed artist is Ed Sheeran with more than 860 million listens, followed by Eminem and Coldplay. The most streamed track in the world for 2014 is....... Read More |
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| How the music industry uses your data to create a hit December 8 The data created by music streaming, sharing and buying is gathered by the music industry and then carefully analyzed, to be used for creation of music and discovering the next “big hits”. Applications like the ancient Shazam, are the industry best tools for predicting the new hit songs and future stars. Shazam’s searches, as opposed to song streams or YouTube plays, show interest. They show that the listener likes a song and wants to hear it again. According to a latest article in the Atlantic online magazine....... Read More |
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| Vinyl Records Are Back November 28 This year vinyl record sales will hit 18-year high in UK, and the rise is matching the US sales also. Are the vinyl records back? Here are some stats – more than 1 million records are sold in UK so far this year, and it is expected that number to hit 1.2 million. This will be the highest level since 1997. And this is not only UK phenomenon. According to the latest numbers from Nielsen Soundscan’s mid-year report, vinyl record sales in the US were up more than 40% in the first six months of 2014, with 4 million units sold. In 2013, vinyl sales hit their highest level since at least 1991, with 6 million units sold. At the current pace, this year’s sales are on track to beat....... Read More |
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| Taylor Swift Removes Her Entire Catalog from Spotify November 11 The latest album of Taylor Swift – 1989, sold an astonishing 1.287 million copies last week, making it the biggest debut of the year and her third album to sell more than a million copies in its first week. That crown is still worn by Britney Spears, who sold 1.319 million. 1989 hasn’t been available on Spotify, which is proof enough for Swift and her management agency that Spotify isn’t helping the sales at all, but even hurting them. Swift has pulled all of her albums from Spotify. The only track still available is ‘Safe & Sound,’ licensed separately as part of the Hunger Games Soundtrack. ....... Read More |
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| Music Creators Call for Fairer Digital Revenues Distribution Model October 28 A group of music creators join to call for fairer rules and greater transparency in the distribution of royalties by digital music services - asking for 80% of streaming services' gross revenues to be paid to rights holders. The International Council of Creators of Music (CIAM) released a report called "Fair Compensation for Music Creators in the Digital Age”, which reveals market imbalances in the use and remuneration of music by digital platforms. The author of the report, Professor Pierre-E. Lalonde, says that the current level of remuneration is inadequate given the dependency of these services on music content....... Read More |
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| Nielson Survey Shows Music Still Trumps All Forms Of Entertainment October 9 Nielsen's Music 360° 2014 survey (an annual study of consumer habits and spending) reveals that music is the top form of entertainment for hundreds of millions of Americans. 93% of the people in U.S. listen to music more than 25 hours each week, the survey says. The study also shows that the top platform for music consumption is still...... Read More |
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| Barbra Streisand makes US chart history October 1 The singer Barbara Streisand has made a history in US chart with her latest album – Partners. After selling 196,000 copies and topped the Billboard rundown, she became the first artist which has number one albums in each of the last six decades. 50 years ago, in October 1964, the 72-year-old star has her first number one album, People....... Read More |
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| What Does Free Streaming Mean for the Music Industry? September 16 Great news for the music lovers! Last month T-Mobile announced that customers owning the latest T-Mobile phones and tablets will not have to worry about going over their data when streaming music. Users will be able to use apps like Pandora, Slacker Radio, iHeart Radio and Spotify whenever and wherever they want. This is really great for the customer. But will the musicians benefit from this? Or the industry? Here are some possible implications...... Read More |
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| Pandora Strikes First Partnership Deal With Music Agency September 11 Pandora, the pioneer in Internet radio services, have signed a partnership agreement with Merlin, the rights agency that represents many independent record companies, in its first direct deal with music labels. There are likely be some really good benefits from this deal.............. Read More |
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| SoundCloud starts paying musicians and other creators August 30 The second biggest streaming music service after YouTube – SoundCloud, hasn’t paid royalties to the creators and rightsholders of the music for their plays on its site and apps yet. The benefits of the artists were that they can build audience of fans and gather data how and where their tracks are being listened to. But SoundCloud has grown (the company is valued at $700m) and is faced the question when will start paying royalties to the artists.............. Read More |
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| How the music royalties work? August 20 The business side of the music seems to be very complicated these days. The royalties aren’t derived just from music sales, but depend on how the music is consumed - physical sales or digital downloads, through traditional or online radio, or through streaming services. How the royalties are determined? Who monitors these revenue streams? Every artist and songwriter needs to know in details how the processes of gathering music royalties work and how these earnings can be maximized............. Read More |
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| Will illegal streaming become a felony? August 13 A recent research showed that bandwidth consumed by illegal video streaming grew 470% between 2010 and 2012. Under current copyright law, illegal streaming is classed as a “public performance” and is not treated as a felony, but as a misdemeanor. In order to protect the copyright owners, Congress is moving to create a legislation establishing a felony charge for violation through unauthorized public performances............. Read More |
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| Will the album become extinct as a format? August 4 During the course of recent years, sales of albums have been going down, dominated by streamed tracks and playlists. What the stats are showing is that in 2013 in UK there were 30 million fewer albums sold than in 2009, while UK fans streamed an estimated 7.4 billion songs. There are 1.5 billion playlists just on Spotify, against compared to only 1.4 million albums. More and more bands and musicians are stating that they will not make new albums, because the format is dead. What is happening with the dominator of the music industry during the last few decades? The answer is simple – the online digital streaming services provides customers more flexibility............. Read More |
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| YouTube's Streaming Music Contract Leaks, Ruffles Indie Label Feathers July 9 A copy of a contract offered by Google's YouTube to music labels for participation in an upcoming streaming music service was leaked online this week, aggravating independent labels who claim the terms are highly unfavorable to them. Posted in its entirety by Digital Music News and summarized by Billboard, the contract includes clauses that could be construed as damaging to indie artists............ Read More |
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| How much streaming services pay artists per play June 26 Streaming services from Nokia, Google and Microsoft pay artists the highest royalty rates per stream, according to a data set obtained by The Trichordest, a website which aims to protect artist rights in the digital age. The information was provided by an anonymous independent label with a catalogue of roughly 1,500 songs, and is based on flat royalties before distribution fees and the like are deducted. The streams occurred between Jan 2012 and February 1, 2014........... Read More |
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| Indie music labels slam YouTube streaming plans June 11 The independent music community lashed out at YouTube over proposals for a subscription music streaming service, which the Silicon Valley giant is expected to launch soon. It appears that in an attempt to dominate the audio streaming market in the future, YouTube is now using its near-monopoly in the video streaming space to force down royalty rates for its planned subscription service to a level that would undercut all other subscription music services – including Spotify, Deezer and Rdio – severely, according to the independent label community........... Read More |
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| Spotify reaches 10m paying subscribers since launch May 29 Spotify has announced that it has reached 10 million premium subscribers. The music streaming company, now the world's largest, also has 40 million monthly active users in 56 countries. Three-quarters use the free service rather than a premium or paid-for subscription, which costs $9.99 a month and gives ad-free music.......... Read More |
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| You have purchased your ISRC and UPC/EAN Codes for registering with Luminate’s SoundScan. What next? March 24 First, register your album on this form: https://forms.gle/rXbK16dqRVcGWhxB6. Here you will have to enter the UPC/EAN Code of your album, label details, and release information. You will notice that the fields “Label:” and “Distribution Company:” are marked as required. We have spoken to SoundScan about the fact that many of our independent artists do NOT have a label and/or a distribution company. In that case, SoundScan would like you to write the word “Independent” in those fields......... Read More |
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| What is SoundScan, why does it matter, and how do I register with it? March 4 Luminate’s SoundScan (formerly Nielsen SoundScan) tracks sales and streams. In order to have a chance at making the Billboard music sales/streaming charts, any release must be registered with SoundScan using UPC number (for the whole album) and ISRC codes (for the individual tracks)........ Read More |
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| How much money are top musicians making from streaming their music on Spotify? February 24 Spotify, the on-demand music streaming service, has launched a new Spotify Artists page which explains its business model and how royalties are distributed in extreme detail. Spotify has paid out $500 million in royalties to rights holders so far in 2013 and $1 billion total since 2009, about 70 percent of its total revenue. These rights holders, typically music labels and publishers, then pay artists a portion of the royalties, an amount that varies depending on individual record contracts....... Read More |
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| Digital Music Sales in U.S. Decrease For First Time in 2013 February 8 For the first time since the iTunes store opened its doors, the U.S. music industry finished the year with a decrease in digital music sales. Here are the facts for the full year 2013, according to Nielsen SoundScan:
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