SoundCloud employees received an email yesterday from CEO Michael Weissman, who told them “we have decided to make reductions to our global team that will impact up to 20% of our company The post SoundCloud to lay off “up to 20%” of its workforce appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Geoff Taylor, the Chief Executive Officer of UK record label trade body the BPI, who also oversees the BRIT Awards and the Mercury Prize, has announced his intention to move on in 2023, after 15 years leading the BPI. In the decade prior to the BPI, he also worked in senior legal roles at the […]

British music tech startup Audoo’s Audio Meters are small devices that plug into the wall, recognise what music is playing, and provide data that aims to gives a more accurate insight onto which songs are being heard in business premises. The post Audoo strikes deal with APRA AMCOS for use of audio recognition tech appeared […]

Solana is a public blockchain and crypto wallet that is used by a number of music-oriented web3 platforms, like Audius and Single Music amongst others, and the users of those platforms. The post Solana blockchain suffers widespread attack, with wallets drained appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Will Page, the former Chief Economist of Spotify, and British collecting society PRS for Music, has brought together some hefty sets of data in order to map the change in UK consumer behaviour around music before, during and after the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown. The post Will Page analyses lockdown’s effect on UK music and predicts bounce-back appeared […]

Catalogue music – traditionally defined as songs over 18 months old – has always been an intriguing proposition, containing locked-away value that sometimes seemed difficult to eke out. The post Chartmetric report challenges catalogue definition appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The idea of songs being “leaked” in the early internet era had an illicit thrill, but the concept has changed somewhat since it became clear that considerable social media excitement followed a leak The post TikTok’s SoundOn service allows official pre-releases of songs appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Peloton has had a rocky year or so: shares in the Fitness startup are down by 95% from their all-time high, and it’s made dramatic changes: outsourcing manufacturing, and focusing on expanding its product range and the classes that made its name. The post Cypress Hill sue Peloton over “unlicensed use” of music appeared first on Music Ally. Source: […]

Jay Chou is the “King of Mandopop”, and has sold tens of millions of records – but is also known in his native Taiwan as an artist, actor, rapper, producer, TV presenter *and* fashion designer. The post NFT round-up: Jay Chou, Damien Hirst and OneOf appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

This Need To Know video is based on our Sandbox Guide to creating music NFTs. In it, we’ll be explaining the key questions you need to ask (and answer) if you’re launching NFTs for an artist or music brand. We dig into what NFTs are; explore what kind of content and features might be most […]

Why is Spotify not suffering in the markets quite like its big-tech peers? The post Spotify’s audio ad revenue shows possibility for more growth appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The nature of some fandoms is to generate a fan hierarchy, often based around either perceived proximity to the artist, or by regularity of posting, or encouraging fan behaviour like downloading of new songs The post Fan-centric platform Fave launches “fan verification” appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Web3 music marketplace Serenade has partnered with Warner Records UK to launch “digital pressings”: The post Serenade launches chart-eligible “digital pressings” appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

As the world experiences shocking extreme weather due to the climate emergency, there’s increasing attention on celebrities’ use of private jets. The post Pop stars, private jets, and the bigger picture appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Welcome to our second annual Music Ally International Focus report, where we zoom out and dig into the last 12 months of Music Ally’s Country Profiles. This is an utterly essential guide for the internationalised music industry pro – packed with data, interviews, local strategies, and insight from the people who count in each country. We have split our focus between […]

The Bruce Springsteen ticket-pricing saga rumbles on, and now The Boss’s, erm, boss – manager John Landau The post Dynamic ticketing: Springsteen’s manager defends pricing appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Snap has announced that, as of August, it will launch a “Snapchat Sounds Creator Fund”   which provides monthly grants “of up to $100,000” to top creators using its ‘Sounds’ feature, The post Snap launches Snapchat Sounds Creator Fund appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

When AI music platforms were at the spiky end of the Hype Cycle, they seemed poised to offer a lot of exciting possibilities with a wide variety of real world applications The post Cyanite raises funding to create “universal music intelligence” appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

New buzzy web3 things like NFTs and DAOs, are – on balance, we think – A Good Thing. DAOs, for instance, will likely provide a platform to create a “fan-club+” experience – take a look at artist RAC’s experimental racOS DAO The post Web3 troubles provide useful learning opportunities appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music […]

This is a guest post on music copyright law by Oliver Lock, and Owen O’Rorke, who, respectively, work in Reputation Management and Intellectual Property & Commercial, at UK law firm Farrer & Co. They wrote this column in response to Ed Sheeran’s recent plagiarism case court victory, and in it they discuss when – and when not to – […]

News that the FTC wants to block its acquisition of music VR app Supernatural wasn’t the only piece of bad news for Meta yesterday. The post Meta financials reveal a year-on-year decline in revenues appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Congratulations are due to Ed Sheeran. First for becoming the first artist to reach the milestone of 100 million followers on Spotify… The post Ed Sheeran is the first artist with 100m Spotify followers appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

We reported on Spotify’s financial results yesterday, but another piece of news has emerged since then. The post Spotify stops making Car Thing, its first hardware device appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

TikTok’s parent company ByteDance already has a couple of music streaming services: Resso in India and a few other markets, and Qishui Yinyue in China. The post TikTok’s latest trademark filing hints at a music service appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Meta announced plans to acquire music-driven VR fitness app Supernatural in October 2021, but the deal is running into some big problems in the US. The post The FTC wants to block Meta’s acquisition of Supernatural appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Mandolin’s next move? Fan analytics and a richer-media take on smart links. It is launching two new services for artists. The post Mandolin expands beyond livestreaming into fan analytics appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

We think the changes could be significant for music marketers as well as everyone else using the platforms. The post Meta changes: Facebook Feeds tab and auto-Reels videos appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

With exclusive licensing deals off the table in China, streaming services are moving to expand catalogues with non-exclusive agreements. The post NetEase Cloud Music swells K-Pop catalogue with YG deal appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Meta is facing a big headache in the form of a $142m copyright infringement lawsuit from production music firm Epidemic Sound. The post Epidemic Sound sues Meta in $142m infringement lawsuit appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

If you think there’s been some stinging fan backlashes against NFTs in the music world, you should see some of the almighty hoo-has in the games industry. The post Minecraft NFTs: ‘Not something we will support or allow’ appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Meta is mustard-keen right now to make its short-video Reels format central to its various apps, particularly Instagram. The post Business accounts can now turn Instagram Reels into ads appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Spotify’s ‘Blend’ started as a feature to automatically create shared playlists with certain friends, before expanding to include famous artists as the blendees. The post Spotify expands its ‘Blend’ feature with merch sales appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

We know SyncFloor as one of the companies trying to shake up the sync market: we profiled it in 2020 The post SyncFloor’s new offshoot is music NFT platform Groovemint appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Artist Damon Krukowski has long been banging the drum over streaming royalties and musicians. The post ‘What is a stream anyway?’ wonders Damon Krukowski appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Warner Music Group has become the first major to sign up for SoundCloud’s user-centric ‘fan-powered royalties’ system. The post WMG signs up for SoundCloud’s ‘fan-powered royalties’ appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

A growing number of artists and music brands are using Discord for their fan communities, but the company is also forging some official partnerships in our world. The post Lollapalooza festival launches an official Discord server appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Argentina’s economic problems make it hard to accurately assess the strength of its recorded music business. But the rise of local acts suggests the outlook is positive. The post Country Profile – Argentina 2022 appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Google and Apple continue to face pressure around how (or indeed whether) they allow apps to use alternative payment systems to their own. The post Google allows alternative Android billing systems in Europe appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

E-commerce firm Shopify is steadily signing up the biggest music streaming and social services as partners. The post Shopify adds YouTube to its roster of music DSP partners appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

In Q2 (April to June), the number of households that subscribed to at least one VoD service in the UK fell to 16.42 million. The post Nearly half a million UK video on demand subscriptions cancelled in Q2 appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The Song Sommelier founder Keith Jopling’s latest blog post has plenty of food for thought for young musicians and their teams.  The post The art of music longevity: craft, graft and gratitude appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Nostalgia is all the rage, from 80s-infused TV dramas to piano-house bangers back in the British pop charts. The post Deezer looks back (again) with 1990s covers compilation appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

An initiative launching in the UK is hoping to widen music venues’ horizons… to the daytime, with a particular focus on six areas. The post British music venues encouraged to plan daytime activities appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

It’s no secret that tech businesses are steeling themselves for an economic slowdown – or in other words, initiating job cuts and hiring freezes. The post Report claims TikTok is laying off staff amid wider economic uncertainty appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

YouTube is using the tenth anniversary of the release of Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’ – 4.48bn views and counting – to put out some wider stats on the upper echelon of music videos on its platform. The post Over 300 music videos are in YouTube’s ‘Billion Views Club’ appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Apple has unveiled two new ways for artists to work with Apple Music on exclusive material. The post Apple debuts Apple Music Sessions and Antidote Editions appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The Wallifornia Music & Innovation Summit took place earlier this month in Belgium, and it included a pitch contest for startups. The post AudioShake wins Wallifornia Music Tech Pitch Contest appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Back in 2019, startup VRJam launched an equity-crowdfunding campaign to raise £250k for its plans to build ‘interactive virtual environments for artists and fans’. The post VRJam launches its virtual reality music app in closed beta appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Artist Mabel released her new album ‘About Last Night…’ on Friday (15 July) complete with enhanced versions for two of the biggest streaming services. The post Apple and Amazon get enhanced versions of Mabel album appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

MENA music service Anghami has announced some changes to its chart algorithms. The post Anghami algorithm updated for older tracks and binge listening appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

It’s five years since Spotify launched its first physical music concerts for its flagship hip-hop playlist ‘RapCaviar’. The post Spotify’s latest RapCaviar spin-off is a Hulu docuseries appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Stationhead was a pioneer of what we’ll slightly-awkwardly call ‘user-generated streaming radio’ with its app that let anyone broadcast their own station. The post Radio 2.0 startup Stationhead raises $12m funding round appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Hipgnosis Songs Fund published its latest annual financial results yesterday, for the fiscal year ended 31 March. The post Hipgnosis says its portfolio is now worth $2.69bn appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Break My Soul? Beyoncé is certainly on track to break a few records on TikTok, having joined the app and posted her first video yesterday. The post Beyoncé joined TikTok yesterday and already has 3.5m followers appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Big Bang Music is writing a series of guest columns for Music Ally’s readers to help you understand the latest trends in India. In this latest piece, Kartik Sundar explains how the recent success of non-film music and gaming is resulting in new music partnerships and brand opportunities. The post Big Bang Reads: Bringing buzzing […]

Its second annual ‘social media safety index’ analyses how well the various platforms score for LGBTQ safety, privacy and expression. The post GLAAD warns that social media services are failing LGBTQ users appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

It’s a fun spin on the idea of digital collectibles: an online game that involves building decks of digital cards based on French rappers. The post Yadeck turns French rappers into NFT-driven digital card game appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Xone has become the 17th startup to join Abbey Road Red, the startup incubator run within Abbey Road Studios in London. The post Metaverse firm Xone joins Abbey Road Red startup incubator appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The company has announced the latest changes that it’s making to make its experience more positive for users. The post TikTok reveals its latest efforts to be ‘safe and entertaining’ appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

When social media companies sign music licensing deals covering user-generated content, those users do NOT include brands. The post Brands be warned: TikTok’s UGC music licences don’t include you appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

As the recent debate around the pressure on artists to go viral on TikTok shows, the short-form video platform remains one of the most important tools in artist marketing. However, as always, strategy is key and music marketers have a growing number of tools available to refine their artist’s TikTok strategy.  This week, we’re walking […]

The post Behind The Campaign :: Anitta appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The test “would allow NFT artists to showcase their designs on the Snapchat platform as augmented reality filters”. The post Snap to launch a test turning NFTs into AR Snapchat lenses appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

‘The Maze’ is a collection of quests for fans to uncover the album’s tracks and themes, with codes found online and offline. The post Odesza turn their new album into an online scavenger hunt appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Korean group Blackpink are returning soon with new music, and they’ll be building anticipation for it with a concert in the PUBG Mobile game. The post K-Pop stars Blackpink to play a virtual concert in PUBG Mobile appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Spotify has snapped up Heardle, the Wordle-inspired music identification game that became popular earlier this year. The post Spotify buys music trivia game Heardle with discovery in mind appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

SoundCloud revealed its ‘fan-powered royalties’ plans in March 2021, applying them to its community of independent artists. The post How do SoundCloud’s ‘fan-powered royalties’ work for artists? appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Besides spawning a roster of virtual artists, League of Legends publisher Riot Games has been building itself a music compilations business. The post Riot Games launches its third ‘creator-safe’ Sessions album appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

If the catalogue-buying boom has taught us anything, it’s that a growing number of investors see songs as a valuable AND predictable ‘asset class’. The post Clouty launches Musiq, a financial-style index for songs appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Diesel-powered generators are one of the big climate headaches for the live music industry when it comes to outdoor concerts and festivals. The post Lukas Graham set for ‘green battery-driven’ tour in Denmark appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Lofi Girl is the lo-fi hip-hop music brand that reached the milestone of 10 million YouTube subscribers earlier this year. The post Copyright claim takes down Lofi Girl’s YouTube music streams appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The BPI is celebrating this morning after securing an expansion of the UK’s regime for blocking music piracy sites and apps. The post UK mobile operators to begin blocking access to piracy sites appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The games industry being huge and growing is something many people have taken for granted for years now, which makes research firm Ampere Analysis’s latest prediction somewhat startling. The post Report predicts that global games market will FALL in 2022 appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Artist Frank Carter has launched a new Kickstarter project, but it’s not for his music. The post Musician Frank Carter launches Kickstarter… for a card game appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

UD (formerly Urban Development) has been working hard for a long time to support young Black musicians in the UK. The post London’s £4.1m ‘Talent House’ opens to support Black music appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The surround-sound Dolby Atmos format has been making strides in the west thanks to its use by Apple Music and Amazon Music, among other streaming services. The post QQ Music is first Chinese streaming service to add Dolby Atmos appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

That controversy within the UK music industry over funding for PRS Foundation isn’t going away. The post MMF wants ‘greater transparency’ over black-box collections appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Using online events to publicise a new release – or other major announcement – is what counts in 2022. But it’s also easy for one to fizzle out on the launchpad. So whether you want to sneak out snippets on TikTok, or build a virtual showcase in Roblox, this Sandbox Guide explains how to create […]

Cirkay co-founder Simon Scott has a lot of thoughts about web3 technology and how it connects with fans. “No one is going to become a fan unless they buy something” is one. “The most important thing that web3 has got to do for an artist is to make fans buy again” is another, as is, “In […]

Canadian singer Rêve broke through in her home country with her third single, ‘CTRL + ALT + DEL’ in September 2021, and it has since been certified gold there. The team at Universal Music Canada talk through the campaign and their plans for the future. The post Behind The Campaign: Rêve appeared first on Music […]

Remember the speculation – very much encouraged by Spotify – that it was overtaking Apple for podcast listening? The post Report claims YouTube is bigger than Spotify for podcasts appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

We know the key stats around YouTube’s music business. It paid out $4bn to the music industry in the year to June 2021. The post YouTube trumpets ‘momentum’ stats at its Brandcast event appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Hip-hop veteran T-Pain has a new single out called ‘That’s Just Tips’, and he’s very much leaning into the theme with his latest marketing wheeze. The post T-Pain is launching his own tips hotline… with Tidal appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

As TikTok found out last year, there are pitfalls for a huge social media platform doing anything with NFTs. The post Instagram kicks off its test of new NFT-sharing feature appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Advertising industry body the IAB has published its latest forecasts for podcast ad revenues in the US. The post IAB predicts US podcast revenues will reach $2bn in 2022 appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Napster has been acquired again, this time by two companies from the web3 sector: Hivemind and Algorand. The post Napster gets bought again, this time with a web3 pivot in the works appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

In 2019, jazz musician Mike Casey talked to Music Ally about how he’d grown his audience through streaming playlists. The post Jazz artist Mike Casey’s new album is also a playable app appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

What’s happening out there in Music NFTs-land today? Plenty, starting with the latest public analysis from Water & Music of the music NFTs space. The post Music NFTs roundup: Water & Music, Opulous, RCRDSHP… appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Discord is a wonderful platform for community building, and a number of musicians are already reaping the benefits. The post RIAA steps up its efforts to tackle music piracy on Discord appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

British charity Help Musicians has launched a new website called Music Minds Matter Explore. The post Help Musicians launches Music Minds Matter Explore site appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Meta is bringing two of its virtual spaces together: Horizon Venues and Horizon Worlds The post Meta’s Horizon Venues is now part of its Horizon Worlds appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Artist apps are still a thing: witness Coldplay’s new Android and iOS app, released for the band’s ‘Music of the Spheres’ tour. The post Coldplay launch an app for their Music of the Spheres tour appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Music distributor DistroKid has a new off-shoot: DistroVid. As the name suggests, it’s focusing on music videos rather than audio tracks. The post DistroKid beta tests a music video distribution service appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

We reported yesterday on the launch of subscription-based service Beatopia, but now distributor UnitedMasters wants in on the action. The post Another beats marketplace launches… from UnitedMasters appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Tidal’s owner Block is a public company, so we’re getting quarterly insights into how the streaming service’s own financials. The post Block financials hint at Tidal’s latest revenue figures appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The live industry’s efforts to bounce back from Covid-19 continue, with Live Nation hailing Q1 2022 as its “best first quarter ever”. The post Live Nation’s Q1 2022: ‘Fan demand has never been stronger’ appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

In recent years, the process of setting mechanical royalty rates for streaming in the US has led to rancorous fallouts The post Labels and publishers reach agreement on US physical / download mechanicals appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

It’s useful (not to mention bracing) to hear from people who are decidedly unexcited by this technology. The post ‘Father of the iPod’ Tony Fadell: ‘F*** the metaverse!’ appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

There is keen interest in how the big social media platforms’ systems for sharing money with creators are evolving. The post Facebook and TikTok add new ways for users to make money appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Crowdfunding firm Patreon has published its first ‘Creator Census’, based on a survey of more than 13,000 people. The post Patreon survey offers more data on the creator economy appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

What happens to music livestreams once artists are back out on the road with physical concerts? The post Mandolin debuts livestreaming venue and promoter network appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Voice assistants have been at the heart of Sonos’s arguments with Google and Amazon in recent years. The post Sonos is preparing to launch its own voice assistant appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

With its plethora of short-video apps, and a huge audience on YouTube and other social media platforms, India is home to hundreds of thousands of content creators. The post SyncMama targets creators with ‘royalty-included’ music licensing service appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Midia Research has published a second ‘Be The Change’ report exploring the challenges faced by women in the music industry. The post ‘Be The Change’ report reiterates challenges for women in the music industry appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The post Behind The Campaign :: Lucy Dacus appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The post Campaigns :: 4 May 2022 – Slipknot, Marvin Gaye, Beardyman, Get It Right (From A Genuine Site) appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

While being active on the big social media platforms is part of virtually any artist’s job, it’s often other places we think of when it comes to truly nurturing fanbases. If artists want to ensure their messages reach their audiences, SMS marketing can be an effective solution and Subtext has a pretty strong offer for […]

The Wall Street Journal isn’t beating about the bush in its latest article about NFTs. “The NFT market is collapsing,” is the very first sentence. The post Report: NFTs market is ‘flatlining’ with 92% volume decline appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

In April 2021, Facebook signified its intentions to do more with audio. Just over a year later, how’s that going? The post Facebook audio shakeup: podcasts and Spotify integration go appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

There’s a new music analytics platform in town. ChartCipher is the result of a partnership between MyPart and Hit Songs Deconstructed. The post MyPart and Hit Songs Deconstructed launch analytics service appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

SoundCloud has acquired Musiio, the Singapore-based startup that has developed a service offering AI-powered analysis and tagging of music catalogues. The post SoundCloud acquires AI music-tagging startup Musiio appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Spotify is the latest music company exploring the potential of gaming platform Roblox: and its ‘Spotify Island’ is about creating music as well as listening to it. The post Spotify launches on Roblox with music-making features appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Spotify is testing a new feature that will enable listeners to ‘pre-save’ albums in the weeks before they are released. Its first test launched today with British artist Florence + The Machine. The post Spotify tests on-platform pre-saves with Florence + The Machine appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

We’ve written a lot about AI music creation and how initial and understandable pangs of concern from human songwriters The post Splice launches AI-powered music creation platform as AI music continues to find its place appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

It’s still not clear exactly how the web3 and NFT space will shake out into a suite of common services for fans and artists, but we are getting closer to understanding. The post Music NFTs roundup: Nomad Media Club, Soundpickr, and OP3N appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

It’s Mental Health Awareness Month in the USA, and a new “testimonial awareness campaign” called “999 Stories of Mental Health” has been launched by Carmela Wallace The post “999 Stories of Mental Health” campaign launched in memory of Juice WRLD appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

In March, collecting societies body CISAC launched a ‘Creators for Ukraine’ support fund for victims of the war. The post 4,000 ‘Creators for Ukraine’ call for Russian invasion to end appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

SiriusXM’s latest financial results reveal that Pandora still hasn’t managed to reverse its long-term decline in listeners. The post Pandora listener decline continues with SiriusXM financials appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

No surprise that Apple continues to be in rude health as a business, posting revenues of $92.28bn in the first quarter of 2022. The post Apple’s services are now bigger than Mac and iPad combined appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Universal Music Group’s new deal with The Weeknd offers an interesting snapshot of how deals with current, frontline artists are evolving. The post UMG’s deal with The Weeknd: ‘This isn’t an acquisition…’ appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Snapchat’s parent company held its Snap Partner Summit event this week with various product and partnership announcements, including one focusing on music. The post Snap and Live Nation team up for AR experiences at concerts appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

It’s financials week for many of the biggest technology companies, including Amazon and Twitter. The post Amazon and Twitter publish their Q1 2022 financial results appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Keith reflects on the artists who have weathered the storm and created a lifelong career of making music – and tries to define what ‘success’ is in that longer-term context. The post Juxtapose With You: How artists and their labels balance art and commerce over the long-term (guest column) appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music […]

Tencent Music has been working with independent artists for some time now, attracting more than 300,000 to its Tencent Musician platform by the end of 2021. The post Tencent Music to help Chinese artists distribute globally appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

We reported yesterday on Spotify’s latest financial results, as the company added a net two million subscribers in Q1 2022 despite losing around 1.5 million by pulling out of Russia. The post Spotify’s latest financials drop its market cap to $18.62bn appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Island Records UK has worked with Ukrainian artist Alexey Kondakov on a collection of five NFTs that will be auctioned to raise funds to support the relief effort in Ukraine. The post Music NFTs roundup: Reverberate Ukraine, Koong World… appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Spotify and Apple Music have revealed the names of the latest musicians they are supporting in their emerging artist programs. The post The latest new artists backed by Spotify and Apple Music are… appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

As music streaming services get deeper into podcasts, so the major labels’ in-house capabilities to produce these shows is evolving. The post Warner Music Group now has an in-house podcast network appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Artists and other creators can already use YouTube’s ‘Super Chat’ and ‘Super Stickers’ features to make money from viewers spending money to show off their fandom. The post YouTube rolls out ‘Super Thanks’ tipping feature globally appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Two of India’s biggest short-video apps, Moj and MX TakaTak, announced plans to merge earlier this year. The post Short-video app Moj wants a community of 1m creators appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Having reported on the progress and implications of Europe’s new Digital Services Act legislation, it’s time to plunge back into an old favourite: Article 17 The post EU’s top court says Article 17 won’t harm freedom of expression appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Music/tech accelerator Techstars Music has announced the 10 startups who’ll be taking part in its 2022 cohort. The post Techstars Music names 10 startups for its 2022 cohort appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

We know Coinbase mainly for its cryptocurrency exchange, but last week the company expanded into NFTs with the launch of its own marketplace. The post Music NFTs roundup: Coinbase, Beatdapp, Afterparty… appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

We’ve tended to write about the climate emergency and wellbeing issues separately, but a new partnership between Universal Music Group and The Mental Health Coalition combines the two issues. The post UMG backs new climate-focused ‘Mental Health Roadmap’ appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

British collecting society PRS for Music has published its annual financial results, revealing that its revenues grew by 22.4% to £777.1m ($989.6m) in 2021. The post PRS for Music reveals that revenues grew by 22.4% in 2021 appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Europe’s DSA is one step closer to being implemented after the European Parliament and European Council reached ‘political agreement’ on the proposed legislation. The post Europe’s Digital Services Act includes ‘recommender’ rules appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

A guest column from Adrian Burger, founder of creative management agency Lafter. The post Music advertising has a streaming attribution problem appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Dutch secondary-ticketing company TicketSwap is expanding, with a swathe of new deals with festivals, venues and promoters. The post TicketSwap is expanding across Europe and Latin America appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Spotify’s long-rumoured sponsorship deal with football club FC Barcelona was confirmed yesterday as a four-year agreement. The post Spotify says artists will benefit from FC Barcelona sponsorship deal appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The IFPI is launching its annual Global Music Report (GMR) on 22 March, which is when we’ll get to see what kind of growth the recorded music industry saw in 2021. The post UK and France saw double-digit recorded music growth in 2021 appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

TikTok is making music concerts an increasingly prominent aspect to its relationships with artists. The latest example is Camila Cabello. The post Camila Cabello set to play an XR-powered TikTok concert appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Music Ally’s Rule of Web3: your NFT marketplace or metaverse doesn’t *really* exist until Snoop Dogg is selling something on it. The post Snoop Dogg drops Death Row NFTs amid streaming takedowns appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The vinyl revival has proved to be a long-term trend rather than a short-lived blip, but that’s causing increasingly long waiting lists. The post Jack White urges majors to build vinyl pressing plants appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

A number of global music companies have been suspending their businesses and/or services in Russia in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine. The post Believe and CISAC explain how they’re dealing with Russia appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

About us: IPMG is an association focussed on supporting and promoting the production music community in Europe and globally. We are a member of the music publishing industry body ICMP, which helps us serve as a bridge between the production music (PM) community and the music publishing industry by raising awareness and recognition of our […]

“This format is about creation. Okay, I’ve done the Stones and I’ve done INXS and The Beatles in spatial audio… but they’re legacy acts. What’s much more interesting is what’s about to happen!” Giles Martin is the son of Sir George Martin, the original producer of The Beatles, but he’s an acclaimed producer in his […]

In the fraught final months of Donald Trump’s US presidency, he pushed for TikTok to either be sold to an American company or publicly listed. The post Trump is gone but a TikTok / Oracle deal could still happen appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Chinese short-video app maker Kuaishou had more than 1bn active users across its apps by June last year. That has attracted interest from the music industry. The post Kuaishou’s Kwai short-video app has 45m users in Brazil appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The online exhibition of Bob Marley artifacts, produced with Tuff Gong, includes biographical content and more than 2,500 images – many of them previously unseen. The post Google Arts & Culture launches a Bob Marley online archive appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The company has launched its first Aux Awards, with 11 categories covering musicians, podcasters and music companies. The post Aux Awards wants to celebrate innovative artists and startups appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Anti-piracy company Digital Content Protection (DCP) is aiming to help rightsholders tackle the problem with its new service. The post Anti-piracy firm DCP takes aim at copyright-infringing NFTs appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The CMA provisionally cleared Sony Music’s acquisition of AWAL on Friday, but will await the views of interested parties before publishing a final decision. The post AIM and Impala respond to Sony / AWAL merger decision appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

British newspaper The Observer published an investigation this weekend pointing to some of the tracks available on the service. The post Now Spotify is facing pressure over anti-vaccine music appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Although industry body Promusicae has warned that the country remains behind many of its neighbours in terms of streaming uptake. The post Spain has more than 4m paid music streaming subscribers appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

UK competition watchdog the CMA has published its provisional decision on Sony Music’s acquisition of distributor and artist services company AWAL. The post CMA provisionally clears Sony Music’s acquisition of AWAL appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

There’s gold in them thar metaverse hills. At least, that’s what investors hope, and they’re backing promising startups with significant funding rounds. The post Artists part of $60m funding for metaverse startup Everyrealm appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

YouTube’s chief product officer Neal Mohan has been blogging about what new features the company has planned for the rest of 2022. The post YouTube’s product boss talks Shorts, shopping and NFTs appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Start with WishWorld, a new NFT marketplace being launched in India through a partnership between two companies: One Mercuri and Aqilliz. The post Music NFTs roundup: WishWorld, Avenged Sevenfold, RAC, Vérité… appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

For anyone who still thinks of CD Baby as predominantly a distributor for recordings, the company has a new milestone reminder that it works in publishing too. The post CD Baby says its Pro Publishing service now serves 2m songs appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Sting is the latest musician to sell his publishing catalogue, but in his case he’s sold it to a traditional music rightsholder rather than a music-rights investment company. The post UMPG buys Sting’s songwriting catalogue for rumoured $300m+ appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

US satellite radio firm SiriusXM published its Q4 financials yesterday, revealing that its revenues for 2021 as a whole grew by 8% to $8.7bn. The post SiriusXM added 1.2m subscribers in 2021 but Pandora lost 6.6m listeners appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

YouTube and Google’s parent company Alphabet published its latest financial results yesterday, including figures for the growth of YouTube’s advertising business. The post YouTube advertising revenues grew by 46% to $28.8bn in 2021 appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

It has become the second major label to announce its plans for helping musicians who are still unrecouped from deals signed decades ago. The post WMG follows Sony Music in tackling unrecouped artists problem appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

We would – obviously! – never advise a startup to use music or related rights without the permission of artists. The post Music NFTs startup HitPiece gets off to a bad start with artists appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Sony Interactive Entertainment, has swooped to buy Bungie, the developer of the Destiny franchise, and the original creator of Halo. The post Games consolidation continues as Sony buys Bungie for $3.6bn appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

“Tired of Spotify? Come on over to Weezify,” tweeted Rivers Cuomo, the frontman of veteran rock band Weezer, yesterday. The post Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo launches a ‘Weezify’ streaming app appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Sony Music Publishing has launched a ‘Songwriter Assistance’ program offering counselling services and wellbeing resources. The post Sony Music Publishing launches ‘Songwriter Assistance’ program appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

They’re your average ordinary everyday kids… but in Primary Wave Music’s eyes, rock band Def Leppard are also stars worth investing in. The post Primary Wave buys stakes in Def Leppard masters and publishing appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The last week’s ructions around Joe Rogan were starting to spark stories about the negative impact on Spotify’s share price. The post Analyst upgrade sparks 13.5% rise in Spotify’s share price appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Last week, Crispin Hunt stepped down as chair of UK songwriters body The Ivors Academy. His replacement is Tom Gray. The post The Ivors Academy’s new chair is… Broken Record founder Tom Gray appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Our first Guide of 2022 is designed to help map out your year ahead. We asked 25 thought-leaders in the modern music industry – including Aaron Bogucki, global head of audience development at AWAL, Beth Appleton, chief marketing officer at Jaxsta, Devraj Sanyal, MD & CEO of Universal Music India and South Asia, and Molly […]

OpenSea has been chosen by a number of musicians to release their first non-fungibles over the last year. Now it’s facing some challenges. The post OpenSea is battling a tide of plagiarised, fake and spammy NFTs appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

How much money is Twitch making? Amazon doesn’t yet split that out in its financial results. However, research firm App Annie has published a figure. The post Report claims Twitch has surpassed $1bn in mobile spending appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Indian films and music company Saregama is planning a major investment of “up to Rs 750 crore” (that’s around $100m) in the latter part of its business. The post Saregama trails plans to invest $100m in its music business appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Lil Yachty claims that Distributor Ditto Music’s Opulous advertised an NFT collection that would feature his music without permission. The post Lil Yachty sues Opulous over announcement of branded NFTs appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Where to start with the latest developments in the row over Spotify, Joe Rogan, Covid-19 misinformation and Neil Young’s decision to remove his music from the streaming service? The post Spotify publishes platform rules as Joe Rogan row snowballs appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The publishing strand at last week’s NY:LON Connect conference included keynotes from Primary Wave’s Natalia Nastaskin and PopArabia / Reservoir’s Spek. The post Publishing innovation: ‘You can’t take a Ferrari engine and put it into a Model T!’ appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Apple made a LOT of money in the final quarter of 2021: $123.9bn, which was a record holiday quarter for the tech giant. The post Apple posts record revenues and grows to 785m paid subscribers appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

VRTCL is one of the companies that sprang up to help labels and artists make the most of TikTok and other social platforms, launching in 2019. The post Create Music Group buys influencer marketing agency VRTCL appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Fender continues to add new features and content to its Fender Play educational service, which people access online to learn to play guitar, bass and/or ukulele. The post Fender adds R&B and Soul learning path to Fender Play service appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Ristband is the startup formerly known as Overview Ark. It rebranded last year while working on its plans for a ‘multiplayer music metaverse’ platform. The post Music metaverse startup Ristband bags Epic Games ‘MegaGrant’ appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

We are now more than 13 years into the music streaming era, but its workings continue to evolve. The post Music, socials and burnout: ‘We’re asking artists to do a lot’ appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

SoundCloud has been reinventing itself over the last few years. You could say it’s going back to its roots. The post SoundCloud and music: ‘It’s about watching artists and fans connect’ appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

British startup Where You At is testing an app that it hopes will help women to feel safer when they are out clubbing. The post Where You At app focuses on safety during nights out appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

We’ve seen various attempts in recent years to improve the quality of metadata identifying the writers of songs and their splits. Session, for example, has created tools to encourage songwriters to start creating this metadata from the earliest stage of their working process. Another startup has emerged today with its own ideas. Family in Music […]

If anyone had any doubt about The Weeknd’s status as a top-tier streaming star (spoiler: they didn’t) they’ll have been set straight now. The post The Weeknd bags 705m Spotify streams in just two weeks appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The music industry knows all about YouTube’s role in bringing K-Pop music to the world, from Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’ to the success of BTS and Blackpink. The post Data suggests YouTube Music is rising fast in South Korea appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Spotify’s management should probably prepare for a new round of ‘if Netflix can hike its price why can’t you?’ questions in the coming weeks. The post Netflix raises its monthly subscriptions in North America appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Its alliance with KKR is well established, but now the Financial Times has reported a separate BMG deal with Pimco, another giant financial investor. The post Investment giant Pimco eyes music copyrights with BMG appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The parent company, StubHub Holdings, is reportedly exploring going public via a Spotify-style direct listing. The post Secondary ticketing firm StubHub wants to go public appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Recent speculation about how much money major labels are earning in ‘one-off’ licensing payments is rousing a rumpus in the British music industry. The post MMF boss: ‘The majors can not continue having their cake and eating it’ appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Longtime music earnings analyst Zack O’Malley Greenburg has just published his annual ‘music money list’ across Rolling Stone and his own newsletter. The post The top 10 musicians collectively earned $2.3bn in 2021 appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The Trends Report is designed to set your synapses buzzing with ideas, and put you on the front foot in 2022. In it, we look back at what happened in 2021 – that most complex of years – and turn what we learned into a forward-thinking series of analyses, with advice, ideas and context, to help you navigate a better route through the year ahead. […]

Beatport is the latest music company exploring the world of NFTs, via a partnership with deadmau5 and Richie Hawtin’s startup Pixelynx. The post Music NFTs roundup: Beatport, Keith Richards, Metaplex… appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Slowly but surely, music licensing startup Lickd, which helps YouTubers to pay for tracks to use in their content, is picking up deals. The post Merlin signs on with creator-focused licensing firm Lickd appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

As a new wave of Covid-19 restrictions hit the Australian live music business, a group of industry bodies is calling for more support from the government there. The post Australian music industry calls for Covid-19 live fund appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

US satellite-radio firm SiriusXM has made an interesting acquisition: ‘music for business’ company Cloud Cover Music. The post SiriusXM buys business-music service Cloud Cover Music appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Spotify has been criticised both externally and internally for some of the views expressed (and guests hosted) by podcaster Joe Rogan, to little avail. The post Doctors and scientists criticise Spotify over Joe Rogan appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Royal’s high-profile drop of music NFTs from Nas may have hit a snag this week, but there is still plenty of other news coming out of the sector. The post Music NFTs roundup: Opulous, Parker McCollum, Lüm… appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Non-profit US organisation the Future of Music Coalition (FMC) has been praising the Bandcamp Fridays promotion run by Bandcamp. The post Future of Music Coalition hails Bandcamp Fridays impact appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Music consumption grew by 2.5% in the UK last year, but actual spending grew by more, according to figures published by the ERA. The post Consumer spending on music in the UK grew 8.7% in 2021 appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Music Ally has been talking to our sources in China to get a sense of the market’s development last year, for our latest country profile. The post Music industry seeks more subscription growth in China appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The latest stage for the Rolling Stones is a set of 12 stamps issued by the Royal Mail in the UK, in a partnership with the band. The post Rolling Stones become latest band to star on Royal Mail stamps appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Warner Music Group has revealed its latest strategic move in Africa: a majority stake in distributor Africori. The post WMG buys majority stake in African distributor Africori appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Apple will abide by new rules in South Korea that ban app store owners from forcing developers to use their own in-app payment systems. The post Apple set to allow alternative payment systems in South Korea appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Trouble at the ‘audio first’ mill, or just inevitable reorganisation as part of the growth process? Spotify is shutting down one of its internal podcast studios. The post Spotify is shutting down ‘Studio 4’ internal podcasts studio appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The drop was due to happen on 11 January but has now been rescheduled.”Due to the amount of excitement and support, our website went down,” explained Royal. The post Website problems lead Royal to reschedule drop of Nas NFTs appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Industry body BVMI reported yesterday that more than 165bn audio music streams were measured in Germany last year, up from 138bn in 2020. The post Audio music streams in Germany grew by 19.6% in 2021 appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

In fact, DistroKid says that all 10,000 NFTs, created by artists using its service, were sold within a day of the launch. The post DistroKid’s first ‘Sellout’ NFTs collection, yes, sold out appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Distributor CD Baby has reached a significant milestone: more than $1bn of lifetime payouts to artists since the company was founded in 1998. The post CD Baby reveals its payouts have now crossed the $1bn mark appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Spotify is keen to make sure the youngest generation of digital music listeners don’t drift away from its service. CEO Daniel Ek has been talking about its efforts. The post Spotify CEO on Gen-Z: ‘We could be doing better in that group’ appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The legal battle between Kieran ‘Four Tet’ Hebden and label Domino continues, with Hebden being given permission to amend his lawsuit. The post Four Tet amends Domino lawsuit to include breach of contract appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

We’re shocked and upset to learn of the death last week of Toby Slater, who was a key part of Music Ally’s team in the early 2000s. The post Toby Slater appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Culture site Mic has an interview with the CEO of social agency VRTCL, Griffin Haddrill, and one part stood out to us as worth thinking about. The post Why 4am might be the best time to try to go viral on TikTok appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Smart-links firm Linktree has announced a deal with ecommerce company Shopify, which will help its users to sell their merch and other products from their links. The post Linktree boosts its shopping features with Shopify deal appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Fave has been working with label Atlantic Records to identify some of Mars’ keenest fans and get them involved in its new community from the start. The post Fave adds another fandom community: Bruno Mars’ Hooligans appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

“Think of Play as a recording and production studio, with a large library of pre-arranged songs to choose from,” it explains. The post Jellynote launches Kickstarter for collaborative karaoke app appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

It’s a sign of the times when the world’s biggest major label has an imprint described as “a next-gen Web3 label that discovers and develops artists, intellectual property, brands and digital creators”. The post UMG’s 10.22PM label is launching a Gorillaz-style NFT group appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

‘Things Take Time, Take Time’ according to the next album by Australian artist Courtney Barnett. What doesn’t take much time is messing about with some of the tracks on it, courtesy of a neat ‘Stem Mixer’ site launched in advance of the album. It offers up three of the album’s tracks in their individual stems: drums, bass, […]

The big streaming services love a pop-up installation partnership with a major artist. The latest example is Amazon Music teaming up with Coldplay to launch ‘The Atmospheres’. It’s an “intergalactic audio-visual experience” that will touch down in London, New York, Tokyo and Berlin (unsurprisingly, in the four countries that are Amazon Music’s biggest markets) for […]

The rise of lo-fi hip-hop has been headed by YouTube channels like ChillHop Music and ChilledCow (recently rebranded as Lofi Girl). It’s interesting to see other players getting involved though, including Apple’s artist development subsidiary Platoon. It’s a partner in the launch of Arden Records, a new label focusing on lo-fi music co-founded by Nepali […]

Output is the company behind music-making software Arcade, and it is giving the tools a revamp. Arcade 2.0 has launched this week as a free update for its subscribers. New features include adding ‘professional tier chromatic instruments’ to sit alongside its existing catalogue of samples; and a ‘Kit Generator’ that uses AI to turn audio […]

Another company is entering the crowded market for music rights. Well, HarbourView Equity Partners has a wider focus than just music: it’s planning to invest in entertainment rights too, with a team that has experience in film, TV and sports alongside music. In an interview with the New York Times, founder and CEO Sherrese Clarke Soares […]

The boundary between user-generated content and sponsored or branded content is important for music rightsholders, who feel strongly that if a video on a social app or video service is being paid for by a brand, it should be a proper sync. But what about brands who want to use original music for their own […]

In September 2019, Spotify bought SoundBetter, a website helping musicians to find collaborators including songwriters, studio musicians, producers and mixing/mastering engineers, as well as studios to record in. Two years later, it has sold the business back to its founders. “Together, Spotify and SoundBetter benefited from many synergies, but as SoundBetter continues to evolve, both parties […]

Today, hundreds of thousands of artists release music and an equally huge number of content creators require music for their output. Sync has become a more nuanced instrument for all involved – and one that’s still a moneymaker and a powerful marketing tool. We’re taking a look at how sync has changed, what the real needs […]

There may be more trouble ahead (or at least more music to be faced and regulator tunes to be danced to) for TikTok and some of its social-video peers. The post UK regulator Ofcom cracks down on social video platforms appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

It will be working with artists Lil Pump and KSHMR to sell ‘S-NFTs’ – a term they’ve coined to describe NFTs sold as ‘securities’ under US financial regulations The post Opulous to sell ‘S-NFTs’ for artists Lil Pump and KSHMR appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Flow Moods, pitched as an “emotional jukebox” that only plays mood-based music, is launching with six moods to choose from. The post Deezer’s new Flow Moods feature is an ’emotional jukebox’ appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

A who’s who of European indies have already volunteered to support the project, including Ninja Tune and Beggars Group. The post Impala and Julie’s Bicycle build carbon calculator for labels appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Fury is backing a new app called My AAA, which is one of the companies springing up to offer a ‘creator subscriptions but not XXX-rated’ alternative to OnlyFans. The post The latest creator subscriptions app comes from… Tyson Fury? appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Here’s something interesting to watch: a test by Twitch of a feature for viewers to buy ‘boosts’ for their favourite channels. The post Twitch tests letting viewers spend money to promote channels appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

SyncVault is launching a ‘music promo platform’ specifically focusing on YouTube Shorts, with the aim of rewarding YouTubers for using music by its label clients in their short videos. The post SyncVault launches music promo service for YouTube Shorts appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Next Big Sound was one of the first big third-party music analytics services, crowned as a winner at the MidemNet Labs (as it was known then) contest in 2011. The post Pandora shuts down Next Big Sound analytics to focus on AMP appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

UK collecting society PPL has got behind the campaign, as part of its wider work around metadata that includes being a board member of standards body DDEX The post PPL gets behind The Ivors Academy’s ‘Credits Due’ campaign appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The Covid-19 pandemic isn’t over yet, but bigger fish in the worlds of live and streaming music are already circling the most promising startups in the livestreaming space. We have seen Live Nation take a majority stake in Veeps, and (see below) Dice acquiring Boiler Room. Now Deezer is making its second livestreaming investment in […]

“Patreon’s plans, which haven’t been previously reported, include courting podcasters, video game livestreamers, YouTubers, and major celebrities” The post Patreon reveals how it’s planning to spend its $155m funding appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

A blog post yesterday explained how independent artist mehro has used Discovery Mode. His team turned it on for two tracks in August for the three weeks leading up to a new release. The post Spotify explains how indie artist mehro used Discovery Mode appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

It will explore the intersection of music and professional sport, with speakers including Universal Music Group for Brands’s Olivier Robert-Murphy and FIFA’s Jean-François Pathy. The post BPI Insight Session to focus on the music/sports crossover appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

‘Twitch Pro’ has more features: custom playlists, which can be shuffled while streaming, as well as curated playlists from Soundstripe’s music team. The post Soundstripe wants to help Twitch streamers avoid takedowns appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Copyright dispute resolutions! Now that’s something worth arguing about. Music/tech firm Pex wants to settle some of those arguments though. The post Pex works with WIPO to tackle copyright dispute resolutions appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Music-making platform Splice has worked with a number of professional artists and producers on sample packs to offer to its subscribers. Now it’s getting some starry names on board as advisors. The post Splice enlists artists as advisors on its Global Music Council appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The Music Fund is one of a cluster of startups promising to pay artists advances based on predicted streaming royalties, while leaving them full ownership of their rights. The post More fintech/music crossover as Hifi buys The Music Fund appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

NFTs as a “creator empowerment tool” eh? That’s the pitch TikTok is making with the launch of its first collection under the brand of TikTok Top Moments. The post TikTok launches its first NFT collection (including Lil Nas X) appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

One of the things we’ve been banging on about in our coverage of games platform Roblox is its open nature, and its community of developers. The post WMG invests in Roblox developer Supersocial’s $5.2m round appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Facebook is cross about the Wall Street Journal’s recent investigation into how ‘toxic’ Instagram is for teenage girls, drawing on internal research from the company itself. The post Facebook’s research on teen wellbeing on Instagram goes public appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

If artists and their teams needed another warning not to pay companies promising to artificially inflate their streaming numbers, Spotify is providing it. The post Spotify may withhold royalties for ‘artificial streams’ appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

There is growing industry chatter about the ambitions of Utopia Music, the Swiss music data startup that has recently been hiring a raft of senior executives… The post Utopia Music buys mood-tagging music startup Musimap appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Merger completed with MelodyVR, Napster today offered the first half-year figures for the combined company. The post Napster reports $44.2m revenues for the first half of 2021 appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Its first set of interim financial results are out, covering the period from its incorporation in early August 2020 to the end of June 2021. The post Round Hill Music Royalty Fund publishes its first financials appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Spotify likes to see itself as the on-demand audio platform that will kill off ‘linear radio’, but even its audio is still linear in the sense that you choose a track, playlist or podcast and listen to it. However, the emergence of smart speakers and voice assistants has seen some experimentation around interactive audio, such […]

We’re hiring Cooking Vinyl is the original Artist Services company and one of the world’s leading independent labels since its founding over 35 years ago. It works with a diverse roster of new and established artists from Billy Bragg and Babymetal to Nina Nesbitt and Lissie. It operates internationally in the fields of music publishing, master […]

FaZe Clan is one of the bigger brands in the esports world, with its crew of professional gamers competing in tournaments and creating online content by the boatload. The post Esports crew FaZe Clan signs its first emerging music artist appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Fans of artist Bonobo are abuzz after a teaser campaign was launched by label Ninja Tune for his new music. It kicked off on Monday 27 September. The post Ninja Tune launches a mysterious Bonobo teaser campaign appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The startup is tackling the challenges around financial management and payments. It’s aimed at artists, managers, tour and production managers and tour accountants. The post UK startup Voly to launch financial service focused on music appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Dubler 2 isn’t hardware though: it’s a software-only desktop app that musicians can use with their own digital audio workstations (DAWs) and microphones. The post Vochlea launches its second AI-powered vocal MIDI controller appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Kanye West famously continued tinkering with his ‘The Life of Pablo’ album even after it was released, altering tracks then replacing the older versions on digital services. The post Kanye West makes post-release changes to ‘Donda’ album appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Its latest initiative is called Spotify Tap, a feature that’s being included in headphones from companies including Samsung, Bose, and Skullcandy. The post Spotify Tap expands the streaming service’s hardware ambitions appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

This is a guest post written by Dr. Ari Katorza, senior researcher and Doron Gabbay, content manager at MyPart, which uses AI music analysis for A&R and other purposes. We asked MyPart – which is also part of the Abbey Road Red incubator (pictured above) – if they’d like to use their technology to explore music in an international context. In […]

In August, Serenade announced itself as the latest startup looking to help musicians and music brands create and sell NFTs. It promised to be both accessible – fans could pay using regular debit and credit cards – and environmentally sustainable through its use of an ‘eco-friendly’ blockchain called Polygon. Since then, Serenade has worked with artists including […]

Instagram was making a version of its app for children aged under 13. Now it’s not – at least not for the moment. “We believe building Instagram Kids is the right thing to do, but we’re pausing the work,” wrote Instagram boss Adam Mosseri in a blog post yesterday. “This will give us time to work with […]

Single Music is a startup that makes a ‘monetised video’ tool for ecommerce platform Shopify, so that artists using the latter to sell merch can also use it for ticketed livestreams. The company says that it has sold nearly a million tickets and generated more than $22m of revenue for its clients since the beginning of […]

There are several ways labels can scan video and social services for use of their recordings, including the tools of those platforms and third-party startups. What about recordings of live music performances though? That’s a trickier task, but startups are trying to tackle that too. Song Sleuth is one example. It uses AI and machine learning to […]

Recorded music income in Italy rose 34% in the first half of 2021, with subscription revenue up 41%. More importantly, perhaps, Enzo Mazza, CEO of Italian recorded music body FIMI, says that Italy made “an incredible jump” in the transition to digital consumption during the pandemic. “In one year Italy reached a penetration in the […]

Since the earliest days of blockchain hype in the music industry, electronic music artists have often been the first to experiment with the technology: particularly those that are most tech-savvy and who control their rights. There are two new examples this week. First, trance legend BT is releasing what’s being described as “the world’s first […]

Italy made a great leap in the transition to digital music during the pandemic. Now its music industry is growing strongly.   The post Country Profile – Italy 2021 appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

To co-opt the old adage about buses… you wait ages for a rancorous music publishing / tech dispute to be put to rest with an agreement that isn’t a licensing deal in itself, but paves the way for such deals… then two come along at once! Yes, less than a week after the US National […]

UK firm Lickd is one of the startups trying to make it easier for YouTubers and other online creators to license commercial music to use in their videos. Now it has raised £5.1m of funding from some very interesting investors: Warner Music Group, Fortnite publisher (and Apple nemesis) Epic Games, and the investment firm of […]

You’ll see a lot of YouTube videos when searching for artists on Google. What you won’t see are TikTok and Instagram videos. This may be changing soon. The post Report: Google may soon be indexing TikTok and Instagram videos appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Tangy Market analyses music’s past performance and future potential, then pays musicians upfront, converting the predicted royalties into shares to sell. The post Tangy Market sells slice of song recorded by Christina Aguilera appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

YouTube launched its music charts in May 2018 in 44 countries initially, and has been expanding them geographically ever since. The post YouTube launches music charts in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and UAE appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Gaming platform Roblox has hosted a number of music performances over the last year, but now it has launched another way for artists and labels to work with it: listening parties. Poppy (and her label, Sumerian Records) were the first to take advantage this past weekend. Unlike the concerts, this isn’t about an artist creating […]

Ticketing firm Dice has raised $122m in its Series C funding round. Venture capital giant SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 led the round, with Future Shape. The post Dice raises $122m: ‘We’re now scaling, because we’re ready for it’ appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Why do certain posts get demoted in Facebook’s news feed? The social network is revealing a bit more about the kind of content it demotes, in a section of its Transparency Center site. The post Facebook reveals the content that it demotes in its news feed appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Throughout Music Ally’s history one principle has held true: if there’s a whizzy new digital platform of some kind, Snoop Dogg will be on it before 99.7% of other artists. The post Snoop Dogg is building a mansion… in virtual world The Sandbox appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

She glossed a wall, and she liked it! Katy Perry has been expanding beyond her core business of music with a partnership with paints supplier Behr. The post Katy Perry’s paint colours get a Spotify-powered spin-off appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Jooki is releasing a brand new speaker: Jooki Generation 2. It still uses the ‘ToyTouch’ technology as an interface, but with new features. The post Jooki unveils its new Spotify-connected speaker for children appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Hydrow is one of the growing number of ‘Peloton of…’ fitness-tech startups. In its case, it’s the ‘Peloton of rowing’, selling a rowing machine supported by online workout classes and content. The post Fitness tech startup Hydrow taps artists for latest funding appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The Brooklyn-based VÉRITÉ is a very modern artist, with multiple threads running through her career that connect with audiences and generate income. She’s not only an independent singer-songwriter, but is also a podcast host, and is experimenting with selling parts of her master recordings via NFT auctions. We asked VÉRITÉ to write about the value […]

The limited-edition version of the Echo Smart Speaker costing $229.99 appears to have already sold out of pre-orders, ahead of shipping in October. The post Amazon is selling a Billie Eilish-branded Echo smart speaker appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Melodie’s catalogue will now be available to the music streaming services that Tuned Global runs for clients. The post Tuned Global strikes a deal with music licensing firm Melodie appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

YouTube has been taking down some of the big music ‘bots’ that stream music from its service into social app Discord. Groovy and Rythm shut down in August and September. The post Discord is testing its own integration of YouTube videos appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Riff is a cross between livestreaming apps and (with its ‘rooms’ structure) Clubhouse. The app is also the recipient of a $4m funding round from investors including three music companies. The post Quality Control and Empire invest in social music app Riff appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Earlier this week, the British government said that the UK’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) would soon be publishing its report on music creator’s earnings in the digital era. How soon? It’s out this morning! To be clear: this is very much an exercise in gathering and presenting data, rather than coming down on one side […]

Beat the ‘Tok: Beatport runs TikTok DJ duet challenge We occasionally veer away from artist-centric campaigns here to include interesting things that companies (usually DSPs, but not always) do in terms of their own marketing. Electronic and dance music specialist download store Beatport has created what it is calling TikTok Transitions, its own challenge on […]

US electronic DJ and producer Illenium released Fallen Embers, his fourth studio album, in July 2021. To build excitement ahead of the album reveal, a real-world scavenger hunt in Denver was set up to let fans hear a chunk of a new track early. Ali Schlueter (who runs digital marketing for Illenium), Billy Zarro (marketing […]

When it comes to influencer marketing, traditionally an artist or their team agrees to pay an (often hefty) fee – and the influencer posting their piece of content gets paid regardless of the post’s performance. This can make it tricky to justify whether working with influencers is a worthwhile spend to achieve an artist’s marketing […]

The fact that tens of millions of children love Roblox has been the engine for the gaming platform’s growth, but as it looks to do more with music, that does present a challenge. The post Roblox’s new age-verification feature could be good for music appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Beat Saber has been one of the bigger hits in the virtual reality games industry, selling 4m copies across various headsets by February this year. The post VR music game Beat Saber gets a 10-song Billie Eilish pack appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Mandolin is one of the better-resourced music livestreaming startups, having raised $5m of seed funding in October 2020 then another $12m in July this year. The post Mandolin acquires fellow livestreaming startup NoonChorus appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Snafu Records emerged in 2020 with $2.9m of funding claiming to be the “first AI-enabled music label”, promising algorithms that would identify promising unsigned artists. The post Snafu Records raises $6m funding for its ‘AI-driven’ label appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Other existing investors who are part of the new round include WndrCo and Bridford, the latter being the investment firm of Jörg Mohaupt. The post Sony Innovation Fund chips in to $12.2m Tracklib funding round appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The launch of Apple’s iOS 15 software this week has brought with it some new features for Apple Music, including ‘dynamic headtracking’. What’s that? A feature that reorients Apple’s spatial audio around the movements of the listener’s head, if they’re using the company’s AirPods Pro and AirPods Max ‘phones. More than 40 million Apple Music […]

The UK is one step closer to a full-blown competition investigation into the three major labels. The British government has accepted one of the recommendations of the recent UK parliamentary inquiry into music-streaming economics: to make a referral to regulator the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). We say ‘one step closer’ because the CMA is […]

Douyin is the Chinese version of TikTok, and like other apps that are popular with young people in China, it’s facing pressure to limit the time they spend on its service. Cue what Douyin described in a blog post as “the most stringent youth protection measures in the history of the platform” – a ‘youth mode’ for people […]

German startup Musicube is the latest company touting AI-powered technology to analyse and tag catalogues of music. The company has just raised $560k of funding to continue developing its audio analysis product, which is already being used by clients including Sony Music and Budde Music Publishing. Musicube has been developing its technology for use by labels, publishers […]

In August 2020, we reported on Muse’s plans to launch a ‘Simulation Theory: Virtual Experience’ with virtual reality startup Stageverse. It was originally due to launch that autumn, but just over a year later, the full show is now ready for its debut. Now called ‘Muse: Enter The Simulation’, it will be available through Stageverse’s iOS, Android and […]

As one of the biggest streaming services in India, Gaana is a useful bellwether for the market as a whole. New figures show that in its last financial year, which ended in March 2021, the company’s operating revenue grew by just 2.6% to 1.23bn rupees (around $16.7m) while its losses fell by 7% – but were […]

The question of how much Universal Music Group is worth has been a hot topic in recent years. Escalating estimates from Goldman Sachs, for example, which valued UMG at $23.3bn in 2017, rising to $53bn in April 2021. Or, more conservatively, with the €30bn (around $36.4bn at the time) valuation of UMG when a consortium led by Tencent upped its […]

Halsey is the latest artist tapping AR technology to send fans on a treasure hunt. This one is in the US, and is a partnership with Verizon and FriendsWithYou. The post Halsey unveils an augmented reality treasure hunt in the US appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

There is no shortage of tools available for artists and labels to create ‘smart links’ for promoting their music and getting useful data on fans. The post Believe launches its own smart-links tool powered by Soundsgood appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

It’s not just Merck Mercuriadis who NMPA boss David Israelite has been criticising in recent times. The US publishing body has a long-running argument with Amazon’s live-video platform Twitch. The post Report: Twitch may soon have a deal with music publishers appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Hipgnosis founder Merck Mercuriadis has been leading the demands for songs (as opposed to recordings) to get a bigger share of streaming royalties. The post Hipgnosis is launching a new songwriters guild in the US appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Could TikTok’s parent company ByteDance be about to provide competition in a streaming market dominated by Tencent Music and NetEase Cloud Music? The post ByteDance tipped to launch music streaming app Feile in China appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

About Music Ally: Music Ally is the global leader in digital marketing training for the music industry, having trained thousands of industry professionals and artists. A knowledge and skills company, it provides insight to the major labels, indies, publishers, as well as artists and managers. Music Ally’s mission is to help the music industry embrace […]

People (including us) have often underestimated YouTube as a podcasting platform, but it can be a powerful service for building an audience for long-form shows. The post YouTube launches its first original podcast: The Upload appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Based in Canada, Singdaptive has just emerged from a year-long beta of a service that teaches people to sing with a roster of 21 vocal coaches. The post Startup Singdaptive would like to teach the world to sing appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

It has a dedicated sustainability arm working on the plan, with the help of companies and organisations including Julie’s Bicycle, AGreenerFestival and The Tour Production Group. The post UK live music body aims to reach net zero emissions by 2030 appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Rcrdshp launched its first collection in August and sold out in a matter of hours, before repeating the trick with its second drop later that month. The post Rcrdshp raises ‘multi-million’ seed round to make more NFTs appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Shakira is one of the artists involved, with a collection of NFTs based on “the fantastical world of Caloris, a place ruled by women in an intergalactic landscape The post MakersPlace reveals plans for NFTs with Sony Music artists appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Live firm CTS Eventim is expanding into Asia with a new subsidiary, Eventim Live Asia. Led by former Live Nation exec Jason Miller, the division will be based in Singapore, with a focus on markets including China, Japan, South Korea and various other south east Asian countries. In its announcement, the company stressed Miller’s credentials, […]

TikTok has commissioned and published two new studies to trumpet its impact on music and culture, although a third study also published yesterday – an investigation of its recommendation algorithm’s workings by the Wall Street Journal – offers a considerably less sunny outlook on the social app’s impact. On the sunny side, MRC Data authored a study of TikTok and […]

Major labels are very keen to strike licensing deals with fitness tech startups, but they’re equally unkeen about the idea of other kinds of fitness brands using their music without the necessary agreements. Witness Sony Music’s new copyright infringement lawsuit against Gymshark, which makes a popular range of fitness clothing and kit. As MBW reported, […]

We’ve seen artists debut tracks as clips on TikTok ahead of their official release, but Anne-Marie is going a step further and making her entire new album available for TikTokers to use. Yesterday, clips of all the tracks from the album were released on TikTok, ahead of its launch on Friday. Meanwhile, Anne-Marie will be […]

YouTube viewers already have three ways to support their favourite creators by paying: Super Chat, Super Stickers, and channel subscriptions. Now there’s a fourth, Super Thanks, and unlike the first two above, it isn’t restricted to being used during livestreams. This feature has actually been in testing since February this year, initially under the name […]

Mention of Tetris and music will set an almighty earworm going for many readers – and if it doesn’t, we can help with that! But yes, the latest Tetris game will have a musical focus, including licensed tracks. It’s called Tetris Beat, and will be exclusive to the Apple Arcade games service when it launches in the […]

Analytics firm Chartmetric has published its trends report for the first half of 2021, analysing the fastest growing artists on various streaming services and social platforms. Spoiler: Olivia Rodrigo had a decent six months! There’s some good stuff on tracks ranked by their TikTok growth, including the tale of a 1960 track called ‘Bongo Cha Cha […]

During its recent ‘Stream On’ event Spotify revealed plans to launch a new suite of personalised playlists as an expansion to its ‘Daily Mix’ family. They’d be based on artists, genres and decades. Now the new mixes are rolling out to free and premium listeners globally, sitting within Spotify’s ‘Made For You’ hub alongside its other […]

Bandsintown has been talking to artists and fans again about their livestreaming views and habits. Its latest survey canvassed 7,688 people, and found that 86% of fans have watched at least one music livestream within the past 12 months, while 31% have streamed seven or more. 62% have paid for a livestream, while 55% say […]

Remember when Spotify invested in distributor DistroKid back in October 2018? Now its biggest rival is making a similar move. Yesterday, Apple led a $50m Series B funding round for UnitedMasters, alongside Alphabet (yes, Apple and Google’s parent company investing together) and Andreessen Horowitz. Apple isn’t just opening its wallet: the deal includes a strategic partnership which […]

2021 is the year audio startup Clubhouse became a $1bn unicorn, but it’s facing plenty of competition. Twitter and Facebook already have Clubhouse-like features in testing, Spotify just bought Locker Room, and startup OurSouls is launching out of stealth mode this morning with an iPhone app, and funding led by VC firm Looflirpa Fund. Silicon Valley veteran […]

Important: Please see ‘Application Tips’ for details on how to apply.  Location: To work in our Kennington office when safe to do so and from home Start date: As soon as possible Availability: 5 days a week (10-6pm Monday to Friday) Salary: Based on experience. Closing date: 13th April 2021 (Midnight) Ninja Tune is looking […]

NFTs may be all the rage in 2021, but startup Dapper Labs was one of the first companies to explore blockchain-powered digital goods with its CryptoKitties game in 2017. It has since gone on to have another big hit with its NBA Top Shot basketball partnership, and also took investment from Warner Music Group in September 2019. […]

We recently reported on video requests startup Cameo’s growth in 2020, when it sold 1.3m videos of its celebrity community, generating revenues of $100m. Now the company has raised a Series C funding round, also of $100m, which sees Cameo graduate to ‘unicorn’ status with a valuation of just over $1bn. SoftBank, GV, Lightspeed, Kleiner Perkins, Spark […]

“Last Night a DJ Took a Flight” is an excellent name for a report, even if many DJs’ touring has been grounded for more than a year by Covid-19. But the report, from Clean Scene, is an important analysis of the environmental impact of the electronic music industry before Covid struck, with thoughts on how […]

India’s collecting society IPRS now has a full set of major music companies from the country, after T-Series joined the likes of Saregama and Times Music (plus the local subsidiaries of Sony and UMG) as a member. “With IPRS now representing the T-Series music publishing catalogue, it will improve the ease of doing business, with […]

One particular hip-hop video may be giving YouTube some internal ructions (see earlier story) but the service is keen to talk up the wider importance of the genre – particularly for advertisers. “Of the top three genres on YouTube in the U.S. — hip-hop, rock and pop — hip-hop is the fastest growing,” wrote YouTube’s […]

Do independent labels get a fair share of slots on music streaming services’ playlists? It’s a complicated question, with the answer having varied, historically, depending on which playlists you’re talking about (all of them, or just the big ones?), how you define independent (do major-distributed tracks count?) and other factors. The latest attempt to get […]

Radio aggregator TuneIn has lost its appeal in a copyright infringement case brought against the company in the UK by Sony Music and Warner Music. The original ruling, in November 2019, was mixed with the High Court ruling that TuneIn wasn’t infringing with its live streams of radio stations already licensed in the UK, but […]

Aware that some countries that have Covid-19 under control already have concerts and festivals up and running, we’re trying not to generalise about live music. However, for those countries still awaiting a musical reopening, this weekend’s concert in Barcelona for indie band Love of Lesbian will be an encouraging sight. It was an experiment for […]

Say what you like about non-fungible tokens (NFTS) – and right now, everyone appears to be doing exactly that on Twitter – but it’s undeniable that there is a gold rush of musicians towards the idea. In the past few days alone, there has been a mini-blizzard of announcements and on-sales, with some prominent artists. Start with […]

Sensor Tower and App Annie are the two most high-profile research firms tracking the apps market. By a quirk of fate, both published some new stats yesterday around wellness and fitness apps – a current area of hot interest from the music industry. Sensor Tower predicted that ‘mental wellness’ apps will be downloaded more than 1bn times […]

Yesterday, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey (and his *sigh* bitcoin clock) made an appearance before a US House hearing about online extremism and misinformation. Copyright wasn’t the matter at hand, but a group of music industry bodies took the opportunity anyway to criticise Twitter for its attitude towards music licensing. The letter, sent by a group including the […]

Well, that’s a headline we could probably run every single day for the next few months. But with the music industry still buzzing with questions about non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and their potential, it’s worth keeping abreast of the latest debates. Start today with the “long-ass blog post” by artist Rev Dan Catt, which is an […]

The growth of Roblox and its use by labels and artists – not to mention Warner Music Group’s investment in it – has sparked interest within the music industry about other games platforms and microverses that might be worth investigating. We’d suggest Rec Room should be one of the first ports of call. The Seattle-based startup has just […]

Don’t worry, independent label Matador isn’t launching a podcast claiming that President Kennedy was actually killed by alien assassins, or that the medieval plague was started by a time-travelling Bill Gates practising for Covid-19. The history being revised in the label’s new podcast is strictly its own: a chance for artists to talk about their […]

Spotify is a dab hand at curating playlists for a wide range of moods and contexts, but labels are keen to get into that game too. Witness the latest project from the 4th Floor Creative team within Sony Music UK, which has launched a site for music fans called ‘Mood Playlist‘. The pitch: “Instantly make […]

Marquee is Spotify’s marketing tool for promoting an artist’s new album to people who’ve listened to them – the full-screen pop-ups that appear over its mobile homescreen. Now Spotify is beta testing a new campaign management tool for marquee in the US, which will make these ads (well, ‘sponsored recommendations’) self-service. The tool will take the form […]

Recently, artist Gary Numan gave an interview to Sky News during which he talked about streaming royalties, and specifically about a small cheque he’d received. “I had a statement a while back and one of my songs had had over a million plays, million streams, and it was £37. I got £37 from a million […]

Lead: Each DSP has a programme dedicated to supporting new artists: weaponising the platform by endorsing them to a large audience, and hopefully accelerating their careers. Places on these programmes are, of course, keenly sought after – so what is experienced by that lucky few? Is it really the win-win it seems? What do artists need […]

Does anyone in the music industry have better anecdotes than Nile Rodgers? Now he can deliver them in virtual form, which may save him repeating the best ones over and over. Rodgers has been turned into “the world’s first voice-interactive portrait” through a partnership between the UK’s National Portrait Gallery, Universal Music and Abbey Road […]

Music NFTs must be big business. Look, the Wall Street Journal is writing about them! And it’s a good summary of the current activity (and hype) around non-fungible tokens in the music space. That includes stats: journalist Cherie Hu’s calculation that since June last year around 29,800 NFTs involving artists have generated $42.5m in primary sales. […]

SoundCloud is adding a new string to its artist-partnerships bow with the launch of First on SoundCloud. it’s billed as an accelerator program for artists, starting with nine independent musicians: Charmaine, Ela Minus, Kid Quill, Lourdiz, Otis Kane, Pa Salieu, Payday, Sofia Mills and SoFaygo. ‘First on SoundCloud’ is actually an existing program for promoting […]

British startup Jaak was part of the first wave of firms trying to put blockchain technology to use in the music industry. It was part of the first Techstars Music accelerator in 2017, and launched a pilot with partners including WMG, Warner/Chappell, BMG and Global Music Rights the following year. Founder and CEO Vaughn McKenzie-Landell was also part of the […]

Employees from independent music company Secretly Group and its subsidiaries have announced plans to form a union. “Our goal is to spotlight the rights of our staff and the health of our workplace,” they explained on the Secretly Group Union website. “Working in the music industry is not an easy way to support oneself for the […]

Impala, which represents independent music companies in Europe, is the latest organisation to step in to the debate about the music streaming economy and how to reform it. “Our aim is to make streaming fairer and provide a dynamic, compelling and responsible future for creators and for fans,” was how Impala introduced its 10-point plan. The […]

Freeme – pronounced “free me” – is an independent distributor & label services company based in Lagos. Founder and CEO Michael Ugwu has international industry experience: he was previously general manager at Sony Music West Africa, and is the first Black person to be appointed to the Merlin Board. As a business, Freeme has twin […]

Global recorded music revenues grew by 7.4% to $21.6bn in 2020, according to industry body the IFPI, which has published its annual Global Music Report today. That’s a deceleration compared to 2019, when the market grew by 8.2%, but with 2020 being the year of Covid-19, labels will see the latest figures as a success […]

Yesterday saw the final hearing in the UK’s parliamentary inquiry into the economics of music streaming, but rather than music industry or tech executives being questioned, it was ministers and civil servants. Caroline Dineage MP, minister for digital and culture at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Amanda Solloway MP, minister […]

The USA’s digital music market is one of the most vibrant globally and shows little sign of slowing down, even if the price paid for subscriptions is slowing The post Country Profile – USA 2021 appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Parents are apparently getting in a bit of a flap about Yubo, because as tech site Protocol explains: “the app very openly wants young people to make new friends with strangers on the internet”. With a user base focused around 13-25 year-olds, Yubo is proving popular though: the piece claims that the social app has signed […]

ChilledCow is one of the most well-known lo-fi hip-hop brands that have grown on YouTube and streaming services with their mixes for studying, working and/or relaxing to. But the most recognisable aspect of ChilledCow wasn’t, in fact, a cow – it was the animated girl studying in its YouTube videos while her cat lazed on a […]

Well, of course that guy on the skateboard who made that Fleetwood Mac song go viral on TikTok is now selling that video as a non-fungible token. Nathan Apodaca is hoping to trouser at least $500k from the NFT sale of his 23-second video, although there’s one wrinkle: it won’t include ‘Dreams’. Apodaca’s representative told showbiz site […]

Thus far, Apple Music’s ‘Up Next’ program has picked emerging artists from across the world for promotion on the streaming service, with a global focus. Now it’s going local too. Apple is expanding the program for individual regions, kicking off with the US, UK, Japan, France, Germany, Mexico, Russia, India, Canada, Australia, South Africa and […]

Alright, this will come as no surprise at all to the majority of Music Ally readers. YouTube is the biggest music streaming service in the world, with its scale – both in terms of its overall users and the more than two billion people who specifically consume music on it. However, if you’re in the market for […]

Join BMG’s Digital Sales team!   We are looking for a YouTube Channel & Account Manager to join our growing Digital department in London.   You will be responsible for…   Working with and across internal teams, artists/managements and other content specialists for catalogue recordings repertoire You will specifically ensure the best YouTube set up for the artists […]

Did you know that the top 500 artists on Spotify last year generated around $1.85bn in royalties from the streaming service – 37% of its overall payouts? Or did you know that the 286,000 DIY artists releasing through distributors generated $1.17bn of Spotify royalties last year – around 23.5% of the total? You do now. These […]

Artist Yungblud is re-releasing a track from 2019 due to TikTok, but no, this isn’t because someone went viral singing along to it on a skateboard. Instead, Yungblud ran a duet contest on TikTok inviting fans to freestyle their own verse over his track ‘Parents’. One of the most impressive entries was from a young singer-songwriter […]

Apple Music and Amazon Music are far from the only streaming services whose origin stories involve music download stores. PortalDisc is the biggest downloads store in Chile, but it is now moving into streaming with its new service PortalDisc App. Billed as “the first 100% Chilean music streaming service”, it’s a partnership with B2B digital music […]

The latest company looking to forge more links between the music and esports industries is Offmeta, which launches today. It’s a label that plans to sign artists and seek out licensing deals and partnerships for them in the games and esports worlds. Canadian artist bbno$ is its first signing, and his new single ‘Bad to the […]

British industry body the BPI has announced its next ‘Insight Session’ online event, and once again Music Ally is the partner co-presenting it. ’10 x 10: Ten Trends for the Next Ten Years’ takes place on 15 April, and will involve 10-minute presentations on a range of future trends for the music industry. Among those […]

How bad for the environment is streaming? It’s one of the questions we’re still seeking answers to. In the video streaming world, Netflix is playing its part. The company has been working with researchers at the University of Bristol to calculate the carbon footprint of watching its service. Wired has the details: “Netflix claims that one […]

Content ID is well established as YouTube’s system for identifying copyrighted music in user-uploaded videos, and giving rightsholders the option to take them down, claim their ad revenues or leave them be. Now YouTube is launching a new tool that gives uploaders more control over whether their content falls in to Content ID in the first place. […]

Distributor Ditto Music is moving into NFTs, but its plans will enable fans to acquire shares in songs, rather than just digital artwork. The company has launched an ‘NFT exchange’ as part of its Bluebox royalties platform, and is working with artists Big Zuu and Taylor Bennett on its first sales. Both will be auctioning […]

Apple’s 30% “app tax” (as critics like to call it) isn’t always 30%. It’s 15% for subscriptions once a subscriber has been paying for a year, and since November 2020 it has also been 15% for smaller developers and businesses who make less than $1m a year. A change clearly made in part due to the pressure […]

We first wrote about OnlyFans in August 2020, when Cardi B launched a $4.99-a-month subscription on the crowdfunding site previously better known for being used by adult entertainment stars. In December, the company said it was paying out $200m a month (!) to its community of creators, as it made its pitch for more mainstream celebrities to use it. […]

New rules on equity crowdfunding in the US will allow startups to raise up to $5m a year from ‘non-accredited’ investors (i.e. the general public). Expect a wave of startups testing it out, including music firms. Early out of the blocks is MySongbird, a streaming service for live performances and music documentaries, which is seeking $5m […]

Async is a startup focused on ‘programmable art’ that is capable of changing over time. Oh, and it’s also part of the blockchain wave, with that art able to be bought, resold and interacted with. It has generated more than $1m in sales for digital artists since its launch in February 2020. Now the company is […]

Artists piling onto the NFTs bandwagon is one thing, but prominent music industry executives leaving their jobs for it is quite another. Joe Conyers III, of Downtown Music Holdings, has left for a new EVP role at cryptocurrency firm Crypto.com, where he will be in charge of its new “invite-only NFT platform that will feature […]

From DSP launches to label expansions to [waves enormous plug] new education initiatives for the industry, there is plenty of exciting activity happening around Africa’s music ecosystem. There are two more examples to report on this morning. First, Universal Music Group has extended its licensing deal with streaming service Boomplay from seven countries in Africa to […]

Yesterday was the first day of SXSW 2021’s online conference, including a chat between former WME music chief Marc Geiger and Pandora founder Tim Westergren – now working on their new ventures, venue network Savelive and livestreaming firm Sessions. The topic was timely: the explosion of ways for artists to connect with fans and to try […]

In an industry often favoring major labels and traditional music deal structures, Opposition stands in the corner of the artist, offering the tools and support that allow artists to maintain control of their music and creative journey. Opposition works with artists to diversify their revenue through a suite of tailored services, including distribution & label […]

Every social media platform has its community of ‘creators’ and now Clubhouse wants one too. The audio startup is launching a “creator accelerator program” that it says will “support and equip 20 creators with resources they need to bring their ideas and creativity to life”. Which hopefully means people who won’t just be wanging on about bitcoin […]

Fresh from launching in a number of African countries, Spotify is giving its flagship ‘African Heat’ playlist a new marketing push. That includes launching an #africanheatchallenge dance challenge on social media, billboards in New York and Toronto, and embedded video clips from artists including Focalistic, Fuse ODG, Olamide and Moonchild Sanelly. “For me, African Heat […]

Thankfully for fans of British music of a certain era and geographic origin, Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess hasn’t spent the Covid-19 lockdown spouting conspiracy-theory claptrap. Instead, he launched Tim’s Twitter Listening Party to bring cheer to a growing community of music fans. Now he’s building on that to raise money to support independent venues by… selling earphones! […]

It’s been an awkward few months if you’re a Stone Roses fan who thinks lockdown is necessary, wants to get vaccinated, and doesn’t believe the Covid-19 pandemic is one big plot by The Authorities. Because frontman Ian Brown has… different views. And he has used his social media profiles and his music to express that […]

Apple’s HomePod is dead, long live the HomePod Mini! Except we’re talking more about a retirement: Apple will carry on selling its first smart speaker until stock runs out, and will still be providing software updates for it. However, the company’s smart speakers strategy is pivoting firmly to its smaller, cheaper model. “HomePod mini has […]

Throughout the current UK parliamentary inquiry into the economics of music streaming, and indeed, throughout the history of streaming itself, Music Ally has worked hard to report fairly the full range of views in the debates about how streaming pays off for musicians. That’s why we’ve reported at length on the key sessions at the […]

This guest column is by David Martin, CEO at the Featured Artists Coalition, and Annabella Coldrick, CEO at the Music Managers Forum: Whether it’s COVID 19, Brexit, the yearning for live shows and international touring, the economics of streaming, or the constant battle against inequalities, there’s a lot going on in the music industry right […]

The music industry has got quite… well, let’s say “excited” about Non-Fungible-Tokens (NFTs) in the last couple of months. The headlines have been breathless and the figures eye-popping. Grimes sold $5.8m of NFTs in 20 minutes! 3lau sold 33 NFTs for $11.6m! The former boss of T-Mobile US paid Steve Aoki $888,888.88 for an NFT […]

We’re delighted to announce our new joint venture with iManage Africa, the Music Business Academy for Africa. We’ll be working together to provide fully localised vocational education for aspiring creative entrepreneurs across the continent. It’s the brainchild of Godwin Tom (iManage Africa), a Nigerian talent manager and exec who’s worked with the likes of Wizkid […]

European licensing hub Ice was founded by three collecting societies: PRS for Music, Stim and Gema. However, its ‘Ice Core’ also licenses repertoire from other entities: Imro, BMI and independent publishers including Downtown and Concord. Now the latter group has grown with the addition of Belgian PRO Sabam. “We pursued an exceptionally thorough process to […]

One of Spain’s collecting societies, SGAE, is coming in from the cold and being readmitted to global PROs organisation Cisac, after reforms that the latter say “have transformed the society and its operations”. SGAE was temporarily booted out of Cisac in May 2019, after well-documented controversies around how it was run, and particularly ‘The Wheel’, a […]

Earlier this week we reported on a SoundCloud interview with Vice that suggested the company would be taking a 45% cut from its new ‘fan-powered royalties’ (user-centric) system. The company has since revealed that the interview misinterpreted its policies, and that its share is actually lower. A spokesperson told Music Ally that SoundCloud is not keeping 45%, […]

Spotify’s catalogue of K-Pop music is returning to its former glory, after the company managed to end its high-profile dispute with South Korean firm Kakao Entertainment. The new agreement is global, including South Korea, with the separation of the two having been one of the sticking points that led to Kakao’s catalogue being removed from […]

Amazon Music’s app is steadily adding more features beyond basic audio streaming. Having integrated livestreams last year, now the app is getting merchandise features. As of this week, artists who are taking part will have their merch shown on their profile pages, with Billboard reporting that most of it will be available with Prime shipping for Amazon […]

Games firm Roblox is now a public company, having successfully seen through its direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Its first day of trading yesterday saw the company’s share price close at $69.50, valuing Roblox at $38.26bn. That is certainly good news for Roblox’s investors, who include Warner Music Group, since when the company raised […]

Lead: Which Twitch Mix Fits? – Music is essential to the Twitch experience, but Twitch’s formal relationship with music is still a little murky – albeit with the launch of the licensed Soundtrack by Twitch feature offering welcome progress. The power of Twitch as a marketing, communication, and community-building tool is also still open to debate […]

Australian artist Courtney Barnett is excellent live – we have the ‘bought in post-gig over-excited state’ official Courtney Barnett bright-red socks to prove it. Now she’s showing off some of her best live performances in a new archives website. It’s a combination of footage from concerts, radio sessions and other live appearances since the early days of […]

A new report in the UK has explored some of the barriers that women face when trying to develop their careers in the radio industry. Published by Radio Silence and Women In Ctrl, the report is based on interviews and surveys with more than 100 women working in the British radio industry. The findings aren’t […]

Look away now, Grammy Awards organisers: the most controversial omission from this year’s nominations has just been anointed as the biggest ‘global digital single’ of 2020 by industry body the IFPI. It says that The Weeknd’s ‘Blinding Lights’ generated 2.72bn ‘subscription stream equivalents’ globally last year, ahead of second-ranked ‘Dance Monkey’ by Tones and I […]

If you want our tip for making life instantly 78% less stressful, mute the words ‘Harry’, ‘Meghan’ and ‘Piers Morgan’ on all your social apps. But if that fails, perhaps a new app called Sona is worth a try. Developed by a US startup of the same name, it’s a ‘music therapy’ app offering a catalogue of […]

Ensuring that the music clips used in social apps are properly licensed has been a key focus for rightsholders in recent years, and deals with Facebook/Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and others have offered encouragement. Now one of the startups hoping to be a middleman in even more of these deals has announced an $11m funding round. […]

It’s just under nine months since Instagram livestreams brand Verzuz signed an exclusive deal with Apple Music. However, that deal is now at an end according to Variety, after Verzuz was acquired by Triller’s parent company Triller Network. The deal will see Verzuz founders Swizz Beatz and Timbaland getting shares in Triller Network, a portion of which […]

We reported the other day on the Kings of Leon NFT sale being extended after four of its ‘golden ticket’ NFTs failed to meet their reserve prices. So it’s only fair to also report on the final performance of the sale, which reached more than $2m according to Billboard – a figure that came from the band’s […]

TikTok is launching a new feature described as its ‘music hub’ in the UK, which it says will help people to see which tracks, artists and playlists are currently trending on the service. It will be accessed from TikTok’s ‘Discover’ screen, and people will also be pointed in its direction if they search for music […]

Last year, startups accelerator Techstars Music announced plans to run its 2021 program virtually, while promising that 50% of the startups’ CEOs would be diverse. It also revealed that Amazon Music had joined its ‘member companies’ from the music industry, supporting the accelerator including investment in its startups. Concord is also chipping in extra seed and follow-in […]

Dice started as a mobile ticketing app, before swiftly expanding into livestreams as Covid-19 lockdowns hit physical concerts. Now it’s expanding again: into merchandise. Its new ‘Merch On Dice’ feature will enable artists to create limited-edition ‘product drops’ that fans will be able to order for pickup at venues (once concerts are running again) or […]

Sparkline is a new platform developed by technology consultancy company Decimal, who mainly work with music clients on development projects. Decimal pitches Sparkline as the “missing analytics tool for Spotify” – a bold claim hinging on its ability to allow users to get insight into third parties on the streaming platform.  The company identified that […]

After coming late to streaming, Canada is now experiencing a boom in subscriber numbers and overall music consumption. The post Country Profile – Canada 2021 appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Anyone looking for a reminder not to get too carried away with the NFTs bonanza would do worse to look at the fate of some of the blockchain music companies from a few years ago that had big ambitions. Big Neon for example, whose founding team included Ticketfly co-founder Dan Teree and cryptocurrency expert Riccardo […]

We wrote last week about plans to launch a series of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for the new Kings of Leon album. So how is that going? Well, the auction for the NFTs has been extended until 8pm EST today (8 March), which doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going brilliantly. The six ‘golden ticket’ NFTs, which include front-row seats […]

It’s International Women’s Day today, which means an inbox full of related press releases, many of which are simply new spins on things that were announced last year or the year before. Which neatly illustrates the challenge being tackled: the music industry is good at saying the right things (and sending out press releases about […]

Oh, and don’t forget AR contact lenses sometime after 2030. By which time nobody will remember the prediction or the predictor enough to check whether it was right. In fairness, Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst at TF International Securities, is one of the Cupertino-focused crystal-ball gazers who has earned respect with accurate predictions about what Apple […]

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek recently told Music Ally that he believes “100% that we’re going to see a rise of Bollywood and new types of Indian music making it into the global scene in the very near future”. As an Indian journalist who’s been covering Bollywood and other types of Indian music for two over decades, I […]

The UK’s Music Managers Forum (MMF) is bringing back its MMF Unite series of virtual events focusing on race, racism and injustice. They’re kicking off next week with ‘Black Women Mean Business’, an online panel on 9 March featuring Nike Durosaro (Big Drum Entertainment), Shikayla Nadine (SNM Management) and Shauni Caballero (The Go 2 Agency), […]

That’s a rhetorical question: of COURSE you have. Unless you’d prefer the trap veteran’s dulcet tones to read you Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Pride and Prejudice, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes or Peter Pan, of course. No, Gucci hasn’t taken a surprising career leap into audiobooks narration. Instead, this is something called Project Gucciberg created by a […]

We’re familiar with loyalty schemes for supermarkets, but for music distributors? That’s a new one. TuneCore is trying it with its new TuneCore Rewards program for artists, which has just launched in beta. It’s based around a series of educational videos – ‘master classes’ – covering topics including promotion, social media and release planning. Doing the classes earns artists […]

The major streaming services are continuing to choose emerging artists for their respective promotion schemes. Spotify and Apple Music announced their latest picks yesterday. Spotify has gone with Norwegian artist Girl In Red as its latest ‘Radar’ artist in the US. She’ll be getting the full playlisting / Spotify Single / mini-documentary / billboard ads treatment, ahead […]

Universal Music is the latest major label to publish financial results showing that its business rode out the Covid-19 storm in 2020. UMG’s revenues for the year grew by 3.8% to €7.43bn (around $8.95bn) – or by 4.7% when calculated as ‘organic growth’. Within that, UMG’s recorded music revenues grew by 5.9% to €5.97bn, although that increase […]

Haven’t you launched an NFT yet? What are you waiting for? Grab an audio doodle from your studio outtakes, commission some terrible fantasy or sci-fi novel cover-artwork* and/or a GIF of a funny animal – cats are a saturated market by the way, so we suggest pivoting towards penguins, bonobos or blobfish – and STONKTASTIC RICHES […]

Ahead of International Women’s Day next week, Abbey Road Studios is holding an ‘Equalise’ festival online, with a focus on responding to the fact that fewer than 5% of music producers and engineers are women. The event is a mixture of masterclasses, panels and mentoring sessions, and runs until Monday. Sessions still to come include: Becoming […]

When we saw headlines about Twitch publishing its first ever transparency report, our news antenna started pinging. Would this be a chance to get data on how many copyright takedowns the service has been hit by from music rightsholders? When other tech firms have published similar reports, they have included takedowns in the data. Unfortunately, […]

Tencent-owned music streaming service Joox is one of Spotify’s key rivals in south east Asia, and that’s a region where K-Pop is enormously popular. Credit the company for being quick off the mark, then, following the recent news that Spotify has lost a big chunk of its K-Pop catalogue due to a breakdown in licensing negotiations with […]

Songtrust has revealed some new stats showing the growth of its business, both in terms of the songs that it collects royalties for, and the songwriters who it’s paying those royalties out to. The new numbers: 3m songs and 350,000 songwriters, up from 2m songs and 300,000 clients in December 2019. The company also says that its royalty […]

If you’re a livestreaming startup, now is the time to be raising funding (or if you’re Veeps, getting bought by Live Nation). Two of the companies trying to help musicians perform live online for their fans have announced new funding rounds this week. Maestro, whose clients have included Billie Eilish and Erykah Badu, has raised […]

Spotify is pushing hard in podcasts, and research firm eMarketer has predicted that this will pay off in 2020 with the company overtaking Apple for US podcast listeners. “This year 28.2 million people will listen to podcasts on Spotify at least monthly, while 28.0 million will listen via Apple Podcasts,” claimed its report. eMarketer thinks the gap […]

Middle Eastern streaming service Anghami may be going public soon, via a special purpose acquisition company (Spac) in the US. Bloomberg reported that Anghami is “close to being listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York” in a move that could value the company at nearly $300m. The report added that the move could be announced […]

User-centric payouts has been bubbling on the fringes of the music industry for years as an issue. The first time I took it seriously was at an industry board meeting last year – no names! – where we got two presentations on the topic. The big question everyone in the room wanted answered, including me, was: would […]

Rumours that SoundCloud would become the first big music streaming service to adopt user-centric payouts were correct. The company has just announced plans for what it’s calling ‘fan-powered royalties’. The system won’t apply to the entire catalogue of music that is available on SoundCloud, but just to the tracks uploaded by independent artists directly to […]

After a fan-made music videos contest and the band’s official TikTok debut, the latest stage in Queen’s digital strategy has been revealed: a mobile game. It’s called ‘Queen: Rock Tour’, and launched today for Android and iOS. Universal Music is keeping it in the family too: the Vivendi family, since the game is by Gameloft, the games publishing subsidiary of UMG’s […]

Apple Music has a new hub focusing on songwriters, producers and session musicians. It’s called ‘Behind the Songs‘ and launched on Friday as a home for related playlists like ‘Songbook’ and ‘Behind the Boards’, as well as Apple Music Radio shows including Nile Rodgers’ ‘Deep Hidden Meaning’. There will also be original video series including […]

Facebook’s experimental studio NPE Team has launched its second music product: a video-sharing app called Bars, for rappers. It comes 10 months after the studio launched music-making app Collab. Available in the US App Store with an invitation-only closed beta, Bars offers a catalogue of pre-created beats for people to rap over, with lyrical features including rhyme […]

Spotify is excited about having finally launched in South Korea, but the company will be rather less excited about losing a significant chunk of its K-Pop catalogue globally. After licensing negotiations broke down with one of South Korea’s biggest distributors, Kakao M, the latter’s music has been removed from the streaming service. The fact that […]

The bottom dropped out of the live music industry in 2020 due to Covid-19, but it’s becoming clear that the recorded music industry weathered the storm thanks to streaming subscription revenues, whose growth continued. US industry body the RIAA’s annual figures for 2020 are the latest evidence, revealing that the retail value of recorded music revenues […]

Anyone can join Twitch, but you can’t start making decent money from it until you have ‘affiliate’ status, which unlocks features like channel subscriptions, bits and ad revenue sharing. DistroKid is the latest distributor to sign a partnership with Twitch to fast-track musicians to affiliate status, hopping over the stage where they have to stream […]

If K-Pop can take over the global music world, what price J-Pop achieving similar success? It’s not happened yet, but Deezer sees an international appetite for Japanese music, and the streaming service is launching a new channel to test it. Called ‘Japanese Music‘, it will offer a range of playlists, from J-Pop, City Pop and […]

It’s quite the week for the rapidly-evolving streaming ecosystem across Africa, with Spotify launching in a number of countries there, and now distributor TuneCore getting up and running in the region too. The distributor has hired two executives for its Africa launch: Jade Leaf as head of TuneCore for Southern Africa, and Chioma Onuchukwu as […]

Our recent Music Ally TV Show sustainability episode offered plenty of encouragement for music companies thinking about cutting their emissions. Now BMG has been talking about its efforts on this front. The company says it has offset the more than 3,000 tons of carbon dioxide produced by its activities in 2019, including offsetting its emissions […]

Spotify’s management team talked about a lot of things in the company’s ‘Stream On’ event earlier this week, but one announcement was saved for later. Yesterday the streaming services announced plans for an ‘exchangeable senior notes offering‘ from its US subsidiary to raise $1.3bn. It’s debt funding, essentially. “The notes will be senior, unsecured obligations […]

Lead: Always-on my mind: Artists have long accepted – sometimes reluctantly – that their role includes intimate direct-to-fan digital connectivity, usually via Social Media. Grinding out content on multiple platforms, each with unique creative, time, and emotional pressures, was a stressful enough existence before Coronavirus made the need to be always-online seem all the more urgent. […]

This isn’t a music story, specifically, but there are some high-profile musicians involved. Global Citizen is the organisation behind several high-profile livestreamed music events last year, as part of its wider mission to tackle global poverty, inequity and the climate emergency. Yesterday, it published what it’s describing as a ‘recovery plan for the world… to […]

There’s a new group in the UK that aims to support women entering the music industry. It’s called Moving The Needle, and is launching ahead of International Women’s Day on 8 March. The group is planning to offer a mixture of mentorship, training, events and networking to young women “of all backgrounds, ethnicities and personality types”. […]

Startup Vampr is describing itself as a “LinkedIn for Creatives” nowadays, and the company has just raised more funding to continue developing its service. The money is $790k, taking it to $2.6m raised so far – with a Series A funding round to follow. Vampr says it will use the new funding to launch a […]

K-Pop giant Big Hit Entertainment had an excellent 2020 despite the Covid-19 pandemic. Its financial results, published yesterday, revealed that the company behind BTS’s revenues grew by 36% last year to KRW 796.3bn (around $716.7m). The breakdown is very interesting too. Concert revenues dropped off a cliff, unsurprisingly: down 98% to KRW 3.4bn. However, album sales […]

Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music had their say at the UK’s streaming economics inquiry yesterday: if you missed it last night, here’s our report on their session. But yesterday the parliamentary committee holding the inquiry also published the latest written evidence from the three major labels, in response to some specific questions from the politicians […]

Reporting on a two-and-a-half hour parliamentary inquiry session the day after liveblogging a two-hour Spotify event plus associated interviews? That’s living alright! It’s a busy week for anyone involved with the music streaming world. Today’s hearing in the UK’s streaming economics inquiry was the long-awaited appearance of Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music to field questions […]

“I believe 100% that we’re going to see a rise of Bollywood and new types of Indian music making it into the global scene in the very near future.” Not the first prediction of this kind, but it carries extra weight given that the person making it was Spotify CEO Daniel Ek. He was talking […]

Spotify is holding an online ‘Stream On’ event today, to announce… well, we’re not quite sure what the company is announcing, but we’re expecting some new product features; updates on how its tools for artists and ‘two-sided marketplace’ is evolving; plenty of podcasts talk and… well, we’ll find out. Stick with us, and you will […]

Lee Martin was the developer of what we crowned the ‘Best Listening Party’ in our Sandbox 2020 best music marketing campaigns report – for Future Islands’ album ‘As Long As You Are’. This innovative campaign was the catalyst for Martin building his own platform, Listening Party, which lets artists and podcast creators throw listening parties […]

South Korea’s music business remains buoyant in 2021, with digital music in particular on the rise – despite K-Pop fans’ enduring love of physical goods The post Country Profile – South Korea 2021 appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Spotify’s big podcasting moves get lots of attention in the music industry, but the company’s aggressive push into podcasts has had a bigger ripple effect. From Amazon Music buying production firm Wondery to iHeartMedia’s recent acquisition of ad-tech firm Triton Digital, lots of big players are making big moves at the moment to position themselves […]

‘Company X not buying Company Y’ may seem like a pointless news story: we may as well tell you that Music Ally isn’t buying Spotify, right? But news that Twitter was in talks about a potential acquisition of Indian tech company ShareChat *is* interesting, even if the deal appears to have run into the rocks. TechCrunch claimed […]

We spend a lot of time writing about short-form music videos, but long-form content is also finding new audiences through a variety of digital platforms. Including a new one that’s just debuted on Amazon Prime in the US, called The Coda Collection. It’s a streaming video channel with a catalogue of more than 150 music documentaries […]

There are plenty of interesting stats in Will Page’s latest article for the Financial Times, as you’d expect from a former Spotify chief economist. One that stood out for us showed the current scale of DIY artists operating outside the label system. “As lockdown took hold, major labels released 1.2m songs in 2020; DIY artists released […]

Having become one of the key services (and communities) for music makers, Splice is raising money again. The company has raised a $55m funding round from investors Goldman Sachs and Music – the latter being the investment company of Songs Music Publishing founder Matt Pincus. According to Bloomberg, the round valued Splice at nearly $500m, and took its […]

We’ve followed the music deals and clashes of Facebook, Google and other big tech companies with diligence, but we keep a watching eye on how these firms are interacting with other creative and media industries. Two stories today reflect the deals and, yes, the clashes with the news publishing world. News Corporation’s senior executives have […]

A number of artists and festivals have experimented with the game Minecraft in recent years. One of the still-powerful things about it is the community of YouTubers and Twitch streamers making Minecraft videos, which reach big audiences. As part of what’s already been a really inventive (and long-lasting) campaign for the band, Glass Animals have […]

We’ve been writing about live-audio startup Clubhouse and thinking about the potential it might hold for musicians. Some artists are already diving right in to explore though. One example is Axel Mansoor, who’s already been one of the users to have their faces used as Clubhouse’s app icon. Since the end of 2020 he has […]

Spotify’s annual year-end Wrapped campaign packages up people’s listening in best-of playlists, but now it’s being given a remix by AI-powered A&R startup Andrson. It has launched something called ReWrapped, which people can sign in to using their Spotify accounts. Andrson then puts its audio analysis engine to work on comparing their favourite tracks from 2020 […]

We may be reaching the point where someone needs to take Triller’s shovel away and gently remind it of the merits of stopping digging. Earlier this week, the company was the focus of a Billboard report claiming it had half the monthly active users [MAUs] that it claimed last year, rebutting that by claiming there was […]

Copyright buyouts, where composers and other musicians creating music for film and TV give up their future royalty rights and accept a one-off fee instead, are currently a very sensitive subject in music circles. Now collecting societies body Cisac has teamed up with US organisation Your Music Your Future to expand the latter’s educational campaign around buyouts […]

As British artists continue to bemoan the Brexit balls-up that threatens their ability to tour Europe, industry body the BPI is offering the British government a timely reminder of the potential value of music exports. It has published a report claiming that this value could grow to more than £1bn (around $1.39bn) with a key caveat: “if […]

A group of video streaming services in South Korea are protesting at plans to increase the royalties they pay for music used in the content on their platforms. The Korea Herald has the story, which explains that the Korea Music Copyright Association (Komca) proposed an increase in rates for Korean video services from 0.625% of […]

When YouTube, SoundCloud and Twitch took part in a DSPs hearing at the UK’s streaming economics inquiry recently – well, Twitch’s rep didn’t get to speak – we knew there’d be another session for the big guns of the audio streaming world. Now it has been confirmed for next week: Tuesday 23 February. Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music […]

Having started life as an AI-powered mastering tool, Landr has expanded a lot in recent years: into distribution, for example. Its latest new service is called Sessions, not to be confused with the livestreaming startup of the same name. Landr Sessions is essentially Zoom but made for musicians, including the ability to stream high-quality audio […]

Distributor Ditto Music is the latest company trying to widen access to the music industry. It has launched a new scheme called Industry Access aimed at people from minority and working-class backgrounds. It will include a training programme for up to 100 people aged 16 and over, as well as a music industry fair and […]

As PRS for Music’s recent launch of a livestreaming tariff in the UK (and subsequent u-turn after a barrage of criticism) showed, creating licensing for livestreams is a sensitive affair right now. The European Music Managers Alliance (Emma) has joined the debate by setting out its views on how such tariffs should work, at a time when […]

Warner Music Group’s latest splashing of its cash is focused on the Middle East, and independent label Rotana Music. The undisclosed investment includes a deal for WMG’s Ada Worldwide label services division to distribute Rotana’s releases “globally outside of MENA and via YouTube for the entire world”. “We’re especially excited about the opportunity to both […]

We profiled Pex in March last year: the startup has developed technology to scan, fingerprint and index audio and video on a swathe of video streaming services and social apps. It has since shared some of its data on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook. Now the company has raised an impressive $57m funding round to continue its growth. Tencent and Tencent […]

In the past, Triller has responded aggressively to accusations that it has inflated its user figures in public statements: for example threatening to sue analytics firm Apptopia when the latter questioned its stats. Now the issue has cropped up again with a Billboard article claiming that Triller had around 25 million monthly active users in July 2020, despite a […]

Music-focused channels were streamed for 24m hours in January, according to a report published by StreamElements using data from analytics firm Rainmaker·gg. “At this same time in 2020, it was only averaging around 4.6 million hours, which illustrates the difference a year and a pandemic can make,” claimed the report. It also breaks down the top 10 […]

The latest episode of our Music Ally TV Show focused on sustainability and the music industry: the case for companies in our sector upping their efforts even more to help tackle the climate emergency. The first section of the show was a discussion between Dr Allen Hershkowitz, one of the world’s leading experts on the […]

“We’re treating the atmosphere like a sewer! Every day we dump a hundred million tonnes more of global warming pollution into the atmosphere… We are literally on a path, this might sound extreme, but frankly the new concept that people are talking about is ‘human extinction event’.” As one of the world’s leading environmental scientists, […]

ByteDance appears to have seen off attempts by the last US administration to force it to sell TikTok to an American company or shut it down. Now the company can refocus its attention on a country where its social video app *has* been shut down for a while: India. Bloomberg reported that ByteDance has a plan: a […]

Mario Winans is known to many people for his 2004 hit ‘I Don’t Wanna Know’ but you probably DO wanna know about what he’s up to in 2021. It’s a music startup called Artime, which is going to focus on online mentoring for independent artists and students. They’ll be able to browse the company’s roster of […]

SyncFloor, the music discovery and licensing platform, has been awarded a technology patent for the key part of its platform designed with the needs of video production teams in mind: its “natural language search.” As CEO Kirt Debique (pictured) explained to Music Ally in our Startup Files piece in June 2020, SyncFloor believes it can generate […]

In 2018, ticketing startup Seated made people, ahem, sit up and take notice when it was one of the winners at the Midemlab startups contest. We reported on its winning pitch at the time, with the company working directly with artists to sell tickets to their shows, and to remind fans when they were on sale – even automatically […]

Friday’s episode of the Music Ally TV Show was really interesting: an exploration of the music industry and environmental sustainability. “It’s more than just the right thing to do: it’s an essential business obligation,” said Dr Allen Hershkowitz, one of the world’s authorities on this area. “There is no one big answer to this issue… […]

The London Stock Exchange may be the listing venue of choice for companies like Hipgnosis and Round Hill Music, but Universal Music Group will be going public on a different European exchange – later this year. Parent company Vivendi confirmed its plans to spin off UMG on the Euronext exchange in Amsterdam, in an announcement that came […]

A year in to the Covid-19 global pandemic, and in many countries there are still huge swathes of industries working from home – music included. Both there and in countries where control measures have enabled more of a ‘normal’ life to resume, though, thoughts are turning to the longer term changes to working patterns that the […]

SyncFloor, the music discovery and licensing platform, has been awarded a technology patent for the key part of its platform designed with the needs of video production teams in mind: its “natural language search.” As CEO Kirt Debique explained to Music Ally in our Startup Files piece in June 2020, SyncFloor believes it can generate […]

We’re looking for a talented, creative and dynamic Audience Development Manager to join the AWAL Recordings team and work with our incredible and growing roster of emerging and already established talent from all over the world, including Lauv, Tom Misch, Nick Cave, Little Simz, Girl In Red, Everything Everything, Alfie Templeman, FINNEAS, and many more. […]

A lot has been said about the strengths and failings of music streaming services during the UK parliamentary inquiry into the economics of this market. Yesterday, three DSPs got the chance to have their say. Well, two of them, as things turned out. In one of the most curious episodes in the inquiry so far, […]

Yesterday’s second session at the UK’s parliamentary inquiry into the economics of music streaming was another double-header, featuring representatives of musicians. Graham Davies is chief executive of songwriters body the Ivors Academy, while Horace Trubridge is general secretary of the Musicians’ Union (and a founder member of 1970s band Darts). The panel of MPs questioning […]

With every music streaming service and their aunt piling into podcasts, we’re interested in some of the innovation coming from startups in that space: as a precursor to future features (or indeed acquisitions) from the big platforms. So Podz is worth checking out: it’s an iPhone app pitched as “your audio newsfeed”. What that means is it […]

Apparently tech mogul Elon Musk has just agreed to do Clubhouse with Kanye West, which is either the latest proof of the audio-debating-club’s amazing disruptive potential, or the latest proof that it’s a hellhole of blowhards. Delete according to preference. But Clubhouse *is* having a bit of a moment right now: even Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg dropped […]

The latest day of hearings for the UK’s parliamentary inquiry into the economics of music streaming was the busiest yet, with three sessions – including the first to involve streaming services. As before, there was a mixture of tough questions, grandstanding and moments of farce. And plenty to think about as the digital, culture, media and […]

Fresh from inking a spangly new deal with Universal Music Group, TikTok is preparing to host a livestreamed concert by one of its key artists. Justin Bieber will play a full-length concert on TikTok on 14 February (yes, for Valentine’s Day) with a re-airing the following day. It’s very much a fan-service event too: Bieber will be […]

If ever there were a story whose keywords were guaranteed to get Music Ally’s bulletin blocked by the music industry’s spam filters en masse, it’s this one. Well, apart from the stories about That Site launching a record label or That Other Site being used by Cardi B for a fan subscription. But anyway: Deezer has launched a […]

Amazon regularly adds new music-related commands and features to its Alexa voice assistant, and many go under the radar of journalists and the music industry. The latest is worth noting though: owners of Echo smart speakers can now ask Alexa to “share this song with” one of their contacts – as in people they have set up as […]

2021 is shaping up as a highly interesting year for streaming service (turned distributor) SoundCloud. First hints that it could be mulling user-centric payouts in some form, and now news that it has added Q&A boss Troy Carter to its board of directors. SoundCloud says Carter will be advising the company on “all topics across the music […]

Lead: Indie-Visible – Marketing indie rock bands on streaming platforms can be tricky for a number of reasons: their traditionally album-based release cycle goes counter to the current approach of endless singles; their aesthetic, ethos and fandom require patience and context; and while their fanbase wants their favourite artists on streaming services, they also demand special physical products […]

Spotify launched a songwriters hub on its service last December, gathering playlists and podcasts by or about the songwriting community. Now it’s launching a dedicated site, called Noteable, for those songwriters. The site, which comes with its own newsletter and social accounts, is being pitched as a place for writers and composers to “get the […]

We’ve been writing about NFTs (nonfungible tokens) recently, and thinking about their potential for the music industry. But other entertainment sectors are doing the same, games in particular – the pioneer industry in terms of creating collectible digital items that people are willing to pay money for. What they’re paying money for this week are […]

Twitter is the latest tech company to publish its financial results for the final quarter of 2020. It ended the year with 192 million ‘monetisable daily active users’ (mDAUs – its chosen metric) which was up 27% year-on-year. Twitter’s revenues also grew, by 28% to $1.29bn, helping it to an operating profit of $252m. In keeping with […]

Jadu is one of the startups exploring the potential of augmented reality technology for music artists. Its latest experiment is with artist Palaye Royale, for whom it has created an AR experience called ‘Curse of Calypso‘. It’ll bring the band (and their piano) into fans’ living rooms, along with music from their latest album ‘The […]

10 more artists have been announced as receiving funding from the UK’s Music Export Growth Scheme, which is run by industry body the BPI. It’s the first tranche of funding since the scheme was put on hiatus during the initial wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Jungle, Beabadoobee, Bicep, Kero Kero Bonito, Kwaye, Wesley Joseph, Orla […]

It may be a while before Amazon takes the wrappers off its next family of Alexa-enabled devices, given the Christmas season tends to be its focus. However, Bloomberg is offering a sneak peek at what Amazon may have in store for later in 2021. “A new Echo device with a large touchscreen that attaches to the wall […]

Beggars Group Ltd is arguably the most influential group of record labels in the independent sector. We consist of five labels, four of which are based in London (XL Recordings, 4AD, Rough Trade and Young Turks), with our fifth (Matador) based in New York. Our artists include names such as Radiohead, Queens of the Stone Age, […]

Hungary came late to digital music but is rapidly making up for lost time, transforming it into one of Europe’s fastest-growing music markets The post Country Profile – Hungary 2021 appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

At last week’s indies session at the UK’s parliamentary inquiry into music streaming, Aim boss Paul Pacifico suggested that major labels buying independent distributors wasn’t necessarily a concern as long as new independent firms sprung up to keep that sector thriving. We’re not saying PlayTreks is the next Awal, but it’s one of the newest companies to […]

NFTs – nonfungible tokens – are rapidly pinging the radar of the music industry, as it wakes up to the decent sums of money being paid for digital collectible assets of various kinds. We expect to see a growing number of music-related NFTs this year, and Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda – often early into new tech trends […]

On the rare news-day when we don’t have a Hipgnosis catalogue acquisition to report, it feels like there’s often news of the company raising more money for its next swathe of deals instead. On Friday, Hipgnosis announced that it had raised £75m (around $103m) through its latest sale of shares, with MBW reporting that Morgan Stanley Investment Management led […]

If you thought Donald Trump’s advisers’ attempts to overturn the US presidential election would be the most surprising legal arguments you’d hear in 2021… Well, Triller might just have, ahem, trumped them. After Universal Music Group pulled its catalogue from the short video platform saying it had “shamefully withheld payments owed to our artists”, Triller […]

Spotify has filed its full report for 2020 with US regulator the SEC, and there are some interesting nuggets on the company’s business in there. For example: “Through December 31, 2020, we have paid more than €21 billion in royalties to certain record labels, music publishers, and other rights holders since our launch,” explains the filing. […]

Having recently grilled the bosses of the three major labels’ UK subsidiaries, today it was time for the MPs on the UK’s inquiry into the economics of music streaming to hear from the independent sector. Jazz Re:freshed co-CEO and executive director Yvette Griffith; Aim CEO Paul Pacifico; and Beggars Group general counsel Rupert Skellett were […]

Joe Budden was one of Spotify’s first big podcast signings back in August 2018, with an exclusive on his popular hip-hop show. However, two years later Budden binned off the streaming service in public fashion, claiming “Spotify is pillaging. You pillage the audience from the podcast, and you’ve continued to pillage each step of the way”. Where […]

SoundCloud’s latest expansion is taking it into the buzziest areas of the modern media industry: gaming and esports. The streaming service is launching its own online gaming tournament, Player One, which will see eight popular musicians on SoundCloud competing in Fortnite for an audience watching on Twitch and SoundCloud. Rapper Rico Nasty is on board as […]

During the ‘live and livestreaming’ track at last week’s NY:LON Connect conference, one of the recurring points was the idea of geo-fencing virtual tours, with shows focusing on fans in a specific city or region. We expect to see plenty of experimentation with this in 2021, and artist Todd Rundgren’s upcoming tour is one of […]