Music Declares Emergency campaign gets an Impala award
Too often, still, the climate emergency is seen by even-senior politicians as an opportunity for puerile stunts of political point-scoring – and this at a time when researchers are warning that the planet may already have crossed a series of climate ‘tipping points’, where certain impacts of global heating take on a momentum of their own.
In Music Ally’s domain, though, what has been encouraging in 2019 has been the music industry’s growing engagement with the climate emergency. One of the latest examples being an organisation in the UK called Music Declares Emergency, which has today been given independent body Impala’s ‘Outstanding Contribution’ award.
“This movement seizes the power of the music sector to take action and inspire change. It is important to join forces and to encourage collective action for climate,” said Impala’s executive chair Helen Smith, encouraging artists and music-industry bodies to sign the movement’s declaration, which was first announced in July this year. Among its promises: “We acknowledge the environmental impact of music industry practices and commit to taking urgent action.”
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Source: Music ally
Tools. Toneden: Automated Social Marketing
With a multitude of music marketing tools available to artist teams, it can sometimes be difficult to decide which ones to prioritise, especially when most of them are eating into your monthly budget. It’s therefore great to see how ToneDen has been further developing its offering since we last covered the platform in 2017, adding […]
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 241: Music Merchandising Moves On
A T-shirt or a flimsy tour programme was the bulk of merchandise in the “old days” – mass-produced items to shift quickly when an act was on tour. Fortunately, things have changed dramatically in recent years – with a clear drive to be as environmentally aware as possible. Print-on-demand technology is also allowing acts to […]
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Source: Music ally
Monokrome Music launches rightsAUDIT catalogue review service
Founded in 2017, Monokrome Music offers artists digital marketing and social media support. It expanded its offering in September with the launch of rightsHUB as a centralised point to store contractual information as well as release metadata, publishing and neighbouring rights data. It has now launched rightsAUDIT, a service aimed at rightholders (artists, labels, managers, songwriters) […]
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Source: Music ally
Holly Herndon: ‘Cool AI tools will augment the producer’s palette’
In Music Ally’s recent report on AI music (which you can read here if you missed it earlier this week) we cited Holly Herndon as one of the best examples of an artist leaning in to this technology for creative purposes. Now she’s published some thoughts on what AI means for musicians, in a tweet responding to […]
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Source: Music ally
Music publishers mull challenges of India’s evolving market
Music-publishing body ICMP has just held its latest board meeting, in Mumbai, as part of a week-long delegation to India to hold talks with the government, music-industry entities and media in the country. “We came to India because it’s a promising market – currently the 15th largest in the world. However, we also need to […]
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Source: Music ally
J Balvin enjoys second year as Deezer’s most-streamed artist
It’s year-end lists season and no mistake. Deezer is the latest music-streaming service to put out its annual figures, and for the second year running, Colombian reggaeton artist J Balvin is the most-streamed act on the service – indicating not just the foothold of Deezer in Latin American countries but also the growing global crossover […]
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Source: Music ally
Wynk Music says it has overtaken rivals for daily active users
Indian telco Airtel says its Wynk Music service is now India’s top music-streaming app when measured by daily active users (DAUs). What it hasn’t said, however, is a specific figure for that. Instead, Wynk’s press release cited October 2019 data from research firm App Annie, without quantifying how many DAUs that is, or how they’ve grown over […]
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Source: Music ally
YouTube Music extends free trial and expands ticketing to UK
Christmas is coming, and Music Ally’s list of cheap music-streaming subscription promotions is getting fat. YouTube is the latest in to the festive fray, with a ‘Cyber Week’ offer in the US of an extended three-month free trial of its YouTube Premium tier, rather than the usual one month of free access. That includes YouTube […]
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Source: Music ally
Teenager tests TikTok policies with video criticising China
TikTok has been under fire recently over accusations that its global moderation policies are too in thrall to the government of its parent company’s homeland, China. The line coming out of TikTok executives in the US this month has been that censorship decisions on the platform in the west are NOT driven by Beijing. That’s […]
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Source: Music ally
Billboard reveals new chart rules for album/merch bundles
As part of a chart battle last year in the US between Travis Scott and Nicki Minaj, all hell broke loose. The latter used her Queen Radio show on Beats 1 to attack the former for using merchandise bundles to drive his album to number one ahead of hers. “Travis Scott is out here selling f***ing […]
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Source: Music ally
PPL teams up with Sound Credit to improve recording metadata
Across the world, there are lots of different initiatives afoot to tackle the music industry’s metadata problems – including accurately filling out the credits for songs and recordings. The latest example comes from the UK, where collecting society PPL has announced a new partnership with startup Sound Credit. The latter company’s product is a plug-in and […]
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Source: Music ally
Tidal launches personalised video-mix playlists feature
Tidal has launched a new feature called ‘My Video Mix’ which, as you will have guessed from the name, offers a series of video playlists to users. Blending human editors’ recommendations with machine-driven picks based on users’ listening habits, My Video Mix will serve up to eight different playlists grouped by artist and ‘music clusters’. […]
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Source: Music ally
Capitol Gains: Capitol Records talks innovation, startups and music
In September, Music Ally spoke to three of Warner Music Group’s senior innovation and business-development execs, about how they work with startups and innovative technologies. That month, we also interviewed some music/tech startups, who gave some blunt, honest feedback on the challenges they have faced working with major labels in general.
It’s a conversation that’s worth continuing. Our first follow-up is another major-label interview, with three of UMG subsidiary Capitol Records’ innovation leads: Ching-Ching Chen, Josh Remsberg and Nick Osbourne. All three have a palpable enthusiasm for music-tech; were at pains to express that their goals are always artist-first; and that they see innovation as much more than just a new, quick-fix marketing tool.
The wider context: UMG’s overall strategy includes creating a global music-tech A&R network: scouting via a series of partnerships with its Accelerator Engagement Network; through the Abbey Road Red startups incubator; and the idea-exchange hothouse that is the Capitol360 Innovation Center, based in Capitol’s landmark Los Angeles HQ.
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Source: Music ally
We need to talk more about legal issues around training musical AIs
When most people think about the potential legal issues around AI-created music, they tend to think about the output – the music itself, and questions like whether an AI-generated track can attract copyright protection. Sophie Goossens, counsel at law firm Reed Smith, thinks that just as much attention should be paid to the input.
“AI is not born in a vacuum, and AI systems do not appear out of the blue. In most cases, their ability to create is directly proportional to the amount of information they are able to absorb and learn from. This body of information is known as the ‘the training set’, and it’s something we should be asking many more questions about,” she says.
Goossens explains that AIs are trained using ‘text and data mining’ process (‘machine-reading’) where they analyse a large set of data – music in the case of musical AIs. It’s the same way humans learn, but when we read books, watch movies or listen to music, that’s not a process restricted by copyright. Machines? Well, it’s different for them.
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Source: Music ally
Impala to oppose Tencent investment in Universal Music Group
Independent-music body Impala has come out against plans for Chinese technology company Tencent to buy a 10% stake in Universal Music Group, with an option to buy a further 10%.
“Even at a low level of shareholding, we believe the risk of harm for consumers and competitors from such a transaction would be a concern because of the impact in both the digital market and the music sector, with independents being squeezed further and artists also losing out,” said Impala’s executive chair Helen Smith, in a statement this morning.
Impala has campaigned actively and influentially (if not always successfully, in terms of persuading regulators to step in) against consolidation of the music industry’s major labels. The proposed Tencent / UMG investment represents a new front for the body’s concerns.
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Source: Music ally
Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee unveils ‘Contract for the Web’
“If we leave the web as it is, there’s a very large number of things that will go wrong. We could end up with a digital dystopia if we don’t turn things around. It’s not that we need a 10-year plan for the web, we need to turn the web around now.” Some sobering comments […]
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Source: Music ally
Spotify faces another digital royalties-related lawsuit
Will Spotify’s lawyers ever be able to enjoy their Christmas dinners without a looming royalties lawsuit? The latest comes from independent music company Sosa Entertainment and its sister firm Pro Music Rights. MBW reports that Sosa claims that it has not been paid the full royalties for more than 550m streams of its catalogue on Spotify. There […]
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Source: Music ally
Former PledgeMusic CEO threatens legal action over allegations
There’s a new row involving collapsed crowdfunding service PledgeMusic, and specifically its former CEO Dominic Pandiscia. After a musician – Ken Andrews of the band Failure – made a series of allegations about Pandiscia in a Facebook post, they were picked up by music blog Brooklyn Vegan, in an article that has since been removed from […]
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Source: Music ally
Music Ally Report 425: AIs on the prize. What will Artificial Intelligence really mean for the music industry?
This report focuses on AI music – both in terms of artificial-intelligence systems that are creating original music, and AI-driven tools that human musicians are using for their own creative purposes. There’s lots to talk about. We’ve started by digging through the Music Ally archives to offer a timeline of modern AI music – starting with UK […]
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Source: Music ally
eMarketer: France/Germany Facebook flight is ‘faster than expected’
Journalists, analysts and research companies have been warning about a ‘Facebook flight’ – people migrating away from the social network – for years now, yet overall, the company’s user base has continued to grow. eMarketer has some new predictions out this morning though, focused on two markets – France and Germany – where it says the migration is real, and “even […]
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Source: Music ally
Americans not entirely sold on smart-speaker personalisation
There are many studies on adoption of smart speakers and which companies are dominating the market – with research firm Canalys forecasting that more than 200m devices will be sold this year globally. However, other studies have picked up on potential privacy issues around speakers ‘listening’ (and recording) within people’s homes. Now the Pew Research Center has published a […]
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Source: Music ally
Spotify commissions its latest crop of Christmas cover songs
It’s that time of year again, when artists eye Mariah Carey’s annual Christmas royalties-boom with envy, and hope to follow suit with their own original festive songs – and cover versions of classics. But music-streaming services are also on the Christmas bandwagon: Amazon’s program for commissioning new Christmas songs is well known, but Spotify has also […]
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Source: Music ally
Neil Young (deliberately) falls off the Facebook of the Earth
Neil Young’s debut solo single in 1968 wasn’t called ‘The Loner’ by accident. He has defiantly ploughed his own furrow for over half a century – and that relates as much to his attitude to the industry around him as it does to the music he creates. He has now announced, in a brief posting on […]
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Source: Music ally
Scooter Braun reveals death threats over Taylor Swift dispute
For most Taylor Swift fans letting Scooter Braun know their thoughts on the dispute over Taylor Swift’s AMAs medley and Netflix documentary, a few rat emojis sufficed. Some, however, went a lot further, leading Braun to speak out on Friday in a social post addressed directly at Swift. “Since your public statement last week there have […]
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Source: Music ally
Apple tipped to double its AirPods shipments to 60m this year
Thanks to its music-driven adverts, Apple’s original iPod earphones became one of the most recognisable tech products back in the day. Its modern equivalents, the wireless AirPods, are increasingly common on the streets today.
Bloomberg has put some numbers to that, quoting “people familiar with the Cupertino-based company’s production plans” as claiming that Apple is doubling its AirPods shipments to 60m units in 2019. This is partly fuelled by “much higher” demand for the latest model, the $249 AirPods Pro, than had been expected.
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Source: Music ally
Tic Tac and Spotify team up for minty-fresh concerts series
We have several favourite sentences from the announcement of Spotify’s latest brand partnership, with Tic Tac.
“The unique event series employs Spotify’s streaming intelligence to target consumers who exemplify the fun and refreshing Tic Tac brand personality,” is one of them.
“The interactive concert will intertwine music with the spirit of the Tic Tac brand to give fans a multi-sensory experience that allows them to engage with Tic Tac and Spotify in new ways,” is another.
“Tic Tac mints hopes that these activations will continue to connect with consumers in fun and immersive ways that prompt them to rethink the brand’s place in the mint category,” also.
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Source: Music ally
JioSaavn brings U2 and A.R. Rahman together for new track
Indian streaming service JioSaavn has been commissioning original tracks and remixes for a while now, but its latest example takes things up several notches in terms of the participating artists.
U2 have teamed up with Indian legend A.R. Rahman for a new track called ‘Ahimsa’, which launches today ahead of U2’s first ever concert in India, on 15 December.
Like previous original tracks commissioned by JioSaavn, the company isn’t restricting its availability on a global basis: ‘Ahimsa’ is also available on Spotify, Apple Music (and iTunes), Amazon Music and other digital services worldwide.
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Source: Music ally
Mariah Carey launches enhanced Christmas album with Spotify
At the time of writing, Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ is the 41st most-streamed Spotify track in the UK, which tells you something about we Brits’ eagerness to embrace Christmas rather than think about Brexit and/or our upcoming general election.
The rest of the world will be catching up (on Mariah, not Brexit) over the coming weeks. Spotify is also pulling out all the bells and whistles (and fairy lights and tinsel) for the 25th anniversary of Carey’s festive track and the album it was taken from.
Cue the ‘Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You Experience’ enhanced-album on Spotify. The enhancements being a video intro of Carey in her secret command centre literally pressing the button that starts Christmas; looping ‘Canvas’ video clips accompanying the songs from the album; voice messages and some live videos.
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Source: Music ally
Universal Music launches streaming/social data app for artists
Universal Music Artists (UMA) is a new Android and iOS app for artists signed to Universal Music Group (and their managers) where they can access data and insights on their music plays on the major international DSPs – Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube are named in the announcement.
However, it will also pull in data from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The pitch to artists, as with third-party analytics services, is that they’ll get “actionable insights to move your career forward, plan tours and build set-lists… see how your tracks are performing on playlists, and understand which playlists you should be on, and more”.
UMG says it has been working with managers to develop the app, while its VP of data analytics Mitchell Shymansky has published a blog post on Medium outlining some of the thinking behind it.
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Source: Music ally
Production Manager – Mute – New York
Mute seeks an experienced Production Manager to join its US team, based in the NY office in Midtown, Manhattan. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES: Liaise with artist managers, UK and US label managers to create global production schedule and ensure timely and accurate production of all releases and formats (digital and physical) Managing digital Metadata, including claiming videos […]
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Source: Music ally
Social Media Manager – Spinnin’ Records – Hilversum, Netherlands
OUR COMPANY Spinnin ’Records is one the world’s best-known dance music labels, with artists such as Oliver Heldens, KSHMR, Sam Feldt, Alok, Mike Williams, Lucas & Steve, Kris Kross Amsterdam and many more in its roster. The label specializes in electronic music and manages the largest online dance community in the world with more than […]
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Source: Music ally
Edison Research is now tracking podcasts’ popularity
Research firm Edison Research has won plenty of friends with the reports that it publishes with NPR: ‘Smart Audio Report’ tracking US usage of smart speakers, and more recently the ‘Spoken Word Audio Report’ exploring consumption of podcasts and other non-music content. Now it’s launching something new: a ‘Podcast Consumer Quarterly Tracker’ that will survey […]
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Source: Music ally
Artist Miink premieres new video on a site we can’t mention
The reason we can’t mention the website where the latest video from UK-based artist Miink has nothing to do with prudishness, and everything to do with not wanting to get this bulletin blocked by music-company email filters across the world. Let’s just say the website’s name starts with ‘You’ joined to a four-letter word that […]
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Source: Music ally
Lyor Cohen warns industry not to get ‘drunk off the data’
YouTube Music boss Lyor Cohen sat down with colleague Tuma Basa, director of urban music, for a hip-hop focused event earlier this week – and delivered a warning to labels about their A&R strategies. “I think the industry is so focused on the data that it’s a problem. You guys are very lucky that you […]
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Source: Music ally
TikTok moves into ticketing – in Thailand for now
TikTok is testing a new music-related feature in Thailand: selling tickets. The company is partnering with several local companies, including BEC Tero (which promotes concerts, owns a record label and produces films and TV shows); Neon Festivals; ticketing firm Ticketmelon; and cinema chain Major Cineplex. For now, TikTok will be selling tickets for 500 films […]
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Source: Music ally
Spotify launches its own awards and talks up podcast ambitions
The Grammy nominations and Taylor Swift’s AMAs row aren’t the only awards stories making headlines this week. This morning, Spotify announced plans for its first ever ‘Spotify Awards’, which will be held in Mexico City on 5 March 2020. Turner Latin America is on board as the broadcast partner, and Spotify says that the awards will […]
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Source: Music ally
There’s storytelling potential in Google Earth’s new feature
Some of the most creative music-marketing campaigns we’ve reported on over the last decade or so have involved maps and location. So an announcement of a new feature in the Google Earth service piqued our attention this morning. “With new creation tools now in Google Earth, you can turn our digital globe into your own […]
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Source: Music ally
Spotify launches its first original podcasts for India
Spotify India has announced its first batch of platform-exclusive podcasts: cricket-themed 22 Yards hosted by popular television anchor Gaurav Kapur, dating and relationship advice-focused Love Aaj Kal (Love Today and Tomorrow) from journalists Aastha and Ankit and fictional detective series Bhaskar Bose narrated by radio host and actor Mantra. Each of the podcasts, which are […]
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Source: Music ally
Mixmstr mobile game wants to generate revenues for artists
“Play gigs! Buy records! Fill the dance floor & become a Superstar DJ.” But enough about Music Ally’s ambitions for December. No, this is the introductory blurb for a new mobile game called Mixmstr, launched by developer Youth Control Games. It’s the latest music-rhythm game for smartphones (“tap to beat to mix records like a mixmaster”) […]
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Source: Music ally
ODD Ball set to help people make music: by bouncing it
Bobby Vee’s ‘Rubber Ball’ has been on our internal jukebox all morning so far – and now on yours, no need to thank us, it’s all part of the service – since spotting a new music/tech startup called ODD Studios. The London-based company is working on “products that allow everybody to experience the thrill and […]
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Source: Music ally
Sony Music is latest major label to license Boomplay in Africa
African music-streaming service Boomplay now has a full set of deals with the global major labels, with Sony Music the third and final major to strike an agreement. Sony’s catalogue of both African and international artists will now be available to stream on Boomplay, alongside material from Universal Music (which signed its deal with the […]
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Source: Music ally
Shutterstock launches a subscription for its music library
Back in July 2014, we reported on photo and video library Shutterstock’s move into music, with a catalogue of 60k licensed clips from partner Rumblefish, which it was selling to online video and advertisement creators starting at $49 per track. Five and a half years on, the company is trying something new: an all-you-can-eat subscription. It’s still aimed […]
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Source: Music ally
Secretly Noord aims to shake up Nordic distribution market
There’s a new independent music distributor set to make waves in the Nordic region, and it includes some familiar faces for that part of the world. Secretly Noord is the result of a partnership between existing distributor Secretly Distribution and local group NoordRights. The new venture plans to offer distribution, marketing and technology tools to labels […]
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Source: Music ally
Tencent may seek partners for Universal Music investment
It’s been known for some time that Chinese tech firm Tencent is in talks to buy a 10% stake in Universal Music Group, with an option to acquire another 10% for up to a year afterwards. The deal is thought to value UMG at around €30bn, but now there’s been a development: Tencent may not […]
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Source: Music ally
Big Machine settles Taylor Swift dispute for AMAs medley
The enmity between Taylor Swift and her former label Big Machine Label Group (not to mention its new co-owner Scooter Braun) isn’t going away any time soon, we sense. But one element of their latest dispute appears to have been settled: Swift’s ability to perform a medley drawn from her back catalogue at this weekend’s […]
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Source: Music ally
Amazon’s free-streaming ambitions expand to more devices
When Amazon launched a free, ad-supported music-streaming service in April, it was only available in the US, for Echo smart speakers. That careful rollout is now expanding considerably: Amazon’s ad-supported music tier is now available in the UK and Germany too, through the Amazon Music smartphone app and FireTV devices as well as Echos. Limitations remain: this is […]
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Source: Music ally
Spotify and Netflix team up for Christmas-music playlists
The notion of ‘exclusive Christmas playlists’ may seem a bit strange: with a relatively-small pool of tracks to choose from in the grand scheme of things, unless you’re commissioning original tracks Amazon-style, differentiation is hard. But Spotify has a new spin on the idea: it has partnered with Netflix to launch eight playlists from the cast members […]
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Source: Music ally
Capitol Royale roundup: empowerment, hacks and A&R’s evolution
On Saturday and Sunday (November 16-17), Capitol Music Group held its 2nd annual music and tech festival, Capitol Royale, at its Los Angeles headquarters. The theme for this year was ‘Music on the Move’, with workshops, hackathons, panels, and social events revolving around the ever-changing landscape of music and innovation.
Kicking off on Friday was the Femme It Forward showcase hosted by Live Nation Urban’s Heather Lowery, which gave a spotlight to women performers including Layton Greene, Maya B, DeathbyRomy, and phem. In addition, the non-profit Girls Make Beats hosted a DJ set and Amber Grimes, Capitol’s SVP of Global Creative, led a fireside chat with singer-songwriter Fletcher about female empowerment and advancement in the industry.
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Source: Music ally
New survey reveals Americans’ pessimism over privacy issues
After a string of revelations and controversies around digital privacy in recent years, how are Americans feeling about this issue? Not so good, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center. Roughly six in ten US adults don’t think it’s possible to go through daily life without having data collected about them by companies […]
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Source: Music ally
Bytedance streaming service could launch ‘as soon as next month’
Could the music industry be in for an early Christmas present of a new streaming service this year? The Financial Times has reported that Bytedance’s long-rumoured music-streaming service “aims to launch as soon as next month, initially in emerging markets such as India, Indonesia and Brazil, before a future opening in the US”. There have been regular […]
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Source: Music ally
TikTok reaches 1.5bn downloads and tests shopping features
As parent company Bytedance prepares to launch its dedicated music-streaming service, TikTok has reached a new milestone. Well, it has according to research firm SensorTower, anyway. It claims that TikTok has now been downloaded more than 1.5bn times from Apple’s App Store and Android’s Google Play, including 614m downloads in 2019 alone. “It’s currently the third most […]
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Source: Music ally
Taylor Swift and Big Machine go toe-to-toe in licensing dispute
Taylor Swift’s latest dispute with Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun continues to blow up: a woman who millions of people think would make an excellent president of the United States weighed in with her views this weekend. In fact, two did: besides Cher, senator Elizabeth Warren also had her say, following the latest salvos from […]
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Source: Music ally
Motive Unknown boss expands on concerns over Apple/Linkfire deal
Last week, we reported on Linkfire’s data-attribution deal with Apple Music, as well as the strings attached which included the stipulation that to get the data, people had to put Apple Music in top spot on their smart-link landing pages. When we wrote our story, criticism of these requirements had been led by Darren Hemmings, founder of […]
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Source: Music ally
David Lowery calls for songwriter input to MLC/DLC settlement
Artist and musician-rights advocate David Lowery has criticised last week’s announcement of an agreed budget for the new US Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC). Agreed with the body that represents the digital music services, the Digital Licensee Coordinator (DLC), the agreement secured $33.5m for the MLC’s startup costs, and $28.5m for its 2021 ‘initial annual assessment’. […]
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Source: Music ally
Linkfire gets Apple Music attribution data – with strings attached
Music-marketing firm Linkfire had a big announcement yesterday: it has a deal with Apple Music to provide more attribution data on what fans are doing on the streaming service after clicking or tapping through from artists’ smart-links.
“No more guessing about streaming performance and fan engagement,” as Linkfire explained it in an email to its users. “You can now match your off-platform campaigns with on-platform behavior and cut down on budget burners.”
There’s a catch. As Linkfire’s email explained: “Your Linkfire Insights page now features aggregate attribution data, updated daily, on fans’ aggregate streaming behavior on Apple Music. This data is available when Apple Music is placed #1 on your landing pages. In already existing boards and links, you can manually place Apple Music first to receive attribution data.”
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Source: Music ally
WMG’s Scott Cohen talks innovation: ‘What’s coming next, and what do we need to do?’
Ever since co-founding distributor The Orchard in 1997, Scott Cohen has been known as one of the music-industry executives with an intense curiosity about new technologies and their potential applications for musicians and rightsholders – even when (or perhaps, especially when) they are disruptive to current business models and ways of thinking.
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Source: Music ally
MLC and digital music services reach deal over budget
We reported before on the (sadly inevitable) squabbling over the budget for the new Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) in the US, with the bill to be footed by digital music services. However, the latter’s representative in the negotiations, the Digital Licensee Coordinator (DLC) has reached an agreement with the MLC to bring the argument to […]
The post MLC and digital music services reach deal over budget appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Taylor Swift hits out over blocked plans for AMAs performance
After a period of calm, the dispute between Taylor Swift, Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun has exploded into life again. This time, the cause is Swift’s planned performance at the American Music Awards, where she was planning to celebrate her ‘artist of the decade’ award by performing a medley of her past and current hits. […]
The post Taylor Swift hits out over blocked plans for AMAs performance appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Music may be losing out due to the growth of spoken-word audio
It would be wrong to generalise that ‘labels’ are unhappy with Spotify’s push into podcasts. It’s true that some executives do view the strategy with suspicion, as a development that will cannibalise both music-listening and royalties paid to rightsholders. But others accept Spotify’s argument that expanding the range of audio on its service will boost […]
The post Music may be losing out due to the growth of spoken-word audio appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Tools: Fangage. Activate your Superfans
Building engaged audiences on a social platform is one thing; but keeping them there when you are at the mercy of each platform’s algorithms is another thing entirely. What can you do with thousands of fans on, for example, Facebook or Instagram if a simple change in the algorithm pulls the brakes on you effectively […]
The post Tools: Fangage. Activate your Superfans appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
A day after its launch, Disney+ had more than 10m signups
What qualifies as a successful launch for a new video-streaming service? How about 10m signups by your second day? That’s the number being touted by Disney yesterday for its Disney+ service, which launched on Tuesday. The announcement helped Disney’s stock shoot up by nearly 7.4%, adding more than $13bn to its market cap, according to CNBC. […]
The post A day after its launch, Disney+ had more than 10m signups appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Take cover! Viberate claims Blackpink are bigger than BTS
It takes a brave person to get involved in arguments between the world’s keenest superfans over whether one artist is better or bigger than another. So doff your caps but retreat a safe distance from music-database Viberate, which has sent out some figures claiming that Blackpink are ‘the biggest K-Pop group’ ahead of BTS. Blackpink […]
The post Take cover! Viberate claims Blackpink are bigger than BTS appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Amazon to launch new series of ‘Amazon Original’ Christmas songs
Mince pies are in the shops, Mariah Carey is lurking in the lower reaches of the charts, and Amazon is joining the early-Christmas fun with its latest crop of brand-new festive tracks. They’re part of its Amazon Originals program, and this year the company is promising to release ‘many’ Christmas songs over the coming weeks, exclusively […]
The post Amazon to launch new series of ‘Amazon Original’ Christmas songs appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Former Beats by Dre CEO launches DropLabs vibrating-trainers
Vibrating Trainers may sound like a hot new artist rocketing up Spotify’s Viral 50 chart, but no. At least not yet. We’re talking about the trainers/sneakers (delete according to geographic preference) that you wear on your feet. A startup called DropLabs, led by former Beats by Dre boss Susan Paley, has revealed a product called the EP […]
The post Former Beats by Dre CEO launches DropLabs vibrating-trainers appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Marathon Artists Labs set for its third startups accelerator
Independent music company Marathon Music Group is launching a third cohort of its Marathon Artists Labs startup accelerator. Due to kick off in the first quarter of 2020, its theme will be ‘music discovery’, following previous programs focused on ‘tools for artist managers’ and ‘music-related content monetisation’. Marathon says that it’s looking for six startups for the […]
The post Marathon Artists Labs set for its third startups accelerator appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Spotify launches a new app for AR platform Magic Leap
Magic Leap has linked up with Spotify to make the latter the first music service available for its One Creator Edition augmented-reality headset. And it certainly has some AR bells and whistles. “The app is spatially aware, so you can pin recently played artists, albums or tracks to specific locations in your home. And because content builds […]
The post Spotify launches a new app for AR platform Magic Leap appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 240: Music Marketing’s Wellness and Fitness Drive
People are increasingly attuned to the need to look after their mental and their physical health – and music can and does play a big role here. The gym playlist is one thing, but acts crafting albums for meditation apps and artists working with a new generation of fitness brands is something else entirely. We […]
The post Sandbox Issue 240: Music Marketing’s Wellness and Fitness Drive appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
SoundCloud Promote tool lets artists pay to boost their tracks
SoundCloud has launched Promote for users of the platform to help them better push tracks to listeners. The self-service tool is part of SoundCloud’s Premier tier for users to assist them in getting their music in front of more people on not only SoundCloud but also other digital platforms. “With Promote on SoundCloud, creators can […]
The post SoundCloud Promote tool lets artists pay to boost their tracks appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Report: Facebook held serious acquisition talks with Musical.ly
Chinese technology firm Bytedance bought social-video app Musical·ly for reportedly north-of-$800m in November 2017. Then, in August 2018, it folded Musical·ly into TikTok (obligatory reminder: Musical·ly had nothing to do with us, Music Ally, and thus we’re still open to nine-digit acquisition offers…) But in a parallel reality, Musical·ly is now owned by… Facebook! Well, Buzzfeed News […]
The post Report: Facebook held serious acquisition talks with Musical.ly appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Apple Music reveals new ‘Up Next’ artist and launches country radio show
Apple Music has anointed its latest ‘Up Next’ artist, who’ll be getting a boost across the company’s music platforms. It’s Canadian artist Jessie Reyez, who’s actually been doing pretty well on Apple Music for some time now – the company says it’s been playlisting her since 2016, and that she has more than 325m streams […]
The post Apple Music reveals new ‘Up Next’ artist and launches country radio show appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
‘Filter bubbles’ man suggests new architecture for social media
From data-harvesting and ideological echo-chambers to hate speech and trolling, the big social-media platforms are facing more criticism than ever before. Less tech utopias, and more saloon brawls in 1940s western movies where everyone gets beaten up (except the owners, who get rich from the ruckus). Which makes the latest pronouncements from entrepreneur and web-activist […]
The post ‘Filter bubbles’ man suggests new architecture for social media appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Idagio classical-music streaming service launches free tier
Classical-music streaming service Idagio is launching a free tier, which will make a catalogue of 2m tracks available to listeners without the need for a subscription. The company clearly hopes that the new tier will provide an accessible entry-point to classical music for people who may be less knowledgeable about classical – with a canny […]
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Source: Music ally
AIM launches report exploring modern music distribution
British independent-music body AIM is launching its latest report today: ‘Distribution Revolution’. It promises a “comprehensive analysis of the modern distribution landscape”, including the trend for distributors to add more artist and label services to their offerings. AIM worked with CMU Insights on the report, which is being published for free (people can sign up […]
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Source: Music ally
Amazon set to add music videos to Amazon Music Unlimited
Fresh from adding an ‘HD’ tier to its Music Unlimited streaming service, Amazon appears to be preparing to add another element in to the mix: music videos. At least, that’s the gist of a ‘direct license amendment’ sent to licensors on behalf of Amazon by rights-management firm Music Reports. The email, which Music Ally has […]
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Source: Music ally
Instagram’s in-test ‘Reels’ feature takes aim at TikTok
‘Killer’ is one of the most overused words in the field of tech journalism, when it’s appended to the name of digital services thought to be under threat from a rival or copycat launched by a much-bigger technology company. Was Apple Music a ‘Spotify-killer’? Nope. Was Google+ a ‘Facebook-killer’? Absolutely not. Vine’s killer turned out […]
The post Instagram’s in-test ‘Reels’ feature takes aim at TikTok appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Dan Le Sac on what he learned from broadcasting on Twitch
Amazon’s live-video platform Twitch is best known for its gaming communities, from creators streaming their play-sessions live to professional esports tournaments. But musicians have also used Twitch.
One of them is British artist and producer Dan Le Sac, who joined Music Ally at our recent Sandbox Summit conference to share some of the lessons he learned from broadcasting on Twitch after launching his channel after his musical partnership with poet and rapper Scroobius Pip came to an end in 2014.
“A few friends were playing games, and I watched a bit of Twitch and thought: ‘I’ll try that! That looks like fun: talking to people and playing games,” he said. “And I did, and gradually it went from once or twice a week to a point where I was doing it full-time, mixing a bit of gaming content with a bit of music-production content. Twitch gave me a partnership, which meant I could monetise on there, and then I spent a couple of years basically with Twitch as my job.”
The post Dan Le Sac on what he learned from broadcasting on Twitch appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Country Profile – UAE 2019
As the business hub of the Middle East and North Africa, the UAE belies its geographical size. In the case of the music industry, global streaming services have joined record companies in mining its significant potential
The post Country Profile – UAE 2019 appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Qobuz ditches its MP3-quality tier and lowers hi-res price
Hi-res music-streaming service Qobuz is (in the US, at least) getting rid of its cheapest MP3-quality tier, and lowering the cost of its higher-resolution offering. “MP3 is really bad for music, artists, and listeners – so Qobuz is saying ‘no’ to MP3 and now offers only real studio quality in one accessible plan,” said its US managing […]
The post Qobuz ditches its MP3-quality tier and lowers hi-res price appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Interactive AR music-player wins Abbey Road Red’s 2019 hackathon
17 teams of developers are getting well-earned rests today after taking part in the Abbey Road Red hackathon at London’s famous Abbey Road Studios over the weekend. The focus was ‘The Power of Immersion’ with augmented-reality technology to the fore, courtesy of strategic partner Facebook – with its Spark AR tools. Top prize in the […]
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Source: Music ally
Facebook’s experimental-apps team launches Aux music app
Facebook has launched a dedicated music app! But hold your horses: Aux is the work of the social network’s ‘NPE Team’ division, which was created in July this year to work on experimental new apps. “A way for Facebook to develop new types of experiences for people and to try different ideas by creating small, focused apps in order […]
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Source: Music ally
Disney+ arrives in UK and other European countries in March
Last week we noted the announcement of a March 2020 launch date for Disney’s new video-streaming service Disney+ in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, but there’s more to say about this. Particularly relating to the service’s launch date in the US, Canada, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand this month. That means a four-and-a-half months […]
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Source: Music ally
Gaana financials include growth in subscriptions revenue
We’ve seen lots of big numbers this year for the amount of people streaming music in India, but what is that growth in listeners meaning for the underlying financials of the platforms providing those streams? One of the biggest ones, Gaana, has just published some figures that offer an insight into its business, at least. […]
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Source: Music ally
Universal Music India’s VRYL project launches ‘Intezaar’ vide
Last week, Music Ally published a feature about the challenge that ‘non-film’ music is providing for Bollywood music in India – you can read it here if you missed it at the time. One of the projects exploring the potential for non-film music in India is Universal Music’s VYRL, which includes YouTube videos, streaming playlists and radio […]
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Source: Music ally
Digital Marketing Manager – Dharma – Los Angeles
World renowned DJ/Producer seeks experienced Digital Marketing Manager. Responsibilities: – Develop and maintain close relationships with all relevant social and media platforms. – Prepare social marketing plans and strategy for music releases, tour dates, and other activations. – Plan and execute advertising strategies including budgeting, approvals, concept/copy, media buys, analysis, and reporting. – Identify and liaison with influencer […]
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Source: Music ally
Crowdfunding is still effective – and it’s still not begging (guest column)
This article is an excerpt from Ari Herstand’s second edition of How to Make It in the New Music Business:
In 2009, I was co-managing one of my favorite Minneapolis bands with my girlfriend. I was actively touring, playing 100+ dates a year myself, so the day-to-day duties were mostly handled by her. The band had built up a loyal grass-roots following and were selling out venues in a five-state region. They were bringing 600 people to their local shows every couple months and were becoming known on the festival circuit.
They were making just enough money to support the five band members’ living expenses while on tour, but had virtually nothing left over to invest. They had the material for their next album, but we didn’t know where we were going to come up with the funds. No matter how we crunched the numbers, no amount of gigging or merch sales was going to bring in the $10,000+ we needed to make the album.
Then one day, through creative Googling, I stumbled upon this new site called Kickstarter. It had just launched a couple months prior, but a Brooklyn-based musician, Allison Weiss, had raised $7,700 from just 200 people through what this new startup called “crowdfunding.”
The post Crowdfunding is still effective – and it’s still not begging (guest column) appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Could OpenAI’s text-generating AI system replace Music Ally?
AI firm OpenAI made headlines earlier this year for its GPT-2 text-generating AI system, capable of being given a few sentences and then generating more text based on it. OpenAI declined to release the full system, for fear that it might be used for nefarious purposes (fake news, for example).
However, after months of tests, the company has now released the full version. Its blog post announcing the release outlines some findings so far: that GPT-2 *can* be “fine-tuned for misuse”, for which “detection is challenging” – but that so far “we’ve seen no strong evidence of misuse so far”.
Ever alert to an existential threat to Music Ally’s journalism, we’ve been putting GPT-2 through its paces this morning, using the Talk to Transformer website to feed the system the opening lines of recent news stories that we’ve written, to see what it comes up with to complete the stories.
The post Could OpenAI’s text-generating AI system replace Music Ally? appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Can AI-produced works qualify as ‘works of authorship?
Can an AI (or a non-human) be the ‘author’ of a piece of music –or other art / content – that it has created? It’s a question that has been bubbling for a while now, from selfie-snapping monkeys to the output from the growing number of AI-generated music startups. And often, certainly from the entities […]
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Source: Music ally
Musiio reveals AI-tagging deal with production-music firm
Startup Musiio has revealed its latest partnership for its AI-powered catalogue-tagging technology. It’s working with production-music firm Overcoast – its eleventh music-industry customer – to help the company analyse its catalogue of music and tag it correctly. “Catalogue management becomes increasingly hard as companies grow their libraries, and we are no exception. Manually tagging tracks becomes tedious […]
The post Musiio reveals AI-tagging deal with production-music firm appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Most Wanted: Music report – Scott Cohen, diversity, Africa and more
In Berlin, talk around music usually takes two paths: techno or the blockchain, and both involve a lot of earnest nodding. At the Most Wanted: Music 2019 conference, conversation was nudged towards the creation of new value streams, pushing for meaningful diversity, and embracing change in an age that demands it.
The post Most Wanted: Music report – Scott Cohen, diversity, Africa and more appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Jean-Michel Jarre launches EōN – an ‘infinite music app’
Musician Jean-Michel Jarre is launching an “infinite music app” called EōN, which uses an algorithm to turn beats, melodies and chords he recorded into an endless stream of music.
The app is being released for Apple’s iOS devices as a paid download: it costs $8.99 and is available now on the App Store, having been unveiled today during Jarre’s appearance at the Web Summit conference in Lisbon. An Android version will follow in the near future.
It’s not just an audio experience though: Jarre has worked with a researcher (Alexis André) from the Sony Computer Science Laboratories (CSL) to create generative visuals to accompany the music. The app itself was the result of a collaboration with French music-apps developer Bleass.
The post Jean-Michel Jarre launches EōN – an ‘infinite music app’ appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
MelodyVR doubles down on Good Morning America partnership
British virtual reality startup MelodyVR latest move is using music to push itself deeper into the world of mainstream TV. It has extended its deal with the ABC network in the US and its ‘Good Morning America’ show to offer TV performances from a number of country acts – including Trisha Yearwood, Trace Adkins, Luke Combs and […]
The post MelodyVR doubles down on Good Morning America partnership appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
LyricFind inks eBay deal for its lyrics-based merchandise
Lyrics-licensing company LyricFind announced its LyricMerch product back in November 2017: a site where people could order physical merchandise emblazoned with lyrics from its catalogue – with publishers (and thus songwriters) earning royalties. Now LyricMerch is getting an interesting distribution partner: eBay, which will be a new shop-window for LyricMerch, as well as a place for “targeted […]
The post LyricFind inks eBay deal for its lyrics-based merchandise appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Top apps in Q3 included TikTok, Spotify and YouTube Music
App-analytics firm SensorTower has been releasing some of its data tracking Android and iOS apps globally in the third quarter of 2019. That includes quantifying the top 20 apps by overall downloads, with TikTok in second place – behind only WhatsApp – with 176m new installs in Q3. SensorTower noted that this was 13% growth quarter-on-quarter, although […]
The post Top apps in Q3 included TikTok, Spotify and YouTube Music appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Podcast industry lets loose with its current frustrations
Hot Pod News is an excellent news site for anyone trying to get under the skin of the fast-evolving podcasting industry, and its latest feature shows why. The site has been surveying its readers on their current frustrations with the way the podcasts world works, all anonymously. It’s a collecting steam-venting that will make useful reading […]
The post Podcast industry lets loose with its current frustrations appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Twitter launches feature for people to follow ‘topics’
Early next week, there’ll be a new way for Twitter users to keep up with the subjects they’re interested in. It’s a new feature called ‘topics’ which launches on 13 July, and it involves following topics – more than 300 at launch covering entertainment, sports and gaming – rather than just following people/profiles. Following a […]
The post Twitter launches feature for people to follow ‘topics’ appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Startup Venu is launching a new D2C fan-loyalty platform
The latest startup hoping to apply the idea of loyalty schemes to music artists is Boston-based Venu. Its Android and iOS apps are billed as ‘coming soon’ on the company’s website, which sets out how it’ll work for artists and for fans. In the former case, artists will be able to post their news to […]
The post Startup Venu is launching a new D2C fan-loyalty platform appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
It’s Mariah Carey’s Christmas; we just live in it
‘All I Want For Christmas is You’ is Mariah Carey’s biggest streaming hit by a distance: it has 511.9m Spotify streams and 555m YouTube views, for example. The ‘Merry Christmas’ album the track originally featured on is getting the ‘deluxe anniversary edition’ treatment for its 25th anniversary this year, too, while in the UK Carey […]
The post It’s Mariah Carey’s Christmas; we just live in it appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
CISAC report reveals growth in global music collections
CISAC, the global collecting-societies body, has published its annual ‘Global Collections Report’ setting out the collections of its 239 members in more than 120 countries.
As ever, it’s a useful counterpart to the IFPI’s annual Global Music Report: while that publication focuses on recorded-music royalties, the music section of CISAC’s report quantifies collections for songwriters and publishers.
(CISAC’s report also covers collections for audiovisual content, drama, literature and visual arts, but for the purposes of this article, we’ll be focusing on its music data, which accounts for 88% of CISAC members’ total collections.)
The post CISAC report reveals growth in global music collections appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Washington Post explores TikTok-censorship ‘culture clash’
TikTok’s difficult end-of-2019 in the US continues: now the Washington Post has been digging around in the company’s internal policies. ‘Inside TikTok: A culture clash where US views about censorship often were overridden by the Chinese bosses‘ is the Post’s headline, which is exactly the issue that’s been sparking calls by US politicians for a […]
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Source: Music ally
Sony Music to make a daily satirical podcast with The Onion
Sony Music Entertainment is partnering with satirical website The Onion to launch a new daily podcast in 2020. ‘The Topical’ will go live in January and will deliver daily sideswipes at the news and current affairs. It’s part of a wider trend towards shorter, daily podcasts that fit neatly into people’s work and home routines. […]
The post Sony Music to make a daily satirical podcast with The Onion appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
FTC launches new guide to influencer-marketing disclosures
A number of social-media influencers have been reprimanded by regulators about not offering clear-enough disclosures about their commercial relationships. Now the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has published a guide – ‘Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers‘ – which aims to keep them on the right side of advertising regulations there. It’s a plain-language summary […]
The post FTC launches new guide to influencer-marketing disclosures appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Localify aims to put more local music in Spotify users’ playlists
Teams of researchers and students at Ithaca College and Cornell University have been working on a tool to inject more local music into people’s Spotify playlists. It’s called Localify, and works by getting people to choose their location and a selection of their favourite artists. “We’ll create playlists that mix your favorites with local artists while […]
The post Localify aims to put more local music in Spotify users’ playlists appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Sofar Sounds criticised as ‘just another creation of tech middlemen’
We’ve linked to the work of journalist Liz Pelly before: she’s been one of the most eloquent critics of Spotify specifically and streaming generally, with articles like ‘Discover Weakly‘, ‘Streambait Pop‘ and ‘Big Mood Machine‘. Now she’s turned her attention to live-music startup Sofar Sounds, and is just as unimpressed with the company’s impact on […]
The post Sofar Sounds criticised as ‘just another creation of tech middlemen’ appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Peloton plans to launch more ‘Artist Series’ exercise classes
Fitness firm Peloton published its latest quarterly financials this week, and it includes some information on the company’s music plans. “In order to amplify our commitment to music, we plan to increase the number of ‘Artist Series’ offerings,” announced the company. That means classes based on specific artists’ music for its exercise bike-owning subscribers. “We recently produced […]
The post Peloton plans to launch more ‘Artist Series’ exercise classes appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
US digital-audio listening tipped to overtake radio in 2020
Research firm eMarketer has published some new estimates and predictions for the size of the US digital-audio market – music-streaming, podcasts, online and satellite radio. The big claim is that by 2020, American adults will be spending more time listening to that than to traditional radio for the first time – averages of 83.9 daily minutes and […]
The post US digital-audio listening tipped to overtake radio in 2020 appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Napster Q3 revenues fell by 21.6% year-on-year to $27.3m
Technology firm RealNetworks has published its latest quarterly financial results, and as usual, they include figures for Napster, its music-streaming subsidiary. The key figure: $27.3m. That’s Napster’s revenues for the third quarter of 2019, which represents a 21.6% drop year-on-year from its $34.8m revenues in Q3 2018 (which in turn were down 18.7% on the $42.8m of revenues […]
The post Napster Q3 revenues fell by 21.6% year-on-year to $27.3m appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Stems the breaks: Deezer creates stem-isolating tool Spleeter
Artists have been making ‘stems’ from their tracks available since the early 2000s for fans to remix, often as part of contests. The recent deal between Tracklib and the estate of Isaac Hayes shows that trend continues. Now Deezer has released an open-source tool that could have an interesting impact. Spleeter focuses on ‘source separation’, using machine-learning […]
The post Stems the breaks: Deezer creates stem-isolating tool Spleeter appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Social Media Manager – Blue Raincoat Music – London
Job Description: Implementing world class social media campaigns for our management, publishing and record label clients. Supporting the marketing team in London on all social media activities across the business. Liaising with clients and third-parties to create approved posting schedules, preparing both copy and assets to the highest possible standard. Ensuring all social media […]
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Source: Music ally
MOBO Help Musicians fund for talent diversity enters third year
The UK-based MOBO Help Musicians fund is now in its third year and has seen the available funding behind it grow from £40k to £60k. It is a partnership between the MOBO Trust and Help Musicians UK and is designed to support musicians from diverse backgrounds – underwriting all areas of creativity – from vocal […]
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Source: Music ally
Audio-tech startup Accusonus raises $3.3m funding round
Greek startup Accusonus has raised a Series A funding round of $3.3m, which the five year-old company will use to continue developing its “human-friendly audio software”. That means tools that use machine-learning technology to process audio, within software used by musicians, podcasters and video creators alike. For example, its most-recent product is Rhythmiq, “an instantly playable virtual instrument” […]
The post Audio-tech startup Accusonus raises $3.3m funding round appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
AI-music startup Amadeus Code launches royalty-free music library
There are more people now talking about music-generating AIs as tools for musicians to use, rather than existential threats to their livelihoods. But if there’s one obvious area where AI could replace humans (sometimes, at least) it’s production music. Now startup Amadeus Code, which came to our attention with its AI-powered app for songwriters, is […]
The post AI-music startup Amadeus Code launches royalty-free music library appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Is Bollywood losing its dominance of the Indian music industry?
It’s a debatable opinion but one that warrants consideration in the Indian music industry in 2019: is Bollywood slowly but surely losing its dominance? Major Indian labels such as international heavyweights Sony and Universal and local biggie T-Series are increasingly releasing what they term “non-film music”, a loose if somewhat nebulous term used to classify […]
The post Is Bollywood losing its dominance of the Indian music industry? appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 239: Music and Advertising’s tense union
Lead: The old rules of advertising are long gone – as is a lot of the inherent guesswork around advertising’s effectiveness. In its place has come greater tracking of ad spend and ad impact, but the entire process itself has become much more convoluted. We speak to those working in this rapidly changing world to […]
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Source: Music ally
Digital Content & Communications Manager – BPI – London
The BPI is looking to recruit a passionate, creative and strategically driven Digital Content & Communications Manager to work across its digital, social media and press & PR channels. Reporting to the Communications Director, the role will focus on generating content for and managing the BPI’s social media and digital output, while also contributing to […]
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Source: Music ally
Vevo on how to get more YouTube views (and avoid an ‘algorithmic death-spiral’)
Ed Walker, VP of original content & production at Vevo, used his presentation at Music Ally’s Sandbox Summit to explain how to ensure videos on YouTube benefit from – rather than rub against – the platform’s recommendation algorithms.
Walker used Vevo’s catalogue of music videos and original content – more than 400k videos in total – to illustrate the kinds of tactics labels and artists should be thinking about. Vevo’s catalogue generated 76.3bn views on YouTube in the first quarter of 2019 alone.
The post Vevo on how to get more YouTube views (and avoid an ‘algorithmic death-spiral’) appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
SuperData predicts $1.1bn of VR software revenues in 2019
Whether you’re still excited about virtual reality’s potential for music, or think it’s a busted flush as a mainstream consumer technology, the latest predictions from research firm SuperData are worth a read. It reckons that globally, people will spend $3.2bn on VR hardware in 2019 – plus another $1bn on mixed-reality headsets which combine virtual and augmented […]
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Source: Music ally
Apple TV+ launches with eight TV shows and one movie
The latest element in Apple’s multi-media subscription strategy is here: video-streaming service Apple TV+ went live on Friday in more than 100 countries and regions. As announced earlier this year, the service costs $4.99 a month, and is accessed through Apple’s TV app – with a one-year free sub bundled in with new iPhones, iPads, […]
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Source: Music ally
UK High Court offers mixed ruling on TuneIn copyright lawsuit
The UK’s High Court has delivered its ruling on Warner Music and Sony Music’s copyright-infringement case against online-radio firm TuneIn. As is often the way of these things, both sides have claimed victory. A press release from Sony Music was headlined ‘UK High Court rules in favour of music copyright holders in TuneIn Radio decision’, […]
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Source: Music ally
Hungama launches loyalty program for music and video streamers
Indian digital-media firm Hungama has launched a new loyalty program that spans its music and video-streaming services. It’s called Hungama Rewards, and involves people earning virtual ‘coins’ (no, not in a cryptocurrency way) for the actions they take on both services. Those coins can then be exchanged for various rewards, including digital subscriptions and offers, but also […]
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Source: Music ally
MMF report explores changing role and value of music managers
Managers are more at the heart of things in the music industry than they’ve ever been, including the digital aspects of their artists’ businesses. But what does that mean on a practical level, and how are management companies evolving and investing as a result? That’s the question a new report from the Music Managers Forum […]
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Source: Music ally