Record Union launches music-focused ‘Wellness Starter Pack’
Last year, we reported on a study by distributor Record Union into mental health and wellbeing for independent musicians. The results made for concerning reading.
Now the company is launching something new as a result: a ‘wellness starter pack’ which it describes as a “toolbox for wellbeing” aimed at musicians. It’s a collection of videos focusing on five topics: sleep, positivity, mindfulness, exercise and nutrition, roping in a variety of experts for each category to offer musicians their tips on staying healthy.
The post Record Union launches music-focused ‘Wellness Starter Pack’ appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Hips my Life: Hipgnosis buys catalogue of Bon Jovi’s Richie Sambora
Richie Sambora is best known as the guitarist in Bon Jovi and co-writer of some of their biggest hits (such as ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’, ‘You Give Love A Bad Name’ and ‘It’s My Life’) which, three decades on from their release, still do decent business on streaming services. Those three songs along have combined streams of more than 1.2bn.
Now the world’s keenest catalogue shopper, Hipgnosis Songs Fund, has snapped up 186 of Sambora’s compositions and co-writes for its rapidly expanding collection.
Besides all his writing credits on Bon Jovi’s 12 studio albums, the deal also covers Sambora’s three solo albums (although his most popular solo tracks (‘Father Time’, ‘Hard Times Come Easy’ and ‘In It For Love’ have barely passed 1m streams each on Spotify.)
The post Hips my Life: Hipgnosis buys catalogue of Bon Jovi’s Richie Sambora appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
StubHub is offering credit, not refunds, for cancelled events
The next big controversy around secondary ticketing has arrived, and it concerns whether buyers will get refunds for events that have been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
If they bought through StubHub, the answer is now ‘no’ in the US and Canada – unless they were bought in areas where such refunds are legally required.
“We were the first in our industry to begin offering customers 120% credit for the canceled purchases as a thank you for remaining patient in a very challenging period,” wrote president Sukhinder Singh Cassidy in a post online.
The post StubHub is offering credit, not refunds, for cancelled events appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Midem 2020 conference cancelled, replaced by ‘digital edition’
Conference organiser Reed Midem has confirmed that its Midem event, which was due to take place on 2-5 June, has been cancelled – in its physical form, at least. The next Midem will be in June 2021.
“The situation related to the coronavirus is changing daily, as are government announcements and restrictions… Given the uncertainty surrounding the virus and companies’ concerns for the safety of their people, it is not possible to hold Midem in June in Cannes,” said Midem director Alexandre Deniot in a statement.
There will be a replacement for this year’s event however: the ‘Midem Digital Edition’ online, with live-streamed keynotes and talks, as well as online networking. A full programme for that will be announced in the coming weeks. Based on yesterday’s entirely-online AIM Sync, which seemed to go swimmingly, digital conferences can work well, so we’ll be interested to see what Midem comes up with.
The post Midem 2020 conference cancelled, replaced by ‘digital edition’ appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Music-making app Endlesss officially launches its iOS app
We wrote about music-making app startup (and extra-sibilant scourge of auto-correct systems) Endlesss several times in 2019: for example when the company pitched at and co-won the Midemlab startups contest last June, then when we interviewed CEO Tim Exile the following month.
The company’s app has been available on an invitation-only basis since then, but today sees its official commercial launch for iOS, open to all. The tagline for the app is “multiplayer music” with a focus on its ability to get people creating electronic music together, remotely and over the internet (which right now feels accidentally timely).
We’ve been playing with it for a while, and the app’s ‘loop-by-loop’ method of building songs works well, with a decent balance between being accessible to non-musicians, and powerful for people who already know what they’re doing. The app is free to download, and will make money from a £4.49 monthly subscription offering more ‘soundpacks’ and digital effects.
The post Music-making app Endlesss officially launches its iOS app appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Internet Archive’s ‘National Emergency Library’ sparks row
There’s a copyright row breaking out in the US after the launch last week by the Internet Archive of something called the ‘National Emergency Library’. It’s not actually a brand new thing: it’s a change of policy for its existing ‘lending library’ for ebooks. The change is that people don’t have to join a waitlist […]
The post Internet Archive’s ‘National Emergency Library’ sparks row appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Podcast listening may be falling amid coronavirus pandemic
There’s been a certain amount of debate in the last fortnite about whether music streaming isn’t, in fact, getting a spike in usage as more people work from home. Here’s some more possible context for that: perhaps non-radio audio is what’s getting a bit of a hit. Podcast analytics firm Podtrac has been looking at […]
The post Podcast listening may be falling amid coronavirus pandemic appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
AudioLock and Label Worx launch The Music Mission to battle piracy
Anti-piracy firm AudioLock and distributor Label Worx have teamed up for a campaign called The Music Mission, which they say will target ‘pay for access’ piracy download sites. The companies want other music firms to help them shut down around 200 piracy sites by squeezing their ‘payment gateways’, and turn their visitors back towards legal music […]
The post AudioLock and Label Worx launch The Music Mission to battle piracy appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Report explores potential subs growth for Indian music services
Indian management consultancy firm RedSeer has published a report about the ‘audio OTT’ (i.e. music streaming) market there, including exploring the potential for growth in paid subscriptions. Some of the figures are familiar: for example its claim that only around 1% of current listeners are paying for subscriptions, but that the average revenue per subscriber is ’80 […]
The post Report explores potential subs growth for Indian music services appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Today’s positive coronavirus-related industry news (30 March)
There’s something of a domino effect happening as collecting societies sign off their plans for hardship funds and other measures designed to support songwriters and composers during the current pandemic. French society Sacem has announced a €6m ‘rescue fund’ for hard-hit musicians, with grants of €1.5k, €3k and €5k available depending on the situation. Sacem has also […]
The post Today’s positive coronavirus-related industry news (30 March) appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
MMF and FAC call for ‘recoupment holidays’ for artists
UK industry bodies the MMF and FAC have published some results from a survey of more than 150 managers and artists about the impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had on their incomes. They have extrapolated the data to suggest that “over £50m has already been lost to the wider music economy” with live cancellations the main reason. […]
The post MMF and FAC call for ‘recoupment holidays’ for artists appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Facebook expands its ‘stars’ monetisation to musicians
We haven’t written about this much, because musicians couldn’t use it, but Facebook has had its own livestream monetisation system of ‘stars’ running for a while now. It’s akin to Twitch’s bits and cheers and YouTube’s Super Chat, in that viewers can spend money on virtual items, with the streamer who they’re watching getting a […]
The post Facebook expands its ‘stars’ monetisation to musicians appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
View-Tang Clan: Amazon Music makes Ol’ Dirty Bastard documentary
Wu-Tang Clan member Ol’ Dirty Bastard released his debut solo album ‘Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version’ on 28th March 1995. To mark its quarter-century anniversary Amazon has created the Unique: Return To The 36 Chambers 25 Years Later mini-documentary. It features previously unseen footage of the late rapper as well as interviews […]
The post View-Tang Clan: Amazon Music makes Ol’ Dirty Bastard documentary appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Space is the place for new Big Beat Records campaign
Warner Music Group’s Big Beat Records label is preparing to release a new album called ‘Big Beat Ignition: Space’ on 3 April. The 10-track compilation has an intergalactic theme – “anyone else down for a space rave right now?” – and a creative marketing campaign drawing on data from NASA and the European Space Agency, as […]
The post Space is the place for new Big Beat Records campaign appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Russian anti-piracy boss hails efforts to tackle infringement
The head of Russian anti-piracy body the Internet Video Association has claimed that voluntary piracy measures in the country imposed two years ago have been having the desired impact. Back in 2018, a number of Russian content companies, platforms and distributors – bowing to years of pressure, lobbying and litigation – signed up to a […]
The post Russian anti-piracy boss hails efforts to tackle infringement appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Indian video service MX Player expands to six new markets
MX Player is an on-demand video streaming service owned by Times Internet (the digital arm of Indian media conglomerate Times Media) and has over 175m active users in India. It has now expanded to six new countries – the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Bangladesh and Nepal. This comes after a significant investment round last […]
The post Indian video service MX Player expands to six new markets appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
iHeartMedia withdraws its financial guidance for 2020
It’s not so long since US radio firm iHeartMedia was in deep financial troubles, and while it pulled itself out of those last year, it’s understandably one of the companies being hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Now the company has followed Twitter in withdrawing its guidance for analysts (financial predictions) for 2020. “Given the ongoing uncertainty […]
The post iHeartMedia withdraws its financial guidance for 2020 appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Today’s positive coronavirus-related music industry news (27 March)
Let’s start today with Germany, at a time when bodies representing musicians and the music industry are pressing governments around the world for relief and support.
The post Today’s positive coronavirus-related music industry news (27 March) appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Germany 2020
Germany looks to be finally throwing off its reputation as a digital slowcoach with streaming numbers sending overall music revenue into the black, despite the physical market still playing an important role.
The post Country Profile – Germany 2020 appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
TikTok’s top creator Charli D’Amelio now has 41.8m followers
With many parents exhausted already by homeschooling, and relaxing their device-usage rules once lessons are done, we suspect TikTok’s servers are getting a mighty battering. That’s going to be good news for the top creators on the social app though, whose audiences may see a spike. Tubefilter notes that this includes a change at the top of […]
The post TikTok’s top creator Charli D’Amelio now has 41.8m followers appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Analyst predicts big hit to Facebook and Google ad revenues
We’re trying to report on all the positive news amid the coronavirus pandemic, but we can’t ignore the bad news. For example, the likely impact on digital advertising spending, with the giants of that space – Google and Facebook – likely to take the biggest hits. “The two internet giants together could see more than $44 billion […]
The post Analyst predicts big hit to Facebook and Google ad revenues appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
AIM Sync conference to go virtual for its 30 March event
UK indie body AIM was due to hold its annual AIM Sync conference on 30 March, but for understandable reasons, it’s not going ahead as a physical event. However, it will still happen digitally: “a live and interactive virtual conference” thanks to a partnership with digital agency level8. People who’d bought tickets to the planned conference are […]
The post AIM Sync conference to go virtual for its 30 March event appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Video service Quibi to launch a show focusing on music
We’ve written about Quibi a few times: the company formerly known as NewTV was founded by Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg and tech veteran Meg Whitman, and is launching a subscription-based app with original TV shows split into bitesize episodes. It’s also raised a ton of money – $1.75bn so far, with its service about to launch. Now there’s […]
The post Video service Quibi to launch a show focusing on music appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Apple Music Browse page is tuned for self-isolating listeners
We’ve been writing about what streaming services are doing to support music-industry relief efforts and artists, but the coronavirus pandemic is also having an impact in how they’re recommending music (and other content) to their listeners. We wrote about Deezer’s new ‘Stay at Home’ hub earlier this week, but Apple Music is also adapting to the time […]
The post Apple Music Browse page is tuned for self-isolating listeners appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
StubHub furloughs staff due to coronavirus impact
StubHub has become one of the first ticketing firms to confirm plans to ‘furlough’ staff (the term means to put staff on mandatory leave, often unpaid – it’s not clear whether that applies here – as a temporary measure). “Given the impact of the coronavirus on the live-events industry, we have made the difficult but responsible decision […]
The post StubHub furloughs staff due to coronavirus impact appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
SoundCloud Go+ subscription service launches in the Nordics
SoundCloud Go+, the streaming service’s subscription tier for listeners, has expanded into four new markets – Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. They’ll now get access to its full catalogue of more than 200m tracks and DJ sets, with features including no ads, offline play and better audio quality. It’ll cost 99 kr a month in Denmark, €9.99 […]
The post SoundCloud Go+ subscription service launches in the Nordics appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Today’s positive coronavirus-related industry news (26 March)
We’re keeping this going, not least because positive news is keeping us going, personally… British collecting society PRS for Music has launched an Emergency Relief Fund for its members, created with the PRS Members’ Fund and PRS Foundation. To qualify, applicants have to have been members of PRS for at least two years and earned over £500 […]
The post Today’s positive coronavirus-related industry news (26 March) appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Spotify coronavirus response includes letting artists add fundraising links to their profiles
Spotify has just announced some of the things it’s doing in response to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak. They include launching a music relief project where the streaming service will match donations up to a total Spotify contribution of $10m, and a feature enabling artists to fundraise from fans via their Spotify profiles.
The Spotify COVID-19 Music Relief project will do several things. First, it will point people towards “verified organisations that offer financial relief to those in the music community most in need around the world” – starting with MusiCares, PRS Foundation and Help Musicians with more to come.
Second: “Spotify is making a donation to these organisations and will match donations made via the Spotify COVID-19 Music Relief page dollar-for-dollar up to a total Spotify contribution of $10 million”.
The post Spotify coronavirus response includes letting artists add fundraising links to their profiles appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Justin Bieber to release bi-weekly mini-compilations
News that Justin Bieber is going to be releasing a couple of albums a week during the coronavirus pandemic may raise your eyebrows, but there’s a caveat: these are compilations rather than all brand new material. “Gonna be putting up some compilations for you guys. Tuesdays and Thursdays. Here is the first one,” tweeted Bieber yesterday, […]
The post Justin Bieber to release bi-weekly mini-compilations appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
YouTube’s Stay Home #WithMe hub gathers music livestreams
YouTube’s latest initiative to encourage people to self-isolate during the coronavirus pandemic’s current phase is a hub called StayHome #WithMe that gathers videos that it thinks will keep people entertained, active and informed while staying home. The top shelf on the page is called ‘Jam With Me’ and spotlights the latest livestreams from artists – at the time […]
The post YouTube’s Stay Home #WithMe hub gathers music livestreams appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
SoundCloud creates artist shortcuts alerting fans to new uploads
SoundCloud has added a new feature to its iOS app that will alert users to new uploads (or reposts) from favourite acts as soon as they open the app itself. The company claims that in early testing of the feature it saw engagement with an act’s music increase by over 25%. In a blog post about […]
The post SoundCloud creates artist shortcuts alerting fans to new uploads appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Publishers awarded $189k in damages in Wolfgang’s case
A long-running legal action against Wolfgang’s Vaults over its streaming of archive concerts has resulted in music publishers being awarded $189,500 in damages. There were 197 separate songs listed in the suit, with 167 of them were deemed to have been wilfully infringed. That means that the per-song infringement worked out at $1,000 each, far below […]
The post Publishers awarded $189k in damages in Wolfgang’s case appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Today’s positive coronavirus-related music industry news (25 March)
Start today with the group of streaming services and tech companies announcing contributions to MusiCares’ COVID-19 Relief Fund in the US.
Amazon Music, Facebook, SiriusXM and Pandora, Spotify, Tidal and YouTube Music are the services, and while no amount has been given for their contributions, MusiCares said that in less than a week it has raised “millions more than the initial $2m” that started the fund to help artists and music industry workers.
(It’s US-specific, but we’re aware of streaming services actively seeking out similar funds and relief efforts across the world, so we expect more announcements.)
The post Today’s positive coronavirus-related music industry news (25 March) appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Today’s positive coronavirus-related music industry news (24 March)
Music Ally is trying to write a story every working day, rounding up the good, practical things happening in and around our industry: focusing on relief efforts and other initiatives from the music industry and music / tech communities.
Start today with Bandcamp’s update on how last Friday’s big music sale went. “On a typical Friday, fans buy about 47,000 items on Bandcamp, but this past Friday, fans bought nearly 800,000, or $4.3 million worth of music and merch,” reported the company. “That’s more than 15 times our normal Friday, and at the peak, fans were buying 11 items per second.”
Continue with news that German collecting society GEMA has announced an ’emergency aid’ program of up to €40m (around $43.2m) for its members, over two stages of distribution for songwriters who get into financial difficulties as a result of the current pandemic. Detail of how to apply will be published later this week. GEMA is also promising to be “pragmatic and flexible” in its licensing dealings with music events organisers in the weeks and months ahead.
The post Today’s positive coronavirus-related music industry news (24 March) appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Twitter users up but revenues hit due to coronavirus
Earlier this year, Twitter provided analysts with its financial guidance for the first quarter of 2020, predicting revenue of between $825m and $885m, and operating income between $0m and $30m. Yesterday, though, Twitter withdrew that guidance, due to the coronavirus pandemic. “While the near-term financial impact of this pandemic is rapidly evolving and difficult to measure, based on […]
The post Twitter users up but revenues hit due to coronavirus appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
New York Times buys startup that turns articles into audio
It’s not just music streaming services who are excited about podcasts and long-form audio more generally. The New York Times just acquired a startup called Audm, which runs a “subscription-based audio app that offers listeners the world’s best longform journalism, read aloud word-for-word by celebrated audiobook narrators”. It launched in 2016, and aggregates articles from the NYT but […]
The post New York Times buys startup that turns articles into audio appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
BTS로 한국어 배우기 (that’s ‘Learn Korean with BTS’ in Korean)
We really hope that means ‘Learn Korean with BTS’ – blame Google Translate if not! We wrote about Weverse earlier this year as part of our report on K-Pop giant Big Hit Entertainment’s latest financial results: it’s a fan community platform focusing on artists including BTS, TXT, Seventeen and Gfriend, launched by Big Hit subsidiary beNX. Now it […]
The post BTS로 한국어 배우기 (that’s ‘Learn Korean with BTS’ in Korean) appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
South Korean DSP changes chart to battle ‘distorted’ streams
Flo, owned by SK Telecom, is one of the main music streaming services in South Korea. It used to run a near-real-time chart (updated hourly) showing what the most popular songs were on the platform. That has now been replaced by a new Flo Chart that updates every 24 hours that allows it to use […]
The post South Korean DSP changes chart to battle ‘distorted’ streams appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Spotify is testing photo-based music recommendations
Have you ever been using a music streaming service and thought: ‘Yes playlists and suchlike are good, but what I really need is the ability to take a photo and have that used to recommend music to me’? Nope, us neither. Still, Spotify clearly sees some potential in the idea: it appears to be testing […]
The post Spotify is testing photo-based music recommendations appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Apple Music’s new personalised playlist is Get Up! Mix
Although Apple Music has made human curation a big part of its brand (especially when execs are throwing shade at Spotify in interviews) that hasn’t stopped it from developing its own series of algo-personalised playlists. Now Favourites Mix, Chill Mix and Friends Mix have a new team member: ‘Get Up! Mix‘. Like the others it’ll […]
The post Apple Music’s new personalised playlist is Get Up! Mix appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Music Ally to hold free webinar: ‘Bringing Live Online’
As you’ll have noticed, livestreams are all the rage right now, as artists look for a way to perform for and chat to fans (and perhaps to find a new income stream) in lieu of cancelled tours and festivals.
This Thursday, Music Ally is holding a free webinar called ‘Bringing Live Online’ – kindly supported by MQA – to offer our knowledge and advice on how to make the most of livestreams. It’ll be around an hour long, presented by our SVP of digital strategy Patrick Ross, and will cover a range of platforms, case studies and lessons for artists.
Besides the big platforms like Facebook Live, YouTube and Twitch, we’ll be looking at newer and/or more-niche platforms like YouNow, and some of the creative ways that artists have been using them to connect and make money.
The post Music Ally to hold free webinar: ‘Bringing Live Online’ appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Music Ally Startup Files: Pex sees big music potential in UGC
For the last few years, LA-based startup Pex has been quietly scanning, fingerprinting and indexing every single piece of audio and video uploaded to open, public-facing platforms. It has accrued a whopping database of 20 billion data points, and – perhaps – know what’s happening on certain platforms better than the platform itself.
Music Ally spoke to Pex COO Amadea Choplin, who previously worked for French video platform DailyMotion, about how important music really is to YouTube and the accuracy of its revenue maths; Article 17; and how Pex can unlock revenue by peeking inside streaming’s black box.
The post Music Ally Startup Files: Pex sees big music potential in UGC appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Survey suggests Disney+ has been a huge hit in the US
In its last financial earnings call, Disney said that it ended 2019 with 26.5 million paid subscribers for its Disney+ video streaming service, representing a very strong start in the US. Now, ahead of its rollout in Europe, Variety has some new stats that point even more towards Disney+ being a huge hit back home. “Approximately 50% of American […]
The post Survey suggests Disney+ has been a huge hit in the US appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Struggling with isolation? An astronaut might be able to help
Some people have been working from home regularly for years, and others take to it like ducks to water. But others may struggle, especially if they’re cooped up alone (or with housemates / family) for what’s looking like an indeterminate period of time. In the knowledge that many of our readers will be thinking hard […]
The post Struggling with isolation? An astronaut might be able to help appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Today’s positive coronavirus-related music industry news
Stuff we’re heartened by today includes Resident Advisor’s ‘Save Our Scene‘ campaign, which is mustering collecting action from the electronic music community. There’s an open letter that fans, musicians and other people in the industry can sign – more than 3,000 people so far have – with encouragement for people who want to do their […]
The post Today’s positive coronavirus-related music industry news appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Soundplate launches cover-art generator for music playlists
We haven’t written about Soundplate before, but it’s one of the companies creating marketing tools for artists and labels: its best-known product is Soundplate Clicks, a smart-links tool competing with the likes of Linkfire and SmartURL, but it also has a tool for creating music-vizualiser videos for YouTube and social platforms, and a tool for […]
The post Soundplate launches cover-art generator for music playlists appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
MelodyVR is raising $12m by selling more shares
We reported last week on virtual-reality music startup MelodyVR’s postponement of its planned expansion to Latin America and Asia Pacific, due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, the company’s growth hopes continue: this morning the company – which is public – announced plans to raise $12m of new funding by selling shares to existing and new investors. After expenses, it’ll mean […]
The post MelodyVR is raising $12m by selling more shares appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Spotify launches a new podcast API for developers
Spotify may be booting DJ apps off its music API, but the company is also launching a new API for another part of its business: podcasts. “Today, we launched a new podcast API for developers. This will allow developers to explore and build unique experiences to help your shows reach new listeners in new ways,” explained Spotify […]
The post Spotify launches a new podcast API for developers appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
It’s too early to tell what coronavirus means for streaming
It’s not great for your work/life balance to spend the weekend feeling grumpy every time you spot that ‘people are streaming music less due to coronavirus’ story doing the rounds – based on a limited comparison of stream counts from the Spotify charts. It’s true that other forms of media may be more appealing to […]
The post It’s too early to tell what coronavirus means for streaming appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Mixtape site Spinrilla sues RIAA over takedown notices
Usually when US industry body the RIAA is involved in a court copyright dust-up with a website, it’s the industry body doing the suing (or rather, working with labels who are doing the suing). The boot will be on the other foot in an upcoming case, however. TorrentFreak reports that mixtapes site Spinrilla is suing the RIAA […]
The post Mixtape site Spinrilla sues RIAA over takedown notices appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Instagram and TikTok ‘sidekick apps’ were hot in 2019
A new report from research firm Sensor Tower has found that a third of the biggest new apps in 2019 were “sidekick apps” for the likes of Instagram and TikTok. What are sidekick apps? They are apps that work in conjunction with ‘mother’ apps, adding new features or enhancements that the original app is lacking. According to […]
The post Instagram and TikTok ‘sidekick apps’ were hot in 2019 appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Behind The Campaign: Indian hip-hop star Naezy
In India, Naezy is one of the driving forces behind the country’s emerging hip-hop scene. Given the centrality of Bollywood, the Indian music industry was, for many years, a sub-division of the film industry and music marketing had to work around that structural fact. As digital opens the county up, new opportunities are bubbling up […]
The post Behind The Campaign: Indian hip-hop star Naezy appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Netflix reduces streaming quality in Europe to save bandwidth
Netflix is making some changes to the way its service runs in Europe, in response to a request from the European Union’s internal market commissioner Thierry Breton. He asked the video streaming service what it could do to reduce its load on the continent’s internet networks, with populations working at home en masse. “Streaming platforms, telecom operators […]
The post Netflix reduces streaming quality in Europe to save bandwidth appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
There really is a robot releasing music on Spotify
Wait! Drop the pitchforks! Shimon isn’t one of these fake artists you’ve been hearing about (we’re still trying to get to the bottom of who Jan Thiel is, by the way). No, Shimon is proudly, unashamedly an actual robot, and he plays the marimba. He’s one of the robotics projects at Georgia Tech’s Center for Music […]
The post There really is a robot releasing music on Spotify appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Music companies share their lessons on remote working
Many of us (Music Ally included) are now figuring out how to run our companies as entirely remote-working businesses. A couple of music companies with more experience of this have been sharing their lessons, which may be useful. Merch firm Push Entertainment’s Simon Scott has published a post of “real world things that work for highly functioning […]
The post Music companies share their lessons on remote working appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Spotify’s dance playlist Mint spawns its own ‘singles’
We’re well used now to ‘Spotify Singles’, the streaming service’s series of original live recordings from artists, where they re-record one of their own songs plus a cover version – with their label retaining all the rights. Well, now one of Spotify’s big playlists is spawning its own line of similar releases. The playlist is dance-focused […]
The post Spotify’s dance playlist Mint spawns its own ‘singles’ appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
The Weeknd sets Apple Music record, holds Spotify listening session
It’s fair to say that The Weeknd’s new album ‘After Hours’ is expected to have a big debut this weekend. The streaming services are certainly throwing their weight behind it. Apple announced yesterday that the album has broken its record for Apple Music pre-adds (people pre-saving it to their libraries). MBW reported that by yesterday, […]
The post The Weeknd sets Apple Music record, holds Spotify listening session appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Tencent Music talks album sales and independent artists
Earlier this week we reported on Tencent Music’s latest financial results, including the news that it now has 39.9 million paying users for online music. Note, that’s not just ‘subscribers’, because Tencent Music also sells music – digital albums – through its streaming services. In the company’s earnings call with analysts, it talked about some of the recent […]
The post Tencent Music talks album sales and independent artists appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Is Triller music’s next big launchpad?
It’s not quite a case of: “Come in, TikTok – your time is up.” However, Triller has been growing sharply in recent months and is starting to break tracks and acts in its own way. For now, the audience skews towards both the US and hip-hop, but the app has global ambitions and wants to […]
The post Is Triller music’s next big launchpad? appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Tools. Audience Republic: Sell more tickets for your event
Audience Republic was established in 2016, three years after founder and CEO Jared Kristensen had lost $20k at a low-selling event he had put on. After three more years of organising various events, he realised that he was missing an effective solution that would help sell tickets. The company now has offices in London, Los […]
The post Tools. Audience Republic: Sell more tickets for your event appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 248: PERSONALISATION. Music marketing makes it all about YOU
Lead: Personalisation is a powerful way to stand out in a noisy marketplace and to make fans feel involved with things. It all, however, has to be handled with care as one person’s “tailored messaging” is another person’s spam. We look at how the personal – from recommendations and mixtapes to merchandise and location – […]
The post Sandbox Issue 248: PERSONALISATION. Music marketing makes it all about YOU appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
TikTok appoints US external advisors for content moderation
TikTok has been under a lot of scrutiny in recent months, in the US particularly, over how its content moderation policies work. Now the app has appointed what US general manager Vanessa Pappas described as “an external council of leading experts to advise TikTok on content moderation policies covering a wide range of topics… thought leaders who […]
The post TikTok appoints US external advisors for content moderation appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Charli XCX kicks off ‘self-isolating’ livestreams series on Instagram
Everyone and their artist auntie is livestreaming now, it seems – our RSS feed was overwhelmed by a blizzard of media articles commenting on the trend this morning too. Some of the more notable examples from the past 24 hours include: Charli XCX kicking off a series of Instagram livestreams, patching in fellow artists like Christine and […]
The post Charli XCX kicks off ‘self-isolating’ livestreams series on Instagram appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Startup Landmrk launches ‘Virtual Tours’ feature for artists
We’ve written about British startup Landmrk regularly over the past couple of years: its platform enables artists (and other kinds of brands too) to create virtual ‘treasure hunts’ that encourage fans to explore the real world to find digital content. Obviously, there are some issues with the ‘explore the real world’ aspect right now, what […]
The post Startup Landmrk launches ‘Virtual Tours’ feature for artists appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Glastonbury Festival and Eurovision both cancelled for 2020
Spring and summer music events getting cancelled is now expected, rather than a surprise, but for Europeans yesterday still managed to deliver something of a hammer blow with the cancellation of the 2020 editions of both the Glastonbury Festival and the Eurovision Song Contest. By now, neither is news, so the aspect we’ll pull out […]
The post Glastonbury Festival and Eurovision both cancelled for 2020 appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
MusicWatch report notes growth in US ‘music buyers’ to 116m
Research company MusicWatch has revealed some of the findings from its Annual Music Study, which surveys 5,000 Americans on their music habits. Among those findings: there are now 116 million ‘music buyers’ in the US, the highest total since 2007. That’s a metric covering people who pay for subscriptions and/or CDs, downloads and vinyl. Meanwhile, […]
The post MusicWatch report notes growth in US ‘music buyers’ to 116m appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Bootleg podcasts hint at how Spotify could shake up audio shows
What to call them. Podboots? Notcasts? Vice has run a fascinating piece on the Trojan horse world of podcasts on Spotify that are smuggling unlicensed music onto the platform. Vice has trawled Spotify’s music podcasts category and found a range of shows, with names like idk im high, boyband nostalgia and the less i know the circle […]
The post Bootleg podcasts hint at how Spotify could shake up audio shows appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
MelodyVR postpones expansion to Latin America and Asia Pacific
Virtual-reality music startup MelodyVR is seeing a silver lining in the coronavirus outbreak – its content sales are up – but it’s also forcing a pause in the company’s global expansion plans. On the first of those: “We have not sought to actively capitalise on the events of the last few weeks, yet having experienced […]
The post MelodyVR postpones expansion to Latin America and Asia Pacific appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
New Sonos app and operating system coming in June
Sonos is launching a new app in June, alongside new software for its speakers. Well, some of its speakers. The app and software is called ‘Sonos S2’, and it will be compatible with many existing Sonos devices and all its new ones. However, some of the company’s older hardware will not support it – what […]
The post New Sonos app and operating system coming in June appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Anti-LGBTQ+ song removed from music streaming services
Malaysian rock band Bunkface have a song called ‘Akhir Zaman’ [‘The End of Times’] which included homophobic lyrics like the line “LGBT can go to hell” (or “LGBT can go die”). The band had released a statement denying that this was hate speech, suggesting instead that they were protesting against the movement for LGBTQ+ rights in […]
The post Anti-LGBTQ+ song removed from music streaming services appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
‘TikTok for musicians’ Jamiphy joins Y Combinator accelerator
We wrote about startup Jamiphy in August 2019 after we spotted its profile pop up on an investment website. It was billing itself as ‘TikTok for Musicians’ – an app where artists could “create short musical videos with others, and with AI musicians using any instrument or style”. The company has since launched its app in Indonesia, and now […]
The post ‘TikTok for musicians’ Jamiphy joins Y Combinator accelerator appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
UK music industry concerned for venues closing for coronavirus
The COVID-19 situation is certainly fast-moving. Yesterday afternoon, various UK music bodies criticised the British government heavily for advising people not to go to public venues including pubs, clubs and concert venues without actually ordering those places to close – the concern being that this would not enable them to claim on their insurance policies. “The […]
The post UK music industry concerned for venues closing for coronavirus appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
NBCUniversal is sending new films straight to digital rental
Here’s another example of how the coronavirus situation is impacting an entertainment industry: it’s smashing through Hollywood’s ‘theatrical window’ – the period at which new films are only available to watch in cinemas.
Studio NBCUniversal announced yesterday that its current slate of new films will be made available for on-demand (digital) rental at the same time they debut in cinemas.
“Movies will be made available on a wide variety of on-demand services for a 48-hour rental period at a suggested retail price of $19.99 in the U.S. and the price equivalent in international markets,” reported The Hollywood Reporter. “Insiders say it isn’t a blanket policy for the studio’s entire 2020 calendar and that decisions regarding other titles and the duration of the policy haven’t been made yet.”
The post NBCUniversal is sending new films straight to digital rental appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Eventbrite tears up its financial predictions for 2020
Ticketing firm Eventbrite has withdrawn its business outlook – the predictions for revenues, profits etc that public companies provide to analysts – in the light of the coronavirus-fuelled uncertainty around the live entertainment business.
CEO Julia Hartz described the situation as “unprecedented”. “The year started off strong across the board and we are now seeing a material impact to our business from the virus,” she said in a statement. “While the ultimate magnitude of this near-term impact is unclear at this time, we remain confident in our go forward strategy, our market position and the long-term demand for live experiences.”
In late February, Eventbrite issued its guidance for 2020, having grown its revenues by 12% to $327m in 2019. The company predicted net revenues of $84m-88m in the first quarter of 2020 – up 3%-8% year-on-year – and revenues of $342m-$359m for the full calendar year, up between 5% and 10%.
The post Eventbrite tears up its financial predictions for 2020 appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Years & Years & TikTok: capitalising on a viral hit
British band Years & Years swiftly set up a TikTok account at the end of last week – in a large part because their cover of 2003’s ‘Breathe’ (by Sean Paul ft. Blu Cantrell) from six years ago was having a viral impact on the app without any push from them.
They were able to capitalise on that to the point where the song had become the sixth most reactive song on Spotify UK at the beginning of last week. YMU, the band’s management company, began digging around to figure out what was behind this viral uplift and what they could do to capitalise on it, tracking down the original post from a TikTok user.
They then traced how the phrase “What’s that supposed to be about, baby?” from the song quickly became a catchphrase among users of the app to the point where the original sample has been used in over 1.2m videos. They saw a spike in Shazams of the song and Olly Alexander (lead singer of Years & Years) recorded his own video using the clip.
The post Years & Years & TikTok: capitalising on a viral hit appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
More artists turn to livestreams amid coronavirus isolation
As the live-music shutdown continues, more and bigger artists have turned to livestreaming performances online as an alternative, if not (certainly not in terms of income) a replacement.
Neil Young is launching a ‘Fireside Sessions’ series of concerts broadcast from his home. As far as we can tell, the performances will be hosted on his own Neil Young Archives website, since (as his announcement reminded fans) he’s dropping Facebook “very very soon”. Coldplay’s Chris Martin streamed a performance via Instagram yesterday, as part of a new ‘Together, At Home’ partnership between the World Health Organization and Global Citizen. John Legend will be the next artist to take part, later today.
Meanwhile, US satellite-radio firm SiriusXM has announced that acts including Armin van Buuren, Afrojack, Martin Garrix and Major Lazer (all of whom were to play the now-cancelled Ultra Music Festival in Miami at the start of the month) will play DJ sets at the Ultra Virtual Audio Festival on limited-run channel UMF Radio which will be accessible from 20th March to 23rd March. Plus, artist Frank Turner is playing a three-sets concert later today from home, via his Facebook page.
The post More artists turn to livestreams amid coronavirus isolation appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Raine Group predicts recorded-income spike for indie artists
Investment firm Raine Group has a keen interest in the independent music and DIY artists sectors, having put funding into SoundCloud and Amuse, while advising Downtown on its acquisitions of CD Baby and Fuga. Now the company has produced a report claiming that the artists using these and other companies will see strong growth in their recorded music revenues this year.
“Our work suggests that the independent artist recorded music sector will achieve $2 billion in revenue in the calendar year 2020, representing approximately 9% of the entire global recorded music industry,” claims the report.
The specific figure is $2.12bn, up from estimated revenues of $1.61bn for these artists in 2019. These figures are broken down into three areas: artists using indie-focused distributors, including earnings from YouTube monetisation; artists using ‘mid-tail’ artist services companies; and sync / production music.
The post Raine Group predicts recorded-income spike for indie artists appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
British music labels’ trade income grew by 7.3% in 2019
UK music industry body the BPI has published its annual figures for British labels’ trade income – the money that labels actually earn, rather than the ‘retail value’ of consumer spending on music that was reported by fellow body ERA earlier this year.
The unsurprising headline: more growth for labels. Their trade income grew by 7.3% in 2019 to £1.07bn (around $1.32bn), the fourth consecutive year of growth.
As in other countries, streaming was the main driver: British labels’ streaming income grew by 21.8% to £628.9m last year, and now accounts for 58.9% of their revenues – up from 51.9% in 2018.
Within that, labels’ income from streaming subscriptions grew by 21.7% to £568.8m in 2019. In its announcement of the figures, the BPI cited data from global body the IFPI and consultancy firm Media Research to suggest that by mid-2019 there were 19.6 million music subscribers in the UK.
The post British music labels’ trade income grew by 7.3% in 2019 appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Amazon Alexa gets smarter with some new music features
Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant has some new tricks in the way it deals with music. Launched this week, they include the ability to serve (on request) a cappella, live, remix, instrumental and other versions of tracks. “Saying commands like ‘Alexa, play the Con Calma remix’ or ‘Alexa, play live J. Cole songs’ kicks off the […]
The post Amazon Alexa gets smarter with some new music features appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Melanie Martinez got 100m+ YouTube views for her K-12 project
Melanie Martinez is the latest musician to get the YouTube Artist Spotlight Story treatment: a 13-minute mini-documentary about her “artistic journey and the many hats she wears as a creative”. We were tickled by the phrase ‘With exclusive BTS from her feature film K-12’ in the video’s YouTube description too: that’s exclusive ‘behind the scenes’ footage, obviously, […]
The post Melanie Martinez got 100m+ YouTube views for her K-12 project appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Live music affected by latest coronavirus event restrictions
Having said last week that we’re going to try not to stoke your anxiety over the novel-coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak with long, scary stories, this morning we can’t ignore the latest developments and their implications for our industry. You may have already seen the reports that Universal Music Group boss Sir Lucian Grainge has been hospitalised […]
The post Live music affected by latest coronavirus event restrictions appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Kesha taps Spotify for Blessed Mess room-wrecking promo game
“You can’t get to heaven without raising a little hell darlin’,” is how the website for Kesha’s new promotional game Blessed Mess greets fans, before inviting them to “connect to Spotify, wreck Kesha’s room and unlock exclusive content”. As with other Spotify-linked campaigns, connecting the streaming service means the label (Sony Music in this case) will get […]
The post Kesha taps Spotify for Blessed Mess room-wrecking promo game appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
YouTube app switches Trending tab to Explore – music included
YouTube is officially changing the name of the ‘Trending’ tab in its mobile app to ‘Explore’, with changes to the videos that people will find under that tab too. “With Explore, you not only have access to Trending videos, but also to destination pages for some popular content categories like Gaming, Music, Fashion & Beauty, […]
The post YouTube app switches Trending tab to Explore – music included appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
US subscriptions surge still accompanied by ‘value gap’ fears
One of the facts that may have gone overlooked in the USA’s recent surge in recorded music revenue is the country’s incredibly strong music subscription numbers, which come under the microscope in our latest US country profile. In 2019 the US averaged 60.4m paid subscriptions, up from 46.9m in 2018, according to the RIAA. If we […]
The post US subscriptions surge still accompanied by ‘value gap’ fears appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
The mystery of Childish Gambino’s ‘Donald Glover Presents’
Fans of Childish Gambino (aka Donald Glover) got a surprise this weekend when a new album called ‘Donald Glover Presents’ appeared to drop out of the blue. Not on streaming services, but as Billboard reported, the album was made available on a website of the same name, with its 12 tracks including new collaborations with Ariana […]
The post The mystery of Childish Gambino’s ‘Donald Glover Presents’ appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Country Profile – USA 2020
Music streaming is surging in the US, bringing with it strong growth in recorded music income. But questions remain about how long this can last
The post Country Profile – USA 2020 appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Amazon Music launches analytics for artists with a mobile app
With more than 55 million music streaming users around the world, most of whom are paying, Amazon is the third biggest player in the global music subscriptions market behind Spotify and Apple Music.
One area in which it has lagged those rivals has been artist analytics: the data it provides artists and their teams on how their music is being streamed on its services and devices. Today, however, Amazon is launching its own equivalent of Spotify for Artists and Apple Music for Artists.
No prizes for guessing its name: Amazon Music for Artists. It’s launching today as a mobile app for iOS and Android devices, with a web dashboard to follow. There’s also a companion website offering artists advice and resources on how to build their audience on Amazon Music.
The post Amazon Music launches analytics for artists with a mobile app appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Cocooning, downgrading… what will Coronavirus mean for music?
The short term impact of the novel-Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, in the US at least, is this: no big tours. AEG and Live Nation both announced yesterday that they are postponing all arena tours scheduled for March, having set up a task force together with talent agencies CAA, WME, Paradigm and UTA to figure out a collective […]
The post Cocooning, downgrading… what will Coronavirus mean for music? appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Super-bundle plans reportedly missing from Apple Music’s new deals
Amid all the blow-by-blow speculation about the progress of Spotify’s licensing renewals with major labels, it’s been easy to forget that – sit down for this revelation – other streaming services also have deals that periodically need to be renewed. Apple Music, for instance, which according to the Financial Times has quietly sealed its new deals with […]
The post Super-bundle plans reportedly missing from Apple Music’s new deals appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Songtrust boss hopes for gender parity in A&R signings by 2030
Songtrust president Molly Neuman has been one of the key champions for diversity and inclusion in the music industry. In an op-ed piece for Variety, she has outlined some ways she thinks the music industry can do better over the coming years. It includes a rousing call to rightsholders across the industry, and an accompanying target. […]
The post Songtrust boss hopes for gender parity in A&R signings by 2030 appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Liz Pelly talks Spotify, independence and ‘big music tech criticism’
Over a series of articles for US journal The Baffler, journalist and critic Liz Pelly has examined the culture and dynamics of music streaming in general and Spotify in particular.
In Discover Weakly, Unfree Agents, Streambait Pop and Big Mood Machine, she offered some of the sharpest criticism of Spotify’s business, its impact on musicians and its effects on music culture.
Pelly’s keynote last week at the by:Larm conference in Oslo drew on all four articles, as well as other strands of thought, to call out the problems she sees in the streaming era.
Or as she put it: “A streaming environment where music is increasingly susceptible to some of the same challenges as journalism in the age of clickbait… and also issues around surveillance and privacy, and new ways that music listening data has been commodified and sold to advertisers and marketing firms”.
The post Liz Pelly talks Spotify, independence and ‘big music tech criticism’ appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Allthestreams·fm stunt hacks US subscription video-streaming
As we’ve noted before, the video streaming landscape is very different to the music streaming world, where bar the odd exception, every service has all the music. For video, it’s more a case of many different TV and film subscription services fighting tooth and nail to secure exclusives (easier if they were the original producer […]
The post Allthestreams·fm stunt hacks US subscription video-streaming appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Killer clown Pennywise pops up in a Spotify lullabies playlist
We’ve heard some weak excuses in our time, but suggesting that you “did not believe the playlist was designed primarily for children” when the playlist is called ‘Classical Lullabies’ and has several tracks mentioning children in their title? It’s not the strongest of defences, and especially not when what you’re defending is the appearance of […]
The post Killer clown Pennywise pops up in a Spotify lullabies playlist appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Drop it like it’s Brots: startup swipes right on music discovery
Dating app Tinder’s swiping interface has long been applied to other kinds of apps and services, music included – we wrote about Next in 2014 and Fab·fm in 2016 as two examples. The latest startup to apply the functionality of Tinder to music is Brots. It’s an app where listeners play 30-second clips of new acts where they can swipe […]
The post Drop it like it’s Brots: startup swipes right on music discovery appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
BandPay raises $2m for its music collaborations management app
US-based BandPay is one of the startups trying to help musicians get paid for their work more efficiently. In its case, that takes the form of an app on which collaborators set milestones for their projects, with funds in escrow that are released when those milestones are hit. Now the company is getting a payment milestone of […]
The post BandPay raises $2m for its music collaborations management app appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
BPI has now asked Google to remove more than 500m search links
British music industry body the BPI has set a new milestone, but it’s announcing it in frustration rather than celebration. The body says it has just submitted its 500 millionth URL to Google, asking for it to be delisted from the company’s search engine on the grounds of copyright infringement. The BPI also says it has […]
The post BPI has now asked Google to remove more than 500m search links appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Startup Rightsholder·io aims to streamline music clearance
Music Ally is long enough in the tooth to be skeptical whenever someone has a bright idea for launching a database offering “a clear and complete picture of who owns the rights to a song all in one place”. Those are the words of Atlanta-based startup Music Tech Works about its first product, Rightsholder·io, which is currently available […]
The post Startup Rightsholder·io aims to streamline music clearance appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
SXSW and Ultra Music Festival both have ‘no refunds’ policies
We gasped the other day when it emerged that SXSW didn’t have an insurance policy that would cover cancellation due to “communicable diseases, viruses and pandemics” – like the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). If that was the shot, here’s the chaser: it appears that both SXSW and the also-cancelled Ultra Music Festival will not be refunding people […]
The post SXSW and Ultra Music Festival both have ‘no refunds’ policies appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Music Ally Startup Files: MyPart’s new spin on AI music analysis
Israeli startup MyPart aims to use AI to turn the long tail of music catalogues into revenue streams that humans may have overlooked.
In fact, the company wants to do more than analyse music and pull the needle from the haystack: it wants to pair the songs no human would consider with artists who never knew they needed them.
Don’t be fooled by MyPart’s slightly vague online presence, which seems at odds with its high profile and experienced advisory board, notable award wins, and membership of the Abbey Road Red accelerator.
Music Ally spoke to co-founders Matan Erez Kollnescher and Ariel Toli Gadilov, as well as MyPart president (and former president of Geffen Music and Interscope Music) Ronny Vance about the company’s ambitions. If its technology does what it says, MyPart will have built an A&R system that scoops up and analyses songs at the top of the funnel then, at the sharp end, allows anyone who needs a song to discover exactly the right one to use.
The post Music Ally Startup Files: MyPart’s new spin on AI music analysis appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Billie Eilish ‘Bad Guy’ was the biggest global single of 2019
Billie Eilish is going to need to build a new awards cabinet soon: her latest trophy is the IFPI’s award for the biggest global single of 2019, awarded to ‘Bad Guy’.
The track notched up 19.5m ‘global converted track equivalents’ last year – a metric that includes audio and video streams as well as download sales, weighting each by “relative value” (i.e. the money generated for rightsholders).
‘Bad Guy’ beat second-placed ‘Old Town Road’ by Lil Nas X, with 18.4m converted track equivalents, and third-ranked ‘Señorita’ by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello (16.1m).
Eilish’s track has already won Record of the Year and Song of the Year at the Grammy Awards in January, while it was the second most-streamed track on Spotify in 2019 (behind Señorita) – although Eilish’s ‘When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?’ was the top-streamed album on that service.
“Billie Eilish has taken the world by storm with her incredible voice and genre-defying sound. She is also an artist who addresses important issues like mental health in her lyrics that clearly resonate with her fans all over the world,” said IFPI boss Frances Moore (pictured above presenting Eilish with her latest award).
The post Billie Eilish ‘Bad Guy’ was the biggest global single of 2019 appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Love ISN’T in the air as DSPs’ US royalty-rates appeal kicks off
David Israelite, president of the National Music Publishers Association in the US, has never been a man to pull his verbal punches when taking digital services to task.
“Songwriters: This week, Spotify and Amazon are quite literally taking you to court,” is how his latest guest column for Billboard begins, and it doesn’t get any less pugilistic as the article goes on.
This isn’t the whole, literal truth, though. First, because Spotify and Amazon will be joined in the courtroom in question by Google and Pandora, and second, because rather than taking songwriters to court, what they’re doing is appealing against new songwriter royalty rates set two years ago by the US Copyright Royalties Board. The anger from songwriters and publishers is very real, but they’re not in the dock.
The post Love ISN’T in the air as DSPs’ US royalty-rates appeal kicks off appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
I Heart Songwriting Club interview: ‘There is no ceiling to this!’
“I was having panic attacks. I was completely anxious and stuck, because I wasn’t doing the thing I wanted to do. I struggled to write songs: I judged every idea as boring and not good enough, and that stopped me writing altogether. Four songs a year was all I could manage at one point…”
Australian musician Francesca de Valence writes a lot more than four songs a year now: she’s currently writing at least one a week. What’s more the online community she founded, I Heart Songwriting Club, is helping more than 700 other songwriters be similarly prolific.
The club began when de Valence, who was a teacher at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, talked to a student and found they had similar levels of anxiety about their songwriting.
“My position as a teacher was to help her. So I said ‘I’m making a songwriting club, and you and I are the first members!’ We each had our homework, to write a song in an hour and then text it to each other for feedback,” she says. “Then we invited two more people, and they ended up inviting more people.”
The post I Heart Songwriting Club interview: ‘There is no ceiling to this!’ appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
How K Camp’s ‘Lottery’ (aka ‘Renegade’) went viral – and what happened next
Atlanta rapper K Camp began releasing mixtapes in 2011, before signing to Interscope in 2014, building up a loyal following. However, the release of his track ‘Lottery’ in early 2019 changed everything.
The track initially had a slow build through platforms including Instagram, YouTube and Triller, but then a few months later users of TikTok pounced on the track. It’s since been used in nearly 30m TikTok videos that have collectively generated more than 3bn views.
How did that happen, and what happened next as K Camp and his team capitalised on the viral ‘Lottery’ (or ‘Renegade’ as many of those TikTokers knew the track) craze?
The post How K Camp’s ‘Lottery’ (aka ‘Renegade’) went viral – and what happened next appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Radar is Spotify’s new program to promote emerging artists
Spotify is launching a new program called Radar to promote emerging artists. Actually, it’s 19 ‘sister’ programs across the world, which in 2020 will feature 36 artists.
Those musicians will get slots on Spotify’s programmed playlists – including a dedicated ‘On Our Radar’ playlist – as well as other types of marketing support and editorial content on the streaming service.
For example, Alaina Castillo is the first Radar artist in the US, and will get a documentary distributed through Spotify; support with music videos; a set of ‘Spotify Singles’; and will be part of an event called ‘A Colors Show’, in partnership with music firm Colors Studios.
Other artists among the initial list of 36 include Young T + Bugsey from the UK; Agnes Nunes from Brazil; Dora, Aleesha, María José Llergo, Guitarricadelafuente and Paranoid 1966 from Spain; and Fujii Kaze, Vaundy and Rina Sawayama from Japan (where the program will be called Early Noise rather than Radar).
The post Radar is Spotify’s new program to promote emerging artists appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Spotify gets former HuffPost exec as head of content at Gimlet
Spotify acquired podcast production studio Gimlet Media for €172m in February 2019. Now it has hired a suitably high-powered media executive to be the company’s head of content. Lydia Polgreen has been poached from her role as editor-in-chief at HuffPost, a title she’d held for the past three years. Variety reports that Polgreen will be in charge […]
The post Spotify gets former HuffPost exec as head of content at Gimlet appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Carrie Underwood launches fit52, her own fitness app
American artist Carrie Underwood has a new sideline in 2020: as a fitness guru. Her book ‘Find Your Path: Honor Your Body, Fuel Your Soul and Get Strong with the Fit52 Life’ came out last week, complete with a deck of 52 cards that help people exercise at home. Now, to borrow a phrase from […]
The post Carrie Underwood launches fit52, her own fitness app appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Label-led piracy lawsuit against ISP Grande is postponed
The latest label-led copyright infringement lawsuit against an ISP in the US was focusing on Texan ISP Grande Communications. However the case has been postponed until September. The reason given was that the court only has six days available for the hearing, which both sides agreed was insufficient, suggesting that 10 days were required. The ISP […]
The post Label-led piracy lawsuit against ISP Grande is postponed appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Maggie Collins warns of a ‘crisis point’ for artist managers
Australian manager Maggie Collins, of Morning Belle, has published a social-media post (which The Industry Observer has reported on) warning of a “crisis point” for modern artist managers. “We are not super humans. We are f***ing exhausted. An alarming amount are suffering serious mental health problems due to burn-out because we have to do so much […]
The post Maggie Collins warns of a ‘crisis point’ for artist managers appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
SXSW cancelled due to coronavirus: so what next for music?
By now, you’ll surely have seen the news that the SXSW festival and conference has been cancelled by the City of Austin itself due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak – a decision that SXSW has promised to respect, while exploring its options to reschedule and/or hold some of the conference parts online. You may also have […]
The post SXSW cancelled due to coronavirus: so what next for music? appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Lauv is latest artist to launch a Landmrk-powered treasure hunt
Music Ally has been covering location-based marketing startup Landmrk for several years now, including its campaigns for artists including CNCO, Ariana Grande and Louis Tomlinson.
The startup’s latest client is AWAL act Lauv, to promote the release of new album ‘How I’m Feeling’. The angle is that Lauv has hidden clips of the album’s tracks across the world, pinning them to specific locations using Landmrk’s platform.
“Unlock new songs by logging in from your current location. Share what you unlock using #howimfeeling,” encourages the official website, which fans must open on their phones to take part in the digital treasure hunt.
The post Lauv is latest artist to launch a Landmrk-powered treasure hunt appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Music monitoring startup Audoo’s latest funding round is £1.5m
Audoo is a British startup that has launched technology for monitoring music played in public spaces, in order to ensure the proper performance royalties are paid.
The company has just raised £1.5m (just over $1.9m) in its latest funding round, with investors including Tileyard London – the fast-growing music hub into which Audoo will soon move its office.
“What Audoo are creating finally offers true and fair insight across the music industry […] We’re proud to have invested in such an entrepreneurial business, and cannot wait to have the team here at Tileyard within our thriving creative community,” said Tileyard London founder Nick Keynes in a statement.
The post Music monitoring startup Audoo’s latest funding round is £1.5m appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Bad Bunny is the big winner at Spotify’s first awards
Last night, Spotify held its first awards event, in Mexico City. The focus was mainly on Latin American artists, with most of the categories’ nominees and winner based on data from Spotify listeners in Mexico, rather than globally.
Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny was the night’s biggest winner, taking home the Spotify Artist of the Year award for being the most streamed, followed, shared and playlisted artist by Mexican users in 2019. He also won the award for the Most Streamed Male Artist and Most Added To Playlists Artist, although J Balvin took the gong for Most Shared Artist.
The post Bad Bunny is the big winner at Spotify’s first awards appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
‘Hey Spotify’ – streaming service’s work on voice tech continues
App-cracker Jane Manchun Wong has been poking around in Spotify’s innards again, and has uncovered more signs of the streaming service’s work on voice controls.
It’s a toggle to enable a feature called ‘Hey Spotify’, which will have the app “listen for Hey Spotify when the app is open and on your screen”. Note, Spotify has already worked with voice controls, as explained here on its support website, but they’re triggered by pressing and holding the ‘search’ icon (not that we could get this to work on our iPhone this morning) rather than by speaking.
The post ‘Hey Spotify’ – streaming service’s work on voice tech continues appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Music streaming services support International Women’s Day
This Sunday (8 March) is International Women’s Day, and as has become traditional, the big music streaming services are all celebrating the occasion.
Spotify will be launching a new ‘Women’s History Month’ hub on Sunday, with all-women playlists and podcasts, as well as IWD-themed takeovers of some of its popular playlists.
Apple is hosting a series of ‘She Creates’ sessions at its stores around the world, as well as a new ‘Music Lab’ GarageBand tutorial featuring Alicia Keys, alongside activity on Apple Music.
Deezer has roped in artists including Jorja Smith, Annie Lennox and Anitta to curate IWD-themed playlists, as well as a series of all-women playlists from Deezer’s own editors.
The post Music streaming services support International Women’s Day appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
The Trichordist publishes per-stream royalties data for 2019
Every year, artist-rights blog The Trichordist publishes an updated ‘streaming price bible’ comparing the per-stream payouts of the major music streaming services. The latest version, for 2019, was published overnight, and as ever is based on “a mid-sized indie label with an approximately 350+ album catalog now generating over 1.5b streams annually”.
Among its findings: Spotify’s per-stream rate has “stabilised” after declining for several years. The label whose data was used for the study earned an average of $0.00348 per Spotify stream in 2019, up from $0.00331 in 2018. These figures are an average across all Spotify streams, so bear in mind that streams from premium subscribers will have paid more, and those from free, ad-supported listeners will have paid less.
The post The Trichordist publishes per-stream royalties data for 2019 appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Global recorded music revenues grew to $21.5bn in 2019 says Midia
Music industry body the IFPI will publish its latest Global Music Report on 24 March, revealing the size and growth of the recorded music market in 2019.
However, in recent years consultancy firm Midia Research has made a habit of getting in first with its own estimates. This year is no different: Midia has just published its numbers for 2019.
The headline is that global recorded music revenues (so, not including publishing or live music) grew by 11.4% to $21.5bn.
The post Global recorded music revenues grew to $21.5bn in 2019 says Midia appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Bad Influencer Marketing
Tighter rules around what they must declare and a series of scandals have not quite knocked influencers off their pedestal, but there has been a lot of damage to some big reputations and this reflects badly on everyone in the influencer world. Record labels and managers are getting more deeply involved in the influencer world […]
The post Bad Influencer Marketing appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Tools: Portes. Connect artists directly to their fans in under 3 seconds, with a bespoke VIP experience
Consumer concerns around online privacy, and new regulations such as GDPR, COPPA and CCPA are causing complications for tech giants like Facebook, Google and TikTok; and are increasingly seen as a differentiator and point of competitive advantage for Apple. Those same philosophical differences are beginning to emerge in the startup space too. OCL, a London-based […]
The post Tools: Portes. Connect artists directly to their fans in under 3 seconds, with a bespoke VIP experience appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 247: All Triller, No Filler: Music’s next big launchpad?
Lead: Triller is not a TikTok killer – but it is certainly proving to be a hearty contender. At the moment, it is strongest in the US and it skews heavily towards hip-hop as its in-built soundtrack. Its ambitions are, however, more global and the genres it covers will naturally expand as it grows internationally. […]
The post Sandbox Issue 247: All Triller, No Filler: Music’s next big launchpad? appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Twitter is getting its ‘stories’ with new fleets feature
“Sharing your thoughts publicly can be intimidating!” tweeted Twitter’s product lead Kayvon Beykpour yesterday. No, this wasn’t a precursor to announcing new measures to crack down on the kind of users who can make Twitter such an angry, intimidating place. Instead, Twitter is launching its equivalent of Snapchat, Instagram and everyone else’s ‘stories’. Twitter’s version is called […]
The post Twitter is getting its ‘stories’ with new fleets feature appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Video-streaming startup Quibi raises $750m more funding
In nearly a decade between being founded and going public, Spotify is estimated to have raised $2.6bn in funding. Compare that to video-streaming startup Quibi, which hasn’t launched yet, but has already raised $1.75bn – including a new round of $750m this week, a month ahead of its debut. This is the company co-founded by Hollywood mogul Jeffrey […]
The post Video-streaming startup Quibi raises $750m more funding appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Loudly shows off AI tech to remix songs into different genres
German startup Loudly is taking the wrappers off its music-focused artificial intelligence technology, which it says can automatically remix tracks into different genres. The tech is being shown off on the company’s website with tracks by Becky G, Dillon Francis, Bien Monk and MØ. For example, Becky G’s track ‘Next To You’ has been remixed by the […]
The post Loudly shows off AI tech to remix songs into different genres appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Ultra Music Festival may be postponed due to coronavirus
It’s very early to start making doom-laden predictions about the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak laying waste to 2020’s festivals season. But certainly those that are earlier in the calendar are facing tough questions about whether to go ahead or not. Newspaper the Miami Herald reported yesterday that the Ultra Music Festival, due to be held later this […]
The post Ultra Music Festival may be postponed due to coronavirus appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Bytedance’s Resso launches in India but can it drive subscriptions?
A much-hyped freemium music service has launched in India, but without one of the world’s major music companies. Déjà vu, anyone? Almost exactly a year on from Spotify’s debut in India amid a dispute with publisher Warner Chappell, Bytedance has officially launched its widely-anticipated Resso streaming service in India. There’s no legal battle this time, but Universal […]
The post Bytedance’s Resso launches in India but can it drive subscriptions? appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Taki takes on Cameo to offer personalised celebrity videos
In June last year we wrote about a new startup called Cameo, which had raised a $50m funding round to continue building its business selling personalised video messages from celebrities. Now it has a new rival called Taki, which is doing the same thing. “Make a birthday extra special. Have a celeb announce a baby to […]
The post Taki takes on Cameo to offer personalised celebrity videos appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
New IMPF boss promises to reach out to other publishing bodies
The Independent Music Publishers International Forum (IMPF) has confirmed the identify of its next boss. Annette Barrett, MD of Reservoir UK, is now its president-elect and chair of the body’s board of directors, and will formally take on the role of president later this month, replacing current president Pierre Mossiat. In her statement, Barrett promised […]
The post New IMPF boss promises to reach out to other publishing bodies appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Youngboy Never Broke Again continues his YouTube success
The most popular artist on YouTube in the US last week was YoungBoy Never Broke Again (aka Kentrell DeSean Gaulden), with 78.6m views of videos including his music. That was more than double the second-ranked artist Roddy Ricch (who had 37.5m views), reflecting Gaulden’s popularity on YouTube. His total was driven by 14 of his songs […]
The post Youngboy Never Broke Again continues his YouTube success appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Labels roll out new policies in response to coronavirus
Major labels are beginning to place restrictions on international travel for their staff, in the face of the spreading coronavirus outbreak. Billboard reported on a Universal Music Group internal memo explaining that “for the health and well-being of our staff, and in order to be a responsible member of the global community seeking to stop the spread […]
The post Labels roll out new policies in response to coronavirus appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Add Don Toliver, Kim Loaiza and Trevor Daniel to 2019’s success stories
Taylor Swift was the IFPI’s top artist of 2019, based on global streams and sales, while Post Malone was Spotify’s most-streamed artist, and Billie Eilish was Apple Music’s artist of the year. But here’s some more success stories from last year that you won’t have seen on the charts put out by those companies: Don […]
The post Add Don Toliver, Kim Loaiza and Trevor Daniel to 2019’s success stories appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Digital Marketing Manager – Cooking Vinyl – London
Overview of Role We are seeking an individual to handle digital marketing and advertising initiatives for a portion of our roster on a permanent contract. The position will work closely with Project Management, International and our distributor to develop comprehensive marketing plans and timelines. The individual will be digital savvy, abreast of new online services, […]
The post Digital Marketing Manager – Cooking Vinyl – London appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Phantom Of The Tokera: get set for TikTok: the stage show
You like the app – now try the festival. The storied London Palladium theatre will be hosting ‘For You Stage, a Live Show Feat TikTok Superstars’ on 24 and 25 May this year. Named after the ‘For You’ discovery tab in TikTok, the show “will incorporate some of the biggest content creators on the TikTok […]
The post Phantom Of The Tokera: get set for TikTok: the stage show appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Facebook and Twitter pull out of SXSW due to coronavirus
We reported yesterday on what the coronavirus outbreak might mean for June’s Midem music industry conference: presently, it means sharing Cannes with 23,000 real-estate folk due to the postponement of that industry’s MIPIM conference to the same dates as Midem. But now SXSW in Austin, Texas is facing its own disruptions, just a week and […]
The post Facebook and Twitter pull out of SXSW due to coronavirus appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Circa Waves offset their carbon footprint… with their own cider!
Plenty of artists have launched their own beers and lagers: Iron Maiden, Queen, Elbow, Motörhead and so on. It’s good to see someone sticking up for the more apple-y end of things in 2020 though: British band Circa Waves are launching their own cider called ‘Cider Waves’. There’s also an interesting story behind it: alongside […]
The post Circa Waves offset their carbon footprint… with their own cider! appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Spotify co-head of music slams playlist promotion ‘scams’
Spotify’s co-head of music Jeremy Erlich has come out strongly against agencies charging labels or artists to pitch their music to the streaming service’s playlists. “I hate it. They’re just scamming artists. There’s absolutely no promo in the streaming world. We don’t talk to any of these people at all. They’re scams,” he told Forbes. “If […]
The post Spotify co-head of music slams playlist promotion ‘scams’ appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Musiio launches self-service dashboard for AI catalogue-tagging
AI-tagging startup Musiio has launched a new service that will make it easier for music companies to use its technology. It’s called Musiio App, and is aimed at independent labels, production houses, sync companies, DJs and other creatives. Anyone with a catalogue of music, who wants to make it easier to tag those tracks and search […]
The post Musiio launches self-service dashboard for AI catalogue-tagging appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
After 400m downloads, music apps firm MWM raises €50m
French company MWM is responsible for a suite of apps including DJ app edjing; music-making apps like Beatwave 3, Beat Maker Pro and Drum Machine; musician tools like Tuner and Metronome; and educational apps Piano, Guitar and Drums. Those apps have been downloaded more than 400m times so far, putting MWM up there with Gismart in terms […]
The post After 400m downloads, music apps firm MWM raises €50m appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Recording Academy officially fires CEO Deborah Dugan
Just before the US Grammy Awards, its organiser the Recording Academy placed its president and CEO Deborah Dugan on administrative leave. Now it has taken the next step and terminated her employment altogether. The industry body will begin its search for a replacement president and CEO “in the coming days”. Is this an end to […]
The post Recording Academy officially fires CEO Deborah Dugan appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Report claims Warner Music Group is delaying its IPO
Warner Music Group may be delaying the plans to go public that it announced earlier this year. The label group has not made an official announcement, and indeed hadn’t yet confirmed specific timescale for its IPO anyway. CNBC’s report claimed that WMG and another about-to-IPO company, shoemaker Cole Haan, “had hoped to communicate to the market […]
The post Report claims Warner Music Group is delaying its IPO appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Bad Bunny hops onto Spotify with his own ‘lookbook’
It’s not quite a ‘visual album’ on the scale of Beyoncé’s ‘Lemonade’ or Frank Ocean’s ‘Endless’, but Latin American star Bad Bunny has partnered with Spotify to create what is being termed a “lookbook” for his third album, ‘Yo Hago Lo Que Me Da La Gana’ (translating as I Do What I Want). The Puerto Rican artist […]
The post Bad Bunny hops onto Spotify with his own ‘lookbook’ appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Zoë Keating explains why she doesn’t sell merch or use YouTube
Zoë Keating is an artist who’s taken a leading role in talking about new technologies (blockchain, for example) as well as streaming royalties transparency. Her latest interview is with Emily White, author of the new book ‘How To Build A Sustainable Music Career & Collect All Revenue Streams’, with a foreword in the form of a […]
The post Zoë Keating explains why she doesn’t sell merch or use YouTube appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Spotify teams up with MBC’s Shahid for six-month MENA promotion
Spotify is part of a new bundle in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, but rather than a telco contract, this partnership involves a video streaming service. Specifically, it’s a video streaming service called Shahid, which is owned by broadcasting group MBC Group. Shahid’s ‘VIP’ (premium) subscribers will be able to get six months […]
The post Spotify teams up with MBC’s Shahid for six-month MENA promotion appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Music to meet real-estate as MIPIM conference moves to June
Events firm Reed Midem has postponed its Cannes-based MIPIM real-estate conference from this month to 2-5 June, due to growing concerns related to the Coronavirus. Notice anything about that new date? It’s when the same company’s Midem music industry conference is due to take place, also in Cannes. That means the 5,000-ish Midem attendees will be […]
The post Music to meet real-estate as MIPIM conference moves to June appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Canada now has around 7.8m music subscribers says Socan boss
Canadian collecting society Socan says that Canada is home to around 7.8m music subscribers, or 22% of the country’s total population, after Nielsen figures revealed a 31.2% increase in on-demand audio song streams in Canada last year. Socan CEO Eric Baptiste, talking in our Canada Country Profile, cautions that that Socan works with total subscriber […]
The post Canada now has around 7.8m music subscribers says Socan boss appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
RealNetworks filing reveals Napster revenues of $106.3m in 2019
The latest financial results from technology firm RealNetworks include figures for its Napster subsidiary: $106.3m of revenues for 2019. Napster’s cost of revenues for the year were $85.9m, with operating expenses of $25.8m leading to it recording an operating loss of $5.4m for the year. Napster’s revenues were $143.8m in 2018, which would indicate a 26.1% year-on-year […]
The post RealNetworks filing reveals Napster revenues of $106.3m in 2019 appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Report: global value of music copyright reached $30.1bn in 2018
One of the quirks of the way the music industry makes its market data available is that we tend to talk about the ‘value of the industry’ purely in terms of recordings: thanks to the IFPI’s annual Global Music Report. Meanwhile, collecting societies body Cisac publishes an annual report of its members’ collections, including a […]
The post Report: global value of music copyright reached $30.1bn in 2018 appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
‘Who are you Jan Thiel?’ Zola Jesus uncovers new Spotify mystery
Musician Zola Jesus posed a question this weekend. “I opened Spotify for the first time in months. Clicked on a random playlist. Played a random song that has 1.5 million streams. The album said it was released Jan 31 2020. Searched off Spotify for artist: nothing comes up. FAKE F**KING MUSIC. WHO ARE YOU JAN THIEL?” […]
The post ‘Who are you Jan Thiel?’ Zola Jesus uncovers new Spotify mystery appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally