Fans can get artist Alice Chater’s outfits… in Animal Crossing
We’ve mentioned the game Animal Crossing: New Horizons several times in this bulletin recently, mainly because it’s one of the chosen stress-busters for several members of the Music Ally team. But it’s also a fascinating cultural thing, including the ability for players to design their own clothing and share it for free with the wider community. That […]
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Source: Music ally
Dice boss on ‘20 things we’ve learned about livestreaming’
British mobile-ticketing firm Dice is one of the startups most affected by the Covid-19 impact, but the company has been pivoting during the pandemic to focus on livestreams. Now its CEO Phil Hutcheon has published an article about 20 things Dice has learned about music livestreaming, which we think has some practical, helpful advice for artists […]
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Source: Music ally
Today’s positive coronavirus-related industry stories (29 May)
We’ve been running a series of stories (you can find the archive link below) about some of the positive news in our industry relating to the Covid-19 pandemic, such as relief efforts for and from the music community, and tools to help artists adapt to the situation. Start today with a new campaign from Global […]
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Source: Music ally
StubHub president to leave as company announces more layoffs
Secondary ticketing company StubHub isn’t having a good 2020, by any stretch of the imagination. Not only has the live industry shut down in many countries, but the eBay subsidiary’s planned $4bn acquisition by Viagogo has yet to see the two companies actually merge, amid regulatory investigation. Given past controversies around Viagogo and secondary ticketing more […]
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Source: Music ally
Canadian PRO SOCAN launches livestreams licensing scheme
Lots of artists and especially DJs are livestreaming on Facebook and Instagram, but as the latter platform recently made clear, there are some licensing restrictions on what music can be played. Canadian collecting society SOCAN has done something interesting though: a new program called ‘Encore!’ that will pay songwriters and publishers when their work is used in livestreams […]
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Source: Music ally
Report claims Americans are spending more time with Spotify
Spotify was ‘the audio platform with the highest daily engagement’ in the US last year, according to a new study by research firm Insider Intelligence. How is that measured? By daily minutes spent listening. The study claims that this metric jumped from just under eight minutes in 2018 for Spotify to just over 10 minutes in […]
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Source: Music ally
Apple Music adds Africa Now Radio and producer playlists
Apple Music’s growing focus on African music and artists continues, with a new show on its Beats 1 radio station called ‘Africa Now Radio‘. Hosted by Nigerian DJ Cuppy, it’s a spin-off from Apple Music’s ‘Africa Now‘ playlist, and will be playing new African music across genres including Afrobeats, highlife, alté, amapiano and kuduro. The […]
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Source: Music ally
Meet CISAC’s new president, ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus: ‘I’ll be outspoken!’
CISAC is the global body representing collecting societies. Its last president was Jean-Michel Jarre, and before him it was Robin Gibb from the Bee Gees. Big shoes to fill for its next president, right?
Step forward… Björn Ulvaeus. The co-founder of ABBA will serve a three-year term as president of CISAC, having been elected by a meeting of its General Assembly this week.
He won’t be running the body – that’s director general Gadi Oron’s job – but Ulvaeus’ role will be to support CISAC’s work around creator rights, royalties and technology in music and other artforms.
“They’ve told me that the presidency is what you make of it. I can give my views, and I can talk about things that I think are important, and maybe there will be some kind of debate. I can reach governments at this level, from CISAC,” Ulvaeus told Music Ally, in an interview ahead of the announcement.
“I’ve given free reign, and I will suspect that they will regret that they gave me free reign, maybe! I’ll be outspoken, I think. I find it very difficult to hold back and be diplomatic and like a politician.”
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Source: Music ally
What is the future of virtual concerts on Fortnite and other online games?
Travis Scott is the latest act to turn an appearance in Fortnite into a landmark event for music, building on what Marshmello achieved within the game last year. Scott’s first concert there drew in 12.3m people and he will have made significant income from sales of digital peripherals. The runaway success may – only in […]
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Source: Music ally
Tools. Lockdown Livestreaming
When lockdown started, artists around the world swiftly jumped onto platforms like Instagram and Twitch, in order to livestream from their homes. But, with social distancing restrictions in place for the foreseeable future, and no real sense of when live music could return, the idea that livestreams could help to partially offset the enormous losses […]
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 253: Music Marketing in Lockdown
Lead: We are now several weeks into lockdown and have moved far, far beyond just “doing a livestream”. There was some wavering at the start as to whether albums should be delayed by several weeks or brought forward, but now everyone is having to roll their sleeves up and get on with it. The music […]
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Source: Music ally
EFF’s Cory Doctorow sets out blanket music licensing plan
Author and activist Cory Doctorow elicits some strong opinions within the music industry, it’s fair to say: he was a key figure in the opposition to the European Copyright Directive (including encouraging “targeting and destroying the political careers of any politician stupid enough to vote in favour of this idiocy”) for example. So, news that he has […]
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Source: Music ally
Instagram to share revenue with creators with badges and ads
In April this year, we reported on the acknowledgment by a couple of Instagram executives that they had plans afoot to help creators (musicians included) to make money from their livestreams on the platform. Yesterday, Instagram made its first announcement on that score. “To give fans another way to participate and show their love, we’re introducing badges that […]
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Source: Music ally
Marshmello and Halsey offer up a Thought Of The Day on Alexa
We are seeing more artists embrace the possibilities of voice assistants, led by Amazon’s Alexa music + Alexa. Witness The 1975’s recent use of an Alexa skill to nudge fans towards their latest website. Amazon, too, is encouraging artists and labels to experiment with voice technology more, including through partnerships on its own content features. This week, […]
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Source: Music ally
Clubify launches subscription-based livestreaming service
The latest startup hoping to make a livestreaming splash is called Clubify, and its pitch to fans is “your favourite DJs, clubs and festivals live at home”. The UK-based startup’s focus is on electronic music, then, but also on charging for access rather than free streams. Its subscription membership will cost £14.90 a month or £149.90 […]
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Source: Music ally
Kenya Copyright Board takes aim at unlicensed DJ livestreams
Instagram has music licensing deals for user-generated content through parent company Facebook, but even it recently had to clarify its guidelines for people broadcasting music on the platform. The wider question of licensing for online livestreams is provoking debate across the world, including this week in Kenya. The Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO) has delivered a warning […]
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Source: Music ally
Former HTC CEO unveils 5G VR headset with its own virtual world
Peter Chou used to be the CEO of technology firm HTC. Now he’s launched a startup called XRSpace, and unveiled its first virtual reality headset, the XRSpace Mova.
It’s lighter than many rivals, and is a ‘standalone’ headset like the Oculus Quest – which means it doesn’t need to be connected to a PC to run its games and applications.
One of its key features is the inclusion of 5G mobile connectivity – look away now, tinfoil-hat-wearing conspiracy theorists – while another is its own virtual world called Manova, complete with avatars for people that Chou says are better than those on rival headsets.
“Today, one of the reasons why VR is not that exciting, is not getting that level of immersiveness, is that it’s lacking very good digital avatars. Today, most of the digital avatars are cartoonish and half body, really not something that we can call your ‘digital self.’ So what we really want to do is to let people really actually recognise this is you,” he told Engadget.
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Source: Music ally
James Arthur gets Super Mario-style Instagram stories game
Earlier this month, we wrote about a marketing campaign for Ministry of Sound that made inventive use of Instagram Stories to create a motorbike-racing game – with fans tapping to avoid obstacles and ravines (i.e. to move to the next story post).
Now the digital agency behind that campaign, F-That, is at it again – this time for artist James Arthur. It’s created a Super Mario-style game (except with Arthur rather than a moustachioed plumber) with a similar obstacle-avoiding structure.
In this case, the game also has a charitable angle, via a partnership with mental health charity SANE and the NHS Charities Together’s Covid-19 appeal. It debuted on MTV UK’s Instagram profile, before moving to Arthur’s and F-That’s channels.
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Source: Music ally
Eminem taps Community platform for messaging with fans
“Dear Stan, I meant to write you sooner, but I just been busy,” wrote Eminem on Instagram yesterday. “text me, ill hit you back” – with an accompanying phone number.
And no, of course Eminem isn’t giving out his cellphone number to 30.1 million people on Instagram: it’s part of a marketing campaign involving one of the messaging-focused fan engagement platforms.
The link in his bio takes fans to a landing page on the website my.community.com, which is the startup we wrote about back in January 2019 when it relaunched as a competitor to another platform called SuperPhone – Community had previously been called Shimmur, and was one of the first cohort of Techstars Music startups in 2017.
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Source: Music ally
Chartmetric says livestreams boosted artists’ social followings
Music analytics firm Chartmetric has published the third and final part of its analysis on Covid-19’s impact on music consumption.
The study focuses on livestreams, and the extent to which they boosted artists’ social media followings. The conclusion: yes they did.
Chartmetric says that “live streams scheduled by artists from their own channels generated significant lift in follower growth” while “artists making guest appearances on other artists’ live streams also saw meaningful engagement lifts, though perhaps not as substantial as consistent live streamers”.
The study is based on a relatively small sample group: 12 artists with decent followings who livestreamed regularly, with some of them compared to similar-genre artists who had not been livestreaming to explore the effects.
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Source: Music ally
AiMi app uses AI to provide adaptive electronic music
Aimed at electronic music fans, a new app called AiMi is using AI technology to turn existing tracks from artists into adaptive experiences for listeners.
The idea: listeners set the ‘energy’ rate they want, based on a scale of 1 to 10, and the app delivers a flow of continuous music to suit their requirements. AiMi uses a freemium model: people can listen to 30 minutes of free music every day, but if they pay $5.99 a month they can listen as much as they want.
“Unlike traditional systems that use AI to mimic artists, AiMi uses AI to generate music using real beats created by real artists,” is the claim.
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Source: Music ally
shesaid·so and YouTube Music team up for mentorship schemes
shesaid.so – the organisation pushing for gender equality in the music industry – is launching new virtual mentoring schemes for women and gender minorities in Italy and France.
The schemes will be supported by YouTube Music, and will recruit 12 mentees in each country who will them be paired with either a local or international mentor (they can choose which). Those wishing to be mentees and mentors have until 7 June to apply.
The successful applicants will then take part in one-to-one meetings between mentors and mentees and monthly coaching sessions between July and November, with all meetings happening online. There will also be sessions with guest experts and topics covered will include public speaking, negotiation techniques, impostor syndrome and more.
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Source: Music ally
JioSaavn adds ‘Pro Rewards’ feature for paying subscribers
We reported yesterday on concerns that India’s growth in paid music subscriptions has slowed down. Now one of the main Indian streaming services, JioSaavn, has a new initiative that it hopes will make its JioSaavn Pro subscription tier more attractive to listeners.
The new feature is called JioSaavn Pro Rewards, and it’ll offer a range of benefits to subscribers, from three months of livestreamed yoga classes to discounts on e-health services.
JioSaavn is working with partner companies on all this: Sarva Yoga, HealthifyMe, 1MG and Care·fit, with the pitch to listeners being that they could get much more value in the rewards than they spend paying for a JioSaavn subscription – that costs 399 rupees a year, but the rewards for the month of May are worth 2,350 rupees alone, according to the company.
“We want a JioSaavn Pro subscription to add more value to our users’ lives beyond just ad-free and offline listening,” said VP of consumer revenue Mihir Shah. As part of the announcement, JioSaavn said that its subscriber total already grew fourfold since early 2019, although it did not offer any figures with that claim.
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Source: Music ally
Facebook launches Collab, an experimental music-making app
Facebook’s experimental apps team, NPE, is launching a new app – and it’s focused on music.
The app is called Collab, and it’s launching today for iOS as an invitation-only beta that, in the team’s words, “brings together creators and fans to create, watch, and mix and match original videos, starting with music”.
The app is based around the idea of a ‘collab’ – a collage of three different videos that play in sync.
“With the app, you can create your own arrangement by adding in your own recording or by swiping and discovering an arrangement to complete your composition,” explained NPE’s announcement, promising that “no musical experience is required”.
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Source: Music ally
Intro: BPI and Music Ally’s Music & Tech Springboard Programme
There’s been a radical shift in the way we make, deliver and experience music over the last decade, driven by innovation and partnerships between the music and technology industries.
Innovation isn’t just about the biggest tech companies though: the music industry has its arms open wide to talented music-tech startups of all kinds.
That’s why we at Music Ally have teamed up with British music industry body the BPI for a new series of videos called The Music & Tech Springboard Programme, which launches today.
This series of videos explains how startups are working with labels and the wider industry already, and offers practical advice from experts on how these relationships can be as positive and effective as possible.
In this first video, BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor and Music Ally CEO Paul Brindley introduce the series, and offer some initial tips for startups on how best to approach and work with the music industry:
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Source: Music ally
Startups explain the lessons they learned working with the music industry
In the Music & Tech Springboard series of videos we’ve produced with the BPI, we’ve heard from collecting societies, lawyers, advisors, accelerators and incubators, and labels about their advice for music/tech startups. But what about hearing from some startups themselves?
That’s what this video does. A group of British startups who’ve all signed licensing deals and/or worked on pilots with music industry rightsholders give us the key lessons they’ve learned along the way, for the benefit of younger companies about to embark on similar journeys.
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Source: Music ally
Music and technology industry advisors offer their tips for tech startups
Technology and music may be two separate industries, but there are a number of people whose jobs revolve around bridging the gap between the two: helping startups to understand the strategies and priorities of rights holders, and helping rightsholders to grasp the needs of startups.
It’s not uncommon to find these advisors working with one or the other side when deals are being done and partnerships sketched out. Two of the prominent examples in the UK are Cliff Fluet, managing director of Eleven Advisory, and Becky Brook, founder of Becky Brook Consulting.
In this video, they offer their perspectives on how the relationship between startups and music companies can be as healthy as possible, including avoiding some of the well-known pitfalls.
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Source: Music ally
Music licensing: the basics that tech startups need to know
If a music-tech startup’s product or service involves making the actual music available, that company will need licences for the music. Understanding how licensing works is one of the first and most important things that these startups need to understand.
At its simplest level, that also means understanding whether you need to be talking to record labels, music publishers, collecting societies or all three. Thankfully, the collecting societies are a good first port of call for information on this.
This video picks the brains of executives from the two main collecting societies in the UK: Jez Bell, chief licensing officer at PPL, the society which looks after recorded music; and Nick Edwards, head of online at PRS for Music, which represents songwriters, composers and music publishers.
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Source: Music ally
How can you get press coverage for your music/tech startup?
Like any industry, music has its own set of trade publications and websites that are pored over by executives and staff in the labels, publishers and collecting societies. Meanwhile, there’s also a thriving technology industry media covering startups of all kinds, music/tech included.
Getting featured by key media, from news stories and founder profiles to bigger features about the technology or trend that you’re working within, can be really useful in building your credibility with the music industry – or simply putting you on the radar of the innovation teams working within labels.
In this video, Stuart Dredge, editor at Music Ally, gives a journalist’s perspective on what makes a startup interesting.
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Source: Music ally
Warner Music Group launches its IPO – we’ve been filleting the filing
Warner Music Group’s initial public offering launches today, with the music group offering 70m shares in a public offering whose price is expected to be between $23 and $26 per share.
“The offering consists entirely of secondary shares to be sold by Access Industries, LLC and certain related selling stockholders,” explained WMG in its announcement. “The underwriters will have a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 10,500,000 shares of Class A common stock from the selling stockholders. The Company will not receive any proceeds from the offering.”
The group will be listed on the Nasdaq stock market with the ticker symbol WMG. Its S1 regulatory filing has been published today – you can find it here – with the prospectus for investors considering investing in a company whose recorded music business generated $3.84bn of revenues in its last fiscal year, with its publishing arm adding another $643m.
The prospectus doubles as a defence of major labels’ role in the modern music industry, claiming that “Today, global music entertainment companies such as ours are more important and relevant than ever.” It continues:
“The traditional barriers to widespread distribution of music have been erased. The tools to make and distribute music are at every musician’s fingertips, and today’s technology makes it possible for music to travel around the world in an instant. This has resulted in music being ubiquitous and accessible at all times. Against this industry backdrop, the volume of music being released on digital platforms is making it harder for recording artists and songwriters to get noticed. We cut through the noise by identifying, signing, developing and marketing extraordinary talent.”
It’s a long document, and we’ve only had time to skim-read it so far, but there are some fun nuggets, including:
The post Warner Music Group launches its IPO – we’ve been filleting the filing appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Warner Music Group launches its IPO – we’ve been filleting the filing
Warner Music Group’s initial public offering launches today, with the music group offering 70m shares in a public offering whose price is expected to be between $23 and $26 per share.
“The offering consists entirely of secondary shares to be sold by Access Industries, LLC and certain related selling stockholders,” explained WMG in its announcement. “The underwriters will have a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 10,500,000 shares of Class A common stock from the selling stockholders. The Company will not receive any proceeds from the offering.”
The group will be listed on the Nasdaq stock market with the ticker symbol WMG. Its S1 regulatory filing has been published today – you can find it here – with the prospectus for investors considering investing in a company whose recorded music business generated $3.84bn of revenues in its last fiscal year, with its publishing arm adding another $643m.
The prospectus doubles as a defence of major labels’ role in the modern music industry, claiming that “Today, global music entertainment companies such as ours are more important and relevant than ever.” It continues:
“The traditional barriers to widespread distribution of music have been erased. The tools to make and distribute music are at every musician’s fingertips, and today’s technology makes it possible for music to travel around the world in an instant. This has resulted in music being ubiquitous and accessible at all times. Against this industry backdrop, the volume of music being released on digital platforms is making it harder for recording artists and songwriters to get noticed. We cut through the noise by identifying, signing, developing and marketing extraordinary talent.”
It’s a long document, and we’ve only had time to skim-read it so far, but there are some fun nuggets, including:
The post Warner Music Group launches its IPO – we’ve been filleting the filing appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Imagine if Fortnite had a music streaming partnership…
We’ve been thinking a lot about Fortnite and music recently. Travis Scott attracted 27.7 million people to his recent ‘Astronomical’ concerts within the popular game, while its new Party Royale mode has already hosted DJ sets from Diplo, Steve Aoki and Deadmau5.
There are quite a few unanswered (as yet) questions around this: for example, the nature of the deals being done with these artists, not to mention the potential licensing implications around virtual performances to millions, sometimes tens of millions of people.
However, it’s also made us wonder what more Fortnite might be able to do with music, and specifically, what it might be able to do with a music streaming partnership (or partnerships). How might music streaming be integrated into Fortnite in interesting ways?
The post Imagine if Fortnite had a music streaming partnership… appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Netflix is encouraging inactive users to cancel subscriptions
Customers paying their subscription even though they’re not using your service? The stuff of dreams, so you’d think (well, you would if you owned a gym, for example).
In a world where streaming services have to keep a close eye on their ‘churn’ rate (cancellations) it might not seem in their interests to boot off those inactive subscribers. But booting them off is exactly what Netflix is doing. Well, it’s not being quite so brutal.
“We’re asking everyone who has not watched anything on Netflix for a year since they joined to confirm they want to keep their membership. And we’ll do the same for anyone who has stopped watching for more than two years,” explained product innovation lead Eddy Wu in a blog post. “If they don’t confirm that they want to keep subscribing, we’ll automatically cancel their subscription.”
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Source: Music ally
Andy and the Odd Socks launch new album with kids’ parties
Andy Day is a popular children’s TV presenter in the UK on TV channel CBeebies, but he’s also been building a music career as the frontman of Andy and the Odd Socks.
The band’s new album comes out today (22 May) through Sony Music’s children’s entertainment label Magic Star, and there’s an inventive marketing campaign around it. Over the next week, there’ll be 250 children’s parties happening in the UK: essentially album playback events with games and (occasionally) a drop-in appearance from Day himself.
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Source: Music ally
Chantel Jeffries gives Triller exclusive for new video
TikTok is not the only short-form video game in town and Triller has been snapping at its heels for some time, making a strong splash in the US and drawing in hip-hop acts in particular. Triller has now landed the exclusive on the video for ‘Come Back To Me’ by US singer/producer/model/YouTube personality Chantel Jeffries.
The video is made from fan-created content and edited together with AI technology. It plays out in real time where Jeffries and assorted friends connect and collaboratively create the video.
“The main goal Chantel and I always have is to create ‘first of its kind’ experiences while merging Chantel’s digital-first brand and audience with her music,” said her manager, Alexis Fleischer of Timeline Management. “The partnership with Triller highlights an innovative and forward-thinking mindset, bringing our vision to life while creating outbound traffic to partners for streaming music.”
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Source: Music ally
Get set for Wireless Connect and Electric Blockaloo virtual festivals
Livestreams are all the rage in 2020, but the related ‘virtual concerts’ category is seeing some activity too. Travis Scott’s performances in Fortnite, which attracted 27.7 million people in total, are the obvious example, but there are also experiments happening around virtual reality, as well as other online games.
VR startup MelodyVR has expanded on its partnership with Live Nation subsidiary Festival Republic around the UK’s Wireless Festival. The physical event has been cancelled, but MelodyVR will be putting on “an entire weekend’s worth of unseen performances, exclusive footage, and much more” from 3-5 July instead, including broadcasts in VR from MelodyVR’s studios in Los Angeles and London.
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Source: Music ally
ICMP boss warns of Covid-19 financial hit to come in Q1 2021
When people in the music industry talk about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, they’re often thinking about the immediate hit that artists have taken to their live revenues.
It’s worth remembering that there’s another sucker-punch lying ahead for musicians and rightsholders alike though.
“The particular challenge for the music industry is surmounting the delayed effect. As a rights and royalties-based industry, balance sheets will really redden come the first financial quarter of 2021,” says John Phelan, director general of independent publishers body ICMP. “That’s the crux of why we need close cooperation and to ensure the right structures are in place to adapt.”
He was talking for a feature on the Midem conference’s ‘Insights’ website, rounding up the various ways that the industry has responded so far to Covid-19.
The post ICMP boss warns of Covid-19 financial hit to come in Q1 2021 appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Why is the US share of global recorded music revenue growing?
In 2011, the US accounted for 26% of global recorded music revenues. In 2019, that share had grown to 36% according to industry body the IFPI’s figures, despite that period covering considerable global expansion for music streaming services.
Why is the world’s biggest music market taking an even bigger share of the revenue? Former Spotify chief economist Will Page has some thoughts, published in an article on Billboard.
“One factor: The dollar has been strong, with the trade-weighted exchange rate (measured against a range of currencies) rising 30% from 2011 to 2019,” he wrote. “Also, the world’s second-biggest music market, Japan, hasn’t grown in size over the same four years, fueling America’s dominance. Nearly 70% of Japan’s recorded-music revenue still comes from CDs, but as the CD business struggles with the store closures and distribution issues posed by COVID-19, the United States could increase its share of the global pie even more.”
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Source: Music ally
US Copyright Office report concludes tech safe harbours are ‘unbalanced’
Just finished a book and looking for a new, gripping read for the weekend ahead? Here’s a recommendation for you: ‘Section 512 of Title 17’. Admittedly, it’s got no wizards, romance, clutter-clearing tips or Henry VIII lopping people’s heads off. But in terms of music industry politics, it’s got the makings of a thriller.
The report is the US Copyright Office’s multi-year study of Section 512 of the US Copyright Act. That’s the part focused on safe harbours for internet service providers that allow user-generated content. Yes, we’re in ‘value gap’ territory here: the ongoing argument over whether copyright legislation (Section 512 in the case of the US) needs to be updated to – in the music industry’s view – bring platforms like YouTube more in to line with non-UGC services like Spotify in terms of licensing requirements.
It’s fair to say the music industry will be happy with the report. “The Copyright Office concludes that the operation of the section 512 safe harbor system today is unbalanced,” is the killer line. “The Report highlights areas where current implementation of section 512 is out of sync with Congress’ original intent, including: eligibility qualifications for the service provider safe harbors; repeat infringer policies; knowledge requirement standards; specificity within takedown notices; non-standard notice requirements; subpoenas; and injunctions.”
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Source: Music ally
The future of music releases. Albums vs EP’s vs Playlists vs Mixtapes
The album isn’t completely dead and the playlist isn’t yet the be-all and end-all – which means that artists are somewhat creatively discombobulated in what is really a curious transition period. But with that comes the scope to experiment and push the boundaries. Justin Bieber could be the one firing the starting pistol for the […]
The post The future of music releases. Albums vs EP’s vs Playlists vs Mixtapes appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Music Biz 2020 conference moves online due to Covid-19
We’re sorry to report that another physical music industry conference has bitten the dust in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. Music Biz 2020 was due to be held in August in Nashville, but has now been cancelled by organiser the Music Business Association. Well, the physical event has. “We plan to follow up the success […]
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Source: Music ally
The 1975 reopen Mindshower site with stems, mags and more
In February this year, we wrote about The 1975’s ‘Mindshower’ campaign, which saw the band create a fictitious ‘digital detox’ retreat called Mindshower, complete with its own website and a spoof video ad on YouTube. Now, days ahead of the release of the band’s new album ‘Notes on a Conditional Form’, the website has reopened to the […]
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Source: Music ally
Colombian industry hopeful of growth despite Covid-19
The number one question for anyone in the music industry now – recorded or live – is what shape the business will be in when we finally emerge from the lockdown. Anything close to certainty is, of course, impossible but it some countries will inevitably emerge stronger than others. Colombia – the subject of our latest […]
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Source: Music ally
Pex study suggests 17% of podcast episodes include music
Licensing music for podcasts is a bit of a tangle. We know that. But how many podcasts are using music, be it licensed or unlicensed? That’s data that analytics firm Pex has been ferreting out for its latest study, announced in a series of tweets yesterday. “To date we indexed 32,402,790 unique podcast episodes. 5,447,823 of those contained […]
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Source: Music ally
Instagram publishes guidelines on use of copyrighted music
Verzuz battles, Robbie Williams’ kitchen karaoke, KT Tunstall solo raving… There have been some joyful musical broadcasts on Instagram Live during the Covid-19 pandemic. But as a blog post from Instagram noted yesterday, the recent boom in livestreams has “highlighted some confusion across the community — especially around the use of recorded music in Live on […]
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Source: Music ally
ERA boss Kim Bayley joins the #BrokenRecord streaming debate
The #BrokenRecord campaign has been gathering momentum in recent weeks – and was even the subject of our own Music Ally TV Show last week. Now ERA, the body that represents retailers and digital music services in the UK, has weighed into the debate.
ERA CEO Kim Bayley has published a blog post with her thoughts on the topic, walking the line between supporting artists and defending the streaming services.
“The effective closure of the live music business has robbed many musicians of their biggest single source of revenue. It is no wonder that this has focused attention on the relatively low returns many feel they see from the use of their recordings by digital service providers (DSPs),” wrote Bayley.
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Source: Music ally
Tools: Tradable Bits. Know your Fans, Market Smarter
Growing an artist’s listenership in specific markets or their social following is one part of the equation of nurturing fan bases and driving revenue. But what is often missing, is actually knowing who the fans are and getting a complete picture of how they’re behaving and presenting themselves online, which provides a more strategic approach […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Colombia 2020
Colombia’s music industry has gone from strength to digital strength, giving some hope that it may come out of the global pandemic in relatively healthy shape.
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Source: Music ally
YouTube Select aims to boost YouTube’s advertising revenue
A blunt truth underpinning the ‘value gap’ debate: if YouTube is going to pay music rightsholders more royalties, one of the best ways will be by increasing its advertising revenues. Which, as we reported earlier this year when parent company Alphabet started disclosing them, have grown from $8.15bn in 2017 to $11.16bn in 2018, then $15.15bn […]
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Source: Music ally
Facebook goes big on ecommerce with Facebook Shops feature
Shopping on Facebook is already A Thing thanks to the social network’s ‘Marketplace’ feature, an eBay-like service connecting private buyers and sellers. Now Facebook is pushing on with its own ecommerce strategy, announcing Facebook Shops yesterday. “Facebook Shops make it easy for businesses to set up a single online store for customers to access on both […]
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Source: Music ally
Artist Gracey used Instagram to tease ‘Empty Love’ track
Polydor-signed act Gracey is promoting her ‘Empty Love’ single with an AR filter for Instagram that plays an instrumental passage from the song which can then be played around with by the user. It works by opening the selfie camera in Instagram so that anyone using it can use an on-screen slider to lower or increase the […]
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Source: Music ally
SendMusic launches app for professional music-files sharing
We first wrote about startup SendMusic in late 2018, when it emerged as a way to help musicians, producers and music industry colleagues to send big files to one another, including for promotional purposes. Now there’s an update: SendMusic has launched its official iOS app. “You can now send, receive, listen and reply all in one place… […]
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Source: Music ally
YouTube reveals the latest artists for its Foundry program
YouTube set up its Foundry initiative back in 2016 as a way to offer emerging artists marketing, promotional and technology support. The 12 acts shortlisted for the class of 2020 have just been announced and include: Jaykae (from the UK); Joesef (UK); TESSÆ (France); Tems (Nigeria); Adam Melchor (US); Eladio Carrion (Puerto Rico); Gabriel Garzon-Montano (US); Natanael […]
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Source: Music ally
Sample library Tracklib switches to subscription model
We first wrote about stem licensing service Tracklib back in June 2016 when it pitched at MidemLab. It is aimed at the DJ and remixer worlds, allowing users to buy and license track stems in one location. In October it signed a deal with the estate of Isaac Hayes to make a number of his unreleased tracks available for […]
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Source: Music ally
Spotify pays $100m+ for Joe Rogan podcast, adds $1bn+ to market cap
People often ask how the economics of podcasting work. Well, here’s how they worked for Spotify yesterday. The streaming service announced an exclusive licensing deal with one of the biggest podcasts, The Joe Rogan Experience.
The Wall Street Journal claimed the deal was worth “more than $100 million”, but the ensuing spike in Spotify’s share price added more than $1bn to the company’s market cap.
(We’ll explain our workings here, as it’s not a day-on-day calculation. Just before the announcement yesterday afternoon, Spotify shares were trading at $169.35, and they closed the day at $175.03 – a 3.4% spike adding $1.09bn to the market cap, which closed at $32.55bn.)
Money well spent, seemingly. Rogan’s podcast will be made available on Spotify for the first time at the start of September, alongside other podcast platforms, but at the end of 2020 it will become a Spotify exclusive.
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Source: Music ally
Facebook’s Oculus Quest VR headset has sold $100m of content
Virtual reality has yet to become a wildfire success, but within the sector, Facebook’s Oculus Quest headset has been a bright spot. Now the company has offered some stats to celebrate the one-year anniversary of its launch. Owners of the $399/$499 (depending on storage) headset have spent more than $100m on games and applications in the […]
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Source: Music ally
Bytedance appoints Disney+ boss Kevin Mayer as TikTok CEO
TikTok has a new boss, and he’s a media-industry heavyweight. Kevin Mayer is joining TikTok’s parent company Bytedance from Disney, where he was most recently chairman of direct-to-consumer and international – a key role overseeing the launch of the Disney+ video streaming service. Mayer will be chief operating officer of Bytedance, leading “music, gaming, Helo, […]
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Source: Music ally
Popgun takes its AI-powered Splash music-making app to Roblox
We’ve written regularly about Australian AI-music startup Popgun, including its belief that AI could be the secret sauce for a service “where teenagers come together to make music for each other… the ‘pop stars on training wheels’ place where they make music for each other, release it and watch each other pretend to be pop stars, but then go on to become legitimate pop stars”.
We also covered its launch of an app called Splash, using AI-generated beats and loops, to help kids make music. Now Popgun has turned Splash into a game for Roblox, the gaming platform with 125 million active users, including LOTS of children.
It takes the form of a virtual club – “Club Splash” – where people can DJ for their friends and other Roblox players by using Splash’s sound packs in genres including hip-hop, trap and dubstep. They can buy avatar clothing and stage props, while earning ‘fame’ and coins from their micro (sub-one-minute) sets.
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Source: Music ally
Music Ally Startup Files: Radiant’s Spotify-powered DJ is an AI
Squeezing new uses from existing technology sparks creative revolutions. Dancing to recorded music was weird until someone who understood the crowd started to link the right songs together in the right place, and created the nightclub.
(It’s probably best not to dwell on one of the main claimants of that innovation, mind…)
Fast forward to 2020, though, and we’re in a potentially similar place. Music streaming apps are a series of near-identical windows through which lies all music. But where to start, where to go next, and how to care about a certain song or artist?
The best DJs, whether in the clubs or on the radio, have been trusted sources, but where do they sit within the streaming world? And, if they do have a place, will they be humans or artificial intelligence? Enter Radiant.
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Source: Music ally
#BrokenRecord: ‘It’s about saying we all recognise this is problematic’
The #BrokenRecord campaign started by musician Tom Gray in the UK is gathering steam. Next Sunday (24 May) will see an online Tim’s Twitter Listening Party Festival allied to the campaign, which is calling for changes to the music streaming ecosystem that will benefit artists and songwriters.
Last Friday (15 May) Gray was one of the special guests on our weekly Music Ally TV Show, along with Deviate Digital CEO Sammy Andrews, who is also backing the campaign. You can watch the full show below (or here on YouTube) but we’ve also pulled out some of the highlights in this article.
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Source: Music ally
Facebook buys Giphy, sparking debate about data access
Facebook has acquired Giphy, the popular library of animated GIFs, and plans to “further integrate” it into Instagram and other Facebook apps, while still making it available to non-Facebook apps too. “We’re looking forward to investing further in its technology and relationships with content and API partners. People will still be able to upload GIFs; […]
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Source: Music ally
Khruangbin’s AirKhruang gets remixed as ‘Shelter in Space’
One of 2018’s cleverest music marketing campaigns was the one for US group Khruangbin. It included the AirKhruang website, which asked fans to input details of their upcoming flights, then created Spotify playlists to match their length, drawing on tracks that the group would use in their DJ sets, as well as artists from the countries under […]
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Source: Music ally
Social video editing app Trash adds features for musicians
We reported on the launch of Trash last June: an AI-powered video editing app launched by Hannah Donovan, formerly of Vine and This Is My Jam. Then, in January this year, her pitch won the startup showcase section of the NY:LON Connect conference in New York, with Donovan explaining that Trash had been licensing music for use in […]
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Source: Music ally
Spotify for Artists is now for their labels too
The Spotify for Artists dashboard is no longer just for artists. “We’re bringing artist teams, labels and distributors to Spotify for Artists so you can manage your profile, see and analyze your data and pitch to playlists, together,” announced the streaming service on Friday, in what it described as “an effort to empower artists, managers, and labels […]
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Source: Music ally
Merlin CEO promises ‘long view’ around tech partnerships
Earlier this year, indie licensing agency Merlin appointed Facebook music exec Jeremy Sirota as its new CEO. On Friday (15 May) he gave his first public speech in the role at AIM’s online ‘AIM House’ conference. It included some colour about Merlin’s plans, and its recent growth. “I see a lot of value in taking […]
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Source: Music ally
Today’s positive coronavirus-related industry news (18 May)
Industry body Songwriters of North America (SONA) has launched a new hardship fund for songwriters, which will distribute emergency grants of $1k to creators hit by the Covid-19 pandemic’s economic impact. The new fund was set up thanks to a donation from publisher Sony/ATV last month, reported Billboard. Also in the US, collecting society BMI partnered […]
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Source: Music ally
Bad Bunny’s ‘Safaera’ returns to Spotify after sample dispute
Fans of Puerto Rican star Bad Bunny had been raging last week after his ‘Safaera’ song was removed from Spotify. Now it’s back, along with an explanation from the streaming service about why it had been rendered unplayable for a few days. “We are happy to report to Bad Bunny fans that Safaera is once […]
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Source: Music ally
Goldman Sachs: ‘Global music revenue will drop by 25% in 2020’
Nobody can know exactly what the overall financial impact of Covid-19 will be on the music industry in 2020, but that isn’t stopping analysts from guessing. Goldman Sachs made its prediction last week, and it’s a sobering one. “Global music revenue will drop by 25% in 2020 on our estimates, largely due to the widespread […]
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Source: Music ally
What can we learn from Covid-19’s impact on China’s music industry?
The Chinese music industry saw 16% growth in its recorded music revenues in 2019 according to the IFPI, but it was also the first country to be affected by the Covid-19 outbreak. Does that make it a canary in the coalmine for the global music industry, in terms of learning lessons from the coronavirus impact, but also the industry’s reaction?
Perhaps so. Music Ally has spoken to a number of Chinese market experts to understand what happened, how the industry responded, and what the lessons might be for the music business elsewhere in the world.
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Source: Music ally
TikTok under fire again from US child-privacy campaigners
In February 2019, TikTok paid $5.7m as part of a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission following a child-privacy investigation dating back to the Musical·ly app (not us!) that TikTok merged with in 2018. Besides paying the $5.7m, TikTok promised to make changes that would ensure children’s personal information was not being shared, alongside other protections […]
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Source: Music ally
Music-VR startup ViRvii signs content deal with Oculus
We have not covered ViRvii before but it describes itself as “a technology firm that develops proprietary user experiences merging music, art and virtual reality” and was founded last year. Why we are writing about it now is that it has just signed a deal with Facebook-owned Oculus to develop VR content for the platform starting next […]
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Source: Music ally
Houseparty app launches ‘In The House’ events for co-viewing
Video-chatting app Houseparty has been one of the big hits of the Covid-19 pandemic, alongside Zoom, with people using it to chat to friends and family, and sometimes to play its embedded games. Now Houseparty is exploring music and livestreams through a three-day event called ‘In The House‘, which launches tomorrow (15 May). It’ll be […]
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Source: Music ally
Sofar Sounds launches ‘Keep Listening’ playlist on Spotify
Unsurprisingly, Sofar Sounds isn’t hosting any physical gigs at the current time. It has, however, launched an online ‘Listening Room’ for livestream performances by artists, which it says is earning them an average of $500 in donations from fans, as well as a performance fee from the company itself. Now Sofar has launched a Spotify playlist based […]
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Source: Music ally
Uncanny Valley wins the AI Song Contest, helped by… koalas
In January we reported on plans to hold an ‘AI Song Contest’ for “European teams of musicians, artists, scientists and developers” working with music-generating AI systems. It turns out they weren’t just Europeans: an Australian team called Uncanny Valley was announced as the winner of the contest this week with a track called ‘Beautiful The World’. “The team trained […]
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Source: Music ally
Blank-et coverage: Sony launches album-art colouring site
Adult colouring books are a significant part of the book publishing world, with plenty of apps offering this too – usually in the name of mindfulness. Now Sony Music UK is getting in on the colouring action with a new site called The Colouring Sessions. It’s based around album artwork from artists including Elvis Presley’s debut […]
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Source: Music ally
Lil Baby album gets digital ‘deluxe’ treatment with music videos
In the streaming age, what is a ‘deluxe’ album anyway? It’s more than just extra tracks and alternative versions. A number of artists have explored Spotify’s ‘enhanced’ playlists format, which inserts videos between the music tracks, for example. And video is also at the core of the strategy for the deluxe version of Lil Baby’s […]
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Source: Music ally
OMG! OMD sell £75k in merchandise from their virtual gig
We’re fairly sure Travis Scott made a killing from virtual items around his recent Fortnite concert, although a figure hasn’t yet been announced. One artist that is announcing some numbers from an online performance, though, is veteran British act OMD. Last Saturday (9 May) they streamed a recording of a November 2019 concert on YouTube […]
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Source: Music ally
Ambassador updates: FAC and Love Record Stores Day
When it comes to music ambassadors, the UK is really spoiling us this week. British artist trade body the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) has announced 15 new ‘artist ambassadors’ to join its efforts. Skin from Skunk Anansie; duo Nova Twins; house music legend Larry Heard; Stiff Little Fingers frontman Jake Burns; and The Anchoress are […]
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Source: Music ally
Reveel launches music project-management platform in beta
Last October we reported on a startup called Reveel that was promising to help musicians to ensure they were credited correctly on all the songs they work on, through a ‘creator ID’ linked to each song or recording. Now Reveel has launched its actual platform (as opposed to just registrations for creator IDs) in beta. “Reveel is a collaborative […]
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Source: Music ally
Eventbrite thinks that smaller concerts will return sooner
Ticketing firm Eventbrite has published its quarterly shareholder letter accompanying its financial results. Unsurprisingly it focuses heavily on the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic is having on the live industry. In Q1, its revenues fell by 40% year-on-year to $49.1m, leading to a net loss of $146.5m compared to $10m a year ago. “First quarter net loss […]
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Source: Music ally
What are user-centric music streaming payouts? Start here…
This is an edited version of an article that appeared in Music Ally’s Q1 2020 report. In the light of the current #BrokenRecord campaign around music industry economics – see our piece last week for more on that – we wanted to also share it in front of our paywall.
The topic of user-centric music streaming payouts is one that’s going to keep popping up, and many people talk about it from a position of gut feeling – that it’s a fairer way to distribute streaming royalties – rather than a deep knowledge of the model and its implications.
The good news: now is a good time to gen up on this topic, as there’s a relatively limited pool of articles and studies that you need to read to get a handle on it. The challenge being that this handle might be: there are still lots of unanswered questions around user-centric payouts.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves: if you’re new to the idea, user-centric payouts are a different way of distributing streaming royalties to the current ‘pro-rata’ system.
At its simplest level of explanation, that’s where the royalties pool a streaming service has available in a certain territory for a certain period is divided up according to share of streams.
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Source: Music ally
Epidemic Sound lays off 19% of staff in ‘realignment’ of business
Production music firm Epidemic Sound is making 79 of its 419 staff redundant, although the company says that this is not the result of a drop in revenues.
The majority of the layoffs have come from its sales department, with the other redundancies coming from support roles including finance and training.
Staff were told about the redundancies yesterday. CEO Oscar Hoglund told Music Ally that while the Covid-19 pandemic played a role in the decision, it was a “realignment” rather than a sign that Epidemic Sound is struggling as a business.
“Covid-19 has just accelerated this transition into becoming a digital-first company, and supercharged it,” he said, stressing that the overall business is still growing.
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Source: Music ally
Former Crowdstar execs launch Top Mix music app
A new music app called Top Mix is promising that “anyone can make music with the swipe of a finger”. Released for iOS, it’s the work of a team led by former executives from social mobile gaming company Crowdstar. Top Mix is free to download, and in its App Store blurb’s words “allows you to mix songs […]
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Source: Music ally
Zhu teams up with esports community Enthusiast Gaming
Zhu is the latest dance artist doing something interesting on Twitch – a livestreamed concert this Thursday (14 May) that will be used to premiere new single ‘Only’. However, it’s part of a wider deal for Zhu with a company called Enthusiast Gaming, which focuses on games and esports – the latter through its Luminosity Gaming […]
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Source: Music ally
The power of smaller playlists. Why big is not always best.
*This topic was discussed in-depth on Music Ally TV. Watch the show in full here In a world where the playlist is king, it is hardly surprising that getting on New Music Friday (NMF) has become the be-all and end-all of music streaming marketing, an opportunity to get your track in front of 8m people worldwide, […]
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Source: Music ally
Katy Perry launches a ‘virtual flower delivery service’
“Our goal is to provide the best virtual flower delivery service that can help you tell someone you care, you love them, you miss them, or simply thank them for believing in you. Select a bouquet you wish to share and write your personal message to go along with it.” No, not the latest Silicon […]
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Source: Music ally
Instagram Live soared for Jill Scott vs Erykah Badu, 6ix9ine
It’s fair to say that the Verzuz battle between Jill Scott vs Erykah Badu was hotly anticipated – and thankfully (given the technical difficulties we’ve seen in previous battles) lived up to expectations. It did pretty well in figures too: Scott posted a follow-up Instagram pic celebrating “1+ Billion Impressions” for the event, which saw both stars spinning […]
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Source: Music ally
US Copyright Office posts transcript of AI music debate
“Country music is going to be the biggest sort of paradox for AI because the underlying melodies and so on are very formulaic. But the lyrics are based on human experience. I’d be very interested how long it would take an AI to come up with this… Tammy Wynette song, D-I-V-O-R-C-E. Unless that AI spent […]
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Source: Music ally
Napster needs outside funding within the next 12 months
Tech firm RealNetworks has published its quarterly financial results, including as usual figures for music-streaming firm Napster, in which it holds an 84% stake. Napster’s subscription revenues grew from $24.3m in the first quarter of 2019 to $26.3m in the first quarter of 2020: an 8.2% rise, albeit one that reflects the small scale of the […]
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Source: Music ally
Keep Music Alive campaign aims to ‘fix streaming now’
The UK’s Musicians’ Union and The Ivors Academy have teamed up for a campaign called ‘Keep Music Alive’ which the two organisations say “aims to ‘fix streaming’ and calls for industry stakeholders to come together to agree an equitable, sustainable and transparent model for royalty distribution in the streaming era”.
It kicks off this morning with an online petition calling for the British government to “urgently undertake a review of streaming” to “ensure that the flow of money is transparent and fair for the whole music ecosystem”. It’s already closing in on its initial target of 1,000 signatures, after being emailed to musicians this morning.
The campaign is related to (although also distinct from) the #BrokenRecord movement that’s been building a head of steam in the UK in recent weeks, started by musician Tom Gray, who’s also on the songwriter committee of The Ivors Academy. Note, the ‘Keep Music Alive’ campaign is aimed at labels as much as it is at streaming companies.
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Source: Music ally
Gracenote launches a new dataset of 35m podcast episodes
Spotify, Pandora, Deezer and other music services are thinking hard about how to make it easier for listeners to discover podcasts that they might like. Now tech firm Gracenote is launching something that could help: “a standardised and enriched dataset enabling powerful navigation, search and discovery of more than 35 million podcast episodes across all […]
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Source: Music ally
Steve Aoki and Deadmau5 next to play Fortnite’s new venue
Fresh from hosting a Major Lazer-themed DJ set from Diplo, Fortnite’s new ‘Party Royale’ mode is set for its next music concert tonight. The ‘Party Royale Premier’ will take place at the virtual island’s ‘Main Stage’ venue, with DJ sets from Steve Aoki, Deadmau5 and Dillon Francis. As with the Diplo set, there will be two chances […]
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Source: Music ally
Finalists named for Midemlab 2020 startups contest
There will be no physical Midem conference this year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but the event will live on digitally – including its annual Midemlab startups contest. Yesterday, the 20 finalists for this year’s competition (disclosure: Music Ally is one of the selecting partners) were announced, narrowed down from 226 entrants this year. The Music […]
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Source: Music ally
Polaris survey reveals latest Nordics streaming stats
The Nordic region is one of the most mature territories for music streaming in the world. Now the Polaris Hub – the licensing hub formed by collecting societies in Denmark, Norway and Finland – has published its annual report on digital music in the region. “The number of inhabitants subscribing to a music streaming service has gone […]
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Source: Music ally
WMG approved for Nasdaq IPO listing as financials announced
Warner Music Group announced its latest quarterly financial results yesterday, but in the earnings call, CEO Steve Cooper kept his cards close to his chest regarding the label’s upcoming IPO. “The current market conditions are obvious, so our board and management will continue to monitor the situation,” Cooper told analysts. However, there was some news later: “We have […]
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Source: Music ally
Fortnite now has more than 350m registered players
Epic Games has put put a couple of new figures for its flagship game Fortnite, and they’re big. “Fortnite now has over 350 million registered players! In April, players spent over 3.2 billion hours in game,” tweeted the official Fortnite account yesterday. Note, the 350m figure isn’t active players – we don’t know how many of the registered […]
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Source: Music ally
Finnish artist JVG’s virtual gig drew 700k viewers
Last year in Sandbox, we covered the campaign for Finnish hip-hop duo JVG’s RATA/ RAITTI album where they used their links to the world of ice hockey (absolutely massive in Finland) and also Warner Music Live to get to arena level. Now they’ve done something else inventive. On Vappu Eve (the night before May Day […]
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Source: Music ally
Gallery view: Rita Ora gets an immersive online exhibition
We are seeing lots of campaigns having to quickly adapt their planned real-world elements to work as purely online initiatives – and the immersive video for Rita Ora’s ‘How To Be Lonely’ single is a very good case in point. The video was directed by Dave Myers and was made in partnership with Wonderland Agency. […]
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Source: Music ally
Garth Brooks to get his own tile in Words With Friends 2
Well, the partnership is more than just a tile, but given Garth Brooks’ status as an “avid Words With Friends player” we suspect he’s pretty proud of that achievement. The partnership with games firm Zynga is actually part of Brooks’ longstanding relationship with Amazon. “Under the arrangement, Brooks will promote Words With Friends with original […]
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Source: Music ally
T-Mobile US launches three-month Tidal trial for customers
Telco bundles can help drive up subscriber numbers when certain networks buddy up with particular DSPs. It is no surprise that T-Mobile US users are being offered three months of Tidal for free given that Tidal has a long-standing relationship with Sprint (notably a $200m investment for a 33% stake in the music service), with Sprint and T-Mobile merging […]
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Source: Music ally
Twitch tipped to launch original shows – music included
Twitch may be preparing a slate of original, live TV shows, according to a report by Bloomberg. It claims that Amazon’s video service will be commissioning and funding “a slate of original, unscripted series that would be live and interactive, airing two to three times a week”. What’s more, the genres in play are expected to […]
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Source: Music ally
Spotify tests video podcasts with YouTubers Zane and Heath
Spotify’s next move in podcasts will be letting people watch as well as listen. The Verge reports that Spotify is running tests with YouTube stars Zane Hijazi and Heath Hussar for their ‘Zane and Heath: Unfiltered’ show. “The global test, which allows the creators to upload their recorded video footage to the app, will show up for […]
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Source: Music ally
Why Nigeria has ‘massive’ potential for music streaming
Recorded music revenue in Nigeria will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 5.6% over the next five years to reach $40m in 2023, according to PwC, which is tipping the country to be the world’s fastest-growing Entertainment and Media market over the next five years, albeit in percentage terms. In PwC’s Entertainment and […]
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Source: Music ally
Peloton recently added music from ‘thousands’ of publishers
Fitness firm Peloton is one of the businesses for whom the Covid-19 pandemic has a silver lining, with many people unable to visit gyms and thus working out at home. The company’s latest quarterly financial results reveal that its number of ‘connected fitness subscribers’ (people paying for a Peloton subscription) grew by 94% year-on-year to more than […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Nigeria 2020
Nigeria is bursting with musical talent. But should it also be considered a potential source of revenue for labels?
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Source: Music ally
Music Tectonics to hold ‘Isolate or Innovate’ online event
Music Tectonics is one of our favourite music industry podcasts (and not just because they’ve had us on), and it’s also held well-regarded conferences. Like everyone else in the conference industry, it’s being forced to go virtual this year. On 19-20 May, it’ll hold Isolate or Innovate, a Zoom form that will “bring together prominent industry […]
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Source: Music ally
Is Harry Potter exclusive a sign of Spotify audiobook plans?
Spotify doesn’t think exclusives are good… for music. Spoken-word content? That’s a different story: the streaming service has been eagerly striking exclusive deals with podcasters and investing heavily in its own original shows. Now audiobooks are joining the party. Well, a new all-star reading of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone isn’t strictly exclusive to […]
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Source: Music ally
Yoop joins the ticketed-livestreaming platforms scramble
Forget Fortnite: 2020’s most intense battle royale might just be between all the livestreaming-video services promising to help musicians make back at least some of the revenues they’re losing from the concerts shutdown. The latest to join the fray is US startup Yoop, which has created an ‘eSpace’ that it describes as “a new immersive virtual venue designed […]
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Source: Music ally
Wicksteed Works launches ‘Getting Started with Fan Clubs’ guide
At the recent superfans event we held with the BPI and ERA, Wicksteed Works’ Jessie Scoullar was one of our experts, explaining how artists can make better use of mailing lists. Now she has launched a separate guide offering musicians and their teams an introduction to setting up a fan club or membership scheme for […]
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Source: Music ally
Over-55s are fastest growing group of UK music streamers
UK body ERA has published some new research showing that Brits aged 55 and over are the fastest-growing segment of music streamers. From its panel survey, ERA estimates that 2.3 million over-55s were using subscription music streaming services in February 2020 in the UK, almost double the 1.2 million figure a year before. That 90.2% […]
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Source: Music ally
Travis McCready and Marc Rebillet set for socially-distanced gigs
There’s plenty of uncertainty around when live concerts will resume in different parts of the world, but don’t forget the related question of what they’ll be like. Specifically: how will music concerts comply with whatever social distancing rules remain, as the lockdown eases. We’re getting some early hints in the US. Artist Travis McCready will […]
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Summit Global online event set for September
Music Ally is delighted to announce that we are taking our successful Sandbox Summit events online with a new global edition taking place from 21st September to 25th September across two hours each day. The event is supported by Linkfire and Chartmetric and is entirely free to access thanks to this support. The event will […]
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Source: Music ally
Today’s positive coronavirus-related industry news (6 May)
It’s back! Some days we’re not running a ‘positive news’ roundup, which doesn’t necessarily mean everything’s bleak and terrible: it might be that we’ve broken out a bigger positive story on its own, or just that there’s a lull in announcements. Good things to tell you about today, however, include Bandcamp’s announcement that last Friday’s revenue-share-waiving sale […]
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Source: Music ally
Spotify CEO: ‘Long term, we do expect Apple to open up’
It’s all gone a bit quiet on the antitrust complaint front regarding Spotify versus Apple. Spotify filed a complaint in Europe against Apple more than a year ago, sparking a sharp rebuttal from the tech giant. We’re still waiting to see what action, if any, the European Commission takes over the complaint. However, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek […]
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Source: Music ally
Techstars Music 2020 startups make their pitches (online)
The demo days of music/tech accelerator Techstars Music are usually a big draw in the physical world, with music industry execs and tech investors convening in Los Angeles to watch its startups pitch.
By necessity, its 2020 demo day was different: streamed online with pre-recorded pitches. It was an impressive and varied selection of companies with concise, well-crafted pitches – plus the announcement that Amazon Music will be joining its selection of partners/backers for 2021.
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Source: Music ally
Spotify should pay musicians more? Let’s talk more about how
Earlier this week, we covered the IFPI’s latest figures for global recorded music revenues, which grew by 8.2% in 2019. Artist rights group the Future of Music Coalition made an important point when it shared our story on Twitter.
It’s true. In 2019 the recorded music industry enjoyed its fifth consecutive year of growth, taking it nearly back to its 2004 level. Meanwhile, outside the recorded sector, publishers are also seeing their revenues grow, while collecting societies are regularly breaking their records for payouts.
All of this is being driven by streaming (and particularly by paid streaming subscriptions), yet this growth is accompanied by a resurgence in unrest from the musicians whose work has made that growth possible. Many are worried that streaming royalties aren’t providing a sustainable income.
The contrast between these fears and the rosy industry figures is sharpened now, during the Covid-19 pandemic, with the live music industry having shut down entirely in many countries, with an anticipated hit to public performance royalties to come.
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Source: Music ally
Music Ally Startup Files: Fanaply’s limited-edition digital collectibles
In November 2019, WMG’s head of innovation, recorded music, Scott Cohen told Music Ally that he was interested in the ways that blockchain technology could create new value for the industry. One example: digitally-scarce collectibles that fans would buy and show off.
Fast-forward six months, and one of the startups in the latest cohort for the Techstars Music accelerator, Fanaply, is working on exactly that. WMG is one of Techstars Music’s partners. Go figure.
At a time when tips economies are creeping onto the music industry’s radar again, the company’s pitch is different: why ask fans to tip to show their devotion, when they could buy an exclusive, limited-edition virtual item that displays their fandom to the world?
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Source: Music ally
#NextStageChallenge attracts applicants from 39 countries
We reported on the #NextStageChallenge last month: it’s an initiative that’s trying to round up developers for a hackathon and accelerator to tackle some of the challenges that the Covid-19 pandemic has created for musicians. Music Ally is one of the companies collaborating on the challenge. We’ve now got an update on participation: 425 applicants from […]
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Source: Music ally
Were independents the big winners from 2019 streaming growth?
We covered the launch of the IFPI’s latest Global Music Report yesterday, and the official figures showing that global recorded music revenues grew by 8.2% to $20.2bn in 2019 – the biggest total since 2004. Now the analysis is continuing of what the figures tell us about trends in the market. Midia Research, which put out its own […]
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Source: Music ally
Ministry of Sound makes a game out of Instagram stories
Ministry of Sound has found an inventive use for Instagram stories: it’s turned them into a game to promote the single, ‘Mightnight (The Hanging Tree)’ by Hosh & 1979 ft. Jalja. The Sony-owned label worked with digital agency F-That to create the game, which involves driving a motorbike through a snowstorm while tapping to avoid obstacles […]
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Source: Music ally
Rolling Stones and Foals launch weekly YouTube shows
Two more artists have revealed plans for weekly YouTube formats during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Rolling Stones have launched something called ‘Extra Licks’, which will stream past live performances on their YouTube channel every Sunday, using YouTube’s ‘premieres’ feature. The first, focusing on the band’s 2016 ‘Ole!’ tour of Latin America, can be watched here and has […]
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Source: Music ally
Cope-ing mechanism: 90s indie singer returns as kids’ star
Nick Cope was lead singer in British indie band The Candyskins, who were Oxford contemporaries of (if not as big as) Supergrass back in the 1990s. They broke up in 1998, and although they’ve reunited for a few one-off concerts since, there’s also an interesting postscript to their story in the new career of frontman […]
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Source: Music ally
Now That’s What I Call Windowing: Now 105 goes app-first
In the middle of April, music compilations brand Now That’s What I Call Music added a free ad-supported tier to its previously subscription-only app. Now it has made its latest album, Now 105, available exclusively through the app for its first week of release. The album went live on Friday (1 May) ahead of its physical and […]
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Source: Music ally
Apple Music adds artists’ audiobooks for streaming
We’ve written a fair amount about the differing strategies of Spotify and Apple Music when it comes to spoken-word content. Spotify is piling in to podcasts and giving them equal billing to music on its ‘audio-first’ platform, while Apple is keeping Apple Music and Apple Podcasts as separate entities and apps. But wait: Apple Music […]
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Source: Music ally
Pandora founder: ‘Subscription businesses are destroying music’
We tend to focus on startups’ tech and business models rather than their founders’ psychology, but new livestreaming startup Sessions is fascinating on both counts – in the latter case, seemingly as a response to CEO Tim Westergren’s experiences at Pandora. “The big piece of unfinished business for me at Pandora was, ironically, the artists,” he told […]
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Source: Music ally
Latin music revenues in US growing faster than overall market
The RIAA has published its annual year-end report on Latin (recorded) music revenues in the US, revealing that they grew by 28% to $554m in 2019. That’s more than double the rate of growth of the overall US market, which was 13% that year. $529m of those Latin revenues (i.e. 95%) came from streaming, helping the category […]
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Source: Music ally
Global recorded music industry grew by 8.2% in 2019 says IFPI
Music industry body the IFPI was due to publish its annual Global Music Report in March, with data on worldwide recorded music revenues in 2019. The launch was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but the report has now been published today.
The headline figure: global recorded music revenues grew by 8.2% to $20.2bn in 2019, fuelled by streaming, which for the first time accounted for more than half of the total. In fact, it was 56.1% with $11.4bn of revenues.
That streaming income grew by 22.9% in 2019, including a 24.1% increase in paid subscriptions, which is now 42% of the total. The IFPI says that there were 341 million ‘users of paid subscriptions’ at the end of 2019, up by 33.5% year-on-year. That includes non-paying users of family plans.
The overall total is the highest since 2004, when global revenues were $20.3bn. Streaming’s growth once again more than made up for the decline in physical music sales (down 5.3% in 2019) and download sales and other digital revenues (down 15.3%).
The IFPI says that global performance rights revenue fell by 3.6% in 2019, but said this was “largely attributable to one-off settlements in 2018” which spiked that year’s total. Meanwhile, sync revenues from advertising, film, games and TV grew by 5.8%.
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Source: Music ally
Fortnite’s new ‘main stage’ venue hosted a Diplo DJ set
Quick work, Fortnite. Last week we reported on the addition of a ‘Main Stage’ music venue to the game in its new Party Royale mode, and speculated that it could be used for live performances and DJ sets. On Friday night, Diplo rocked up to play a Major Lazer set, giving us the first glimpse […]
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Source: Music ally
MusiCares forced to pause new applications for Covid-19 relief
We’ve been looking for the positive news around the Covid-19 pandemic in our industry, but we can’t avoid the challenges. That includes the news that one of those positive developments, the rapid raising of nearly $14m for the US-focused MusiCares Covid-19 Relief Fund, is rapidly being depleted. “It is the largest amount of money raised, […]
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Source: Music ally
New Smart Audio Report explores Covid-19 smart speaker habits
US radio group NPR and research firm Edison Research have published their latest Smart Audio Report, which usually has plenty of interesting data on digital listening habits in the US. The new edition, for spring 2020, has added interest because it’s been asking people how Covid-19 and its accompanying lockdown has changed those habits. 26% of […]
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Source: Music ally
Pandora founder Tim Westergren launches livestreaming service Sessions
Streaming service Pandora’s founder Tim Westergren stepped down as CEO and from its board of directors in June 2017. Since then, he’s been a venture partner at VC firm Khosla Ventures; joined the board of AI music startup Popgun; and founded a new company called Next Music. What’s that? Well, it’s the firm behind a new […]
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Source: Music ally
Apple Music paid subscriptions are ‘up strong double-digits’
Apple published its latest quarterly financials yesterday, for the first quarter of 2020 (the company’s fiscal Q2). Services were once again a standout category for the company, setting another quarterly record of $13.3bn in revenues. There was also an announcement (of sorts) about Apple Music’s growth within that segment. “Apple Music and cloud services, both set […]
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Source: Music ally
Canadian firm VoxTonePro files lawsuit over Spotify Ad Studio
Spotify is facing another lawsuit, although this one isn’t focusing on licensing or royalties. Instead, a Canadian company called VoxTonePro is accusing the streaming service of stealing its trade secrets, and using them to build its Spotify Ad Studio – that’s the tool that brands and businesses can use to create their own audio ads to […]
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Source: Music ally
OpenAI reveals its latest music-generating AI: Jukebox
OpenAI is the non-profit artificial intelligence company backed by (among others) tech mogul Elon Musk. Just under a year ago it showed off Musenet: “a deep neural network that can generate 4-minute musical compositions with 10 different instruments, and can combine styles from country to Mozart to the Beatles”.
Now it’s following up with a new system called Jukebox: “A neural net that generates music, including rudimentary singing, as raw audio in a variety of genres and artist styles.”
It’s going to ruffle many feathers within the music community.
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Source: Music ally
Amazon Music’s Steve Boom talks growth, Alexa, playlists and more
This is the second part of our Amazon Music piece, based on a face-to-face interview in February that was being held for our Q1 2020 report in early April.
Given the impact of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic since February, we had a follow-up conversation with Amazon Music VP Steve Boom. Part one is based on that interview, but everything below is from the February meeting.
In mid-January, Amazon Music announced that it now had more than 55 million streaming customers, with its VP of music Steve Boom telling the Financial Times that “nearly all” of them were paying for a subscription, rather than using the ad-supported tier.
The figure included Amazon’s full range of subscription tiers, from the Prime Music service bundled into an Amazon Prime membership through its single device plan, Amazon Music Unlimited, and Amazon Music HD.
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Source: Music ally
Amazon Music’s Steve Boom talks Covid-19, MusiCares and lockdown listening trends
“It’s been very gratifying to see the music community pull together… It’s gone really well: we’ve raised over $10m now. Unfortunately, the need is enormous. We’ve had over 10,000 applications for aid already, and we’re only six weeks into this thing. The crisis is going to be long lasting…”
Steve Boom is VP of Amazon Music, but he’s also chairman of the board at MusiCares Foundation, the charitable affiliate of the Recording Academy, which has taken a central role in the Covid-19 coronavirus relief efforts for musicians and the music community in the US.
Boom has been working with Recording Academy chairman Harvey Mason Jr. since “very early on” in the current crisis on the MusiCares Covid-19 Relief Fund, which has already been backed by an array of major labels and publishers, digital music services, collecting societies and other industry entities.
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Source: Music ally