Country Profile – Canada 2023
With a booming digital music industry and huge domestic stars, Canada looks like one of the most successful music markets globally. Will it also prove to be a pioneer in the promotion of local content on streaming services?
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Source: Music ally
YouTube’s Lyor Cohen adds to criticism of Canada’s Bill C-11
Cohen said that there would be “unintended consequences” of the bill, which he believes is trying to use legal tools designed for “push” media like radio to on-demand services like YouTube.
The post YouTube’s Lyor Cohen adds to criticism of Canada’s Bill C-11 appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Kuke Music gets into web3 with Kolo Market deal
Kuke is a Chinese classical music company that offers a subscription service, licenses to other streaming platforms, and ‘smart music education’ products. Its catalogue consists of music, audiobooks, video content – and Kuke now adding a web3 aspect to its business. Kuke has acquired a 49% equity interest in Kolo Market – “the world’s first vertically […]
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Source: Music ally
The Sandbox Guide to… Creative AI
Music Ally kicked off the year by asking 30 of the music industry’s leading lights what – in the wide world of digital music marketing – they were looking forward to in 2023.
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Caribbean 2023
The Caribbean is one of the musical hot spots of recent times and Its music industry is thriving – although there is room for structural improvements.
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Australia 2023
Recorded music sales in Australia reached a 15-year high in 2021, with optimism just starting to return to the market.
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Source: Music ally
Music Ally Quarterly Report :: Looking ahead to 2023
This report aims to provide cut-through on the big issues that we think will dominate 2023. In it, we’ve isolated the innovative ideas from some of the most influential thinkers across the music industry – and then drawn out the key learnings for you to take forward as the year unfolds. In this report, four key perspectives on the coming […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – India 2023
This Country Profile is by our correspondent Amit Gurbaxani, who writes regularly for Music Ally on the Indian music industry.
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Czech Republic 2023
Away from mainstream music business attention, the Czech Republic is quietly flourishing
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Source: Music ally
Kadeem Phillips: ‘If we don’t innovate country, the genre’s going to start to fall off’
The diversity within the country music industry has been a hot topic in recent times, as last year’s criticism of the sector showed.
The post Kadeem Phillips: ‘If we don’t innovate country, the genre’s going to start to fall off’ appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
SoundExchange CEO: ‘If you present your case properly, you can have increases’
At NY:LON Connect, SoundExchange CEO Michael Huppe was interviewed by Will Page, author of Tarzan Economics.
The post SoundExchange CEO: ‘If you present your case properly, you can have increases’ appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Music startup lessons: ‘Some rightsholders don’t even know what they own!’
To say that being a startup founder is “a learning experience” is a kind way of saying that it is fraught with endless challenges
The post Music startup lessons: ‘Some rightsholders don’t even know what they own!’ appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
DAACI crowned audience favourite in NY:LON Connect startups session
The final session of the NY:LON Connect conference showcased the winners of Music Ally’s SI:X initiative, with pitches.
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Source: Music ally
Neighbouring rights: ‘We’re hitting the ground running…’
The infrastructure and enthusiasm around licensing and neighbouring rights varies a lot around the world. In a NY:LON Connect session chaired by Alison Wenham, COO, Blue Raincoat/Chrysalis Group, a panel of local global experts explained the nuances and challenges in the territories that they cover. Those experts were Pfanani Lishivha, CEO of South Africa’s SAMPRA, […]
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Source: Music ally
Diversity, equity and inclusion in music: ‘You have to look harder’
The Keychange Initiative was started to improve gender representation in the music industry. How is that mission going?
The post Diversity, equity and inclusion in music: ‘You have to look harder’ appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Country Profile – United Kingdom 2023
The British music industry continues to stand resilient in the face of governmental and economic challenges, delivering more growth in 2022
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Greece 2023
Greece was one of the fastest growing recorded music markets in 2021, percentage wise – so why does pessimism remain?
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Campaigns of the Year: 2022’s best music marketing campaigns
It’s back: and the 2022 issue of our utterly essential Campaigns of the Year report is as big as ever. With 60 highly-detailed case studies, it’s the most popular Sandbox publication for a reason: a huge, vital resource for anyone working in music marketing. It’s packed with case studies, data, KPIs, ideas and learnings – straight from the teams […]
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Source: Music ally
The Sandbox Guide to… Marketing Latin music globally
For the last Sandbox Guide of 2022, we look at how you can successfully launch Latin music in your own territories.
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Source: Music ally
The Sandbox guide to… Catalogue Sync
Catalogue music is having a moment: a full third of Spotify’s weekly Top Songs are now catalogue tracks, and catalogue syncs – Kate Bush, we’re looking at you – have been big news this year. Catalogue music brings with it mood, authenticity, pedigree – and money… but only if you get it right. So how can you […]
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Source: Music ally
Music Ally Quarterly Report :: Music/tech Startups 2022
While NFTs stole the headlines in 2022, a raft of other exciting developments took place, and various music/tech startups took leaps and bounds as they strove to create new technological opportunities for creativity, commerce, or collaboration in the music space. In this report, we take stock and figure out what it means – and what happens […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Thailand 2022
Thailand is a fast-growing digital music market, where ad- supported streaming rules and a local DSP is disrupting the market.
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Source: Music ally
“Unacceptable levels of sexual harm, harassment and discrimination in Australian music industry”
A months-long review into abuse in the Australian music industry has been published, and the report that has followed is difficult but essential reading.
The post “Unacceptable levels of sexual harm, harassment and discrimination in Australian music industry” appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Marketing round-up: sheet music “leak” and Asia-Pacific report
Data and research company Luminate’s latest study on the Asia-Pacific region shows that audio/video music streaming platforms are a highly popular form of music discovery in that region.
The post Marketing round-up: sheet music “leak” and Asia-Pacific report appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Spotify launches AI music tool, Basic Pitch
Spotify has launched an open-source AI-powered tool called Basic Pitch.
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Source: Music ally
The Merge is coming – will it be the next push that web3 music needs?
The Merge has been promised for nearly a decade now. And now The Merge is going to happen… soon, possibly in two weeks.
The post The Merge is coming – will it be the next push that web3 music needs? appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
SoundCloud to lay off “up to 20%” of its workforce
SoundCloud employees received an email yesterday from CEO Michael Weissman, who told them “we have decided to make reductions to our global team that will impact up to 20% of our company
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Source: Music ally
BPI Chief Geoff Taylor to depart in 2023
Geoff Taylor, the Chief Executive Officer of UK record label trade body the BPI, who also oversees the BRIT Awards and the Mercury Prize, has announced his intention to move on in 2023, after 15 years leading the BPI. In the decade prior to the BPI, he also worked in senior legal roles at the IFPI.
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Source: Music ally
Audoo strikes deal with APRA AMCOS for use of audio recognition tech
British music tech startup Audoo’s Audio Meters are small devices that plug into the wall, recognise what music is playing, and provide data that aims to gives a more accurate insight onto which songs are being heard in business premises.
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Source: Music ally
Solana blockchain suffers widespread attack, with wallets drained
Solana is a public blockchain and crypto wallet that is used by a number of music-oriented web3 platforms, like Audius and Single Music amongst others, and the users of those platforms.
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Source: Music ally
Will Page analyses lockdown’s effect on UK music and predicts bounce-back
Will Page, the former Chief Economist of Spotify, and British collecting society PRS for Music, has brought together some hefty sets of data in order to map the change in UK consumer behaviour around music before, during and after the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown.
The post Will Page analyses lockdown’s effect on UK music and predicts bounce-back appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Chartmetric report challenges catalogue definition
Catalogue music – traditionally defined as songs over 18 months old – has always been an intriguing proposition, containing locked-away value that sometimes seemed difficult to eke out.
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Source: Music ally
TikTok’s SoundOn service allows official pre-releases of songs
The idea of songs being “leaked” in the early internet era had an illicit thrill, but the concept has changed somewhat since it became clear that considerable social media excitement followed a leak
The post TikTok’s SoundOn service allows official pre-releases of songs appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
NFT round-up: Jay Chou, Damien Hirst and OneOf
Jay Chou is the “King of Mandopop”, and has sold tens of millions of records – but is also known in his native Taiwan as an artist, actor, rapper, producer, TV presenter *and* fashion designer.
The post NFT round-up: Jay Chou, Damien Hirst and OneOf appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Cypress Hill sue Peloton over “unlicensed use” of music
Peloton has had a rocky year or so: shares in the Fitness startup are down by 95% from their all-time high, and it’s made dramatic changes: outsourcing manufacturing, and focusing on expanding its product range and the classes that made its name.
The post Cypress Hill sue Peloton over “unlicensed use” of music appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Music Ally NTK :: Creating Music NFTs
This Need To Know video is based on our Sandbox Guide to creating music NFTs. In it, we’ll be explaining the key questions you need to ask (and answer) if you’re launching NFTs for an artist or music brand. We dig into what NFTs are; explore what kind of content and features might be most […]
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Source: Music ally
Spotify’s audio ad revenue shows possibility for more growth
Why is Spotify not suffering in the markets quite like its big-tech peers?
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Source: Music ally
Fan-centric platform Fave launches “fan verification”
The nature of some fandoms is to generate a fan hierarchy, often based around either perceived proximity to the artist, or by regularity of posting, or encouraging fan behaviour like downloading of new songs
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Source: Music ally
Serenade launches chart-eligible “digital pressings”
Web3 music marketplace Serenade has partnered with Warner Records UK to launch “digital pressings”:
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Source: Music ally
Pop stars, private jets, and the bigger picture
As the world experiences shocking extreme weather due to the climate emergency, there’s increasing attention on celebrities’ use of private jets.
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Source: Music ally
Music Ally Quarterly Report :: International Focus 2022
Welcome to our second annual Music Ally International Focus report, where we zoom out and dig into the last 12 months of Music Ally’s Country Profiles. This is an utterly essential guide for the internationalised music industry pro – packed with data, interviews, local strategies, and insight from the people who count in each country. We have split our focus between […]
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Source: Music ally
Dynamic ticketing: Springsteen’s manager defends pricing
The Bruce Springsteen ticket-pricing saga rumbles on, and now The Boss’s, erm, boss – manager John Landau
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Source: Music ally
Snap launches Snapchat Sounds Creator Fund
Snap has announced that, as of August, it will launch a “Snapchat Sounds Creator Fund” which provides monthly grants “of up to $100,000” to top creators using its ‘Sounds’ feature,
The post Snap launches Snapchat Sounds Creator Fund appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Cyanite raises funding to create “universal music intelligence”
When AI music platforms were at the spiky end of the Hype Cycle, they seemed poised to offer a lot of exciting possibilities with a wide variety of real world applications
The post Cyanite raises funding to create “universal music intelligence” appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Web3 troubles provide useful learning opportunities
New buzzy web3 things like NFTs and DAOs, are – on balance, we think – A Good Thing. DAOs, for instance, will likely provide a platform to create a “fan-club+” experience – take a look at artist RAC’s experimental racOS DAO
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Argentina 2022
Argentina’s economic problems make it hard to accurately assess the strength of its recorded music business. But the rise of local acts suggests the outlook is positive.
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Source: Music ally
Tools :: TikTok tools round-up
As the recent debate around the pressure on artists to go viral on TikTok shows, the short-form video platform remains one of the most important tools in artist marketing. However, as always, strategy is key and music marketers have a growing number of tools available to refine their artist’s TikTok strategy. This week, we’re walking […]
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Source: Music ally
The Sandbox Guide to… online launch events
Using online events to publicise a new release – or other major announcement – is what counts in 2022. But it’s also easy for one to fizzle out on the launchpad. So whether you want to sneak out snippets on TikTok, or build a virtual showcase in Roblox, this Sandbox Guide explains how to create […]
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Source: Music ally
Splice launches AI-powered music creation platform as AI music continues to find its place
We’ve written a lot about AI music creation and how initial and understandable pangs of concern from human songwriters
The post Splice launches AI-powered music creation platform as AI music continues to find its place appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Music NFTs roundup: Nomad Media Club, Soundpickr, and OP3N
It’s still not clear exactly how the web3 and NFT space will shake out into a suite of common services for fans and artists, but we are getting closer to understanding.
The post Music NFTs roundup: Nomad Media Club, Soundpickr, and OP3N appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
“999 Stories of Mental Health” campaign launched in memory of Juice WRLD
It’s Mental Health Awareness Month in the USA, and a new “testimonial awareness campaign” called “999 Stories of Mental Health” has been launched by Carmela Wallace
The post “999 Stories of Mental Health” campaign launched in memory of Juice WRLD appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
4,000 ‘Creators for Ukraine’ call for Russian invasion to end
In March, collecting societies body CISAC launched a ‘Creators for Ukraine’ support fund for victims of the war.
The post 4,000 ‘Creators for Ukraine’ call for Russian invasion to end appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Giles Martin on The Beatles and spatial audio: ‘This format is about creation’
“This format is about creation. Okay, I’ve done the Stones and I’ve done INXS and The Beatles in spatial audio… but they’re legacy acts. What’s much more interesting is what’s about to happen!” Giles Martin is the son of Sir George Martin, the original producer of The Beatles, but he’s an acclaimed producer in his […]
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Source: Music ally
The Sandbox Guide to… Marketing in 2022
Our first Guide of 2022 is designed to help map out your year ahead. We asked 25 thought-leaders in the modern music industry – including Aaron Bogucki, global head of audience development at AWAL, Beth Appleton, chief marketing officer at Jaxsta, Devraj Sanyal, MD & CEO of Universal Music India and South Asia, and Molly […]
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Source: Music ally
Music Ally Quarterly Report :: The Trends Report – January 2022
The Trends Report is designed to set your synapses buzzing with ideas, and put you on the front foot in 2022. In it, we look back at what happened in 2021 – that most complex of years – and turn what we learned into a forward-thinking series of analyses, with advice, ideas and context, to help you navigate a better route through the year ahead. […]
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Source: Music ally
The Sandbox Guide to.. The future of sync, and what it means for you
Today, hundreds of thousands of artists release music and an equally huge number of content creators require music for their output. Sync has become a more nuanced instrument for all involved – and one that’s still a moneymaker and a powerful marketing tool. We’re taking a look at how sync has changed, what the real needs […]
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Source: Music ally
From the margins to the spotlight: an AI-powered deep dive into Afrobeats (guest column)
This is a guest post written by Dr. Ari Katorza, senior researcher and Doron Gabbay, content manager at MyPart, which uses AI music analysis for A&R and other purposes. We asked MyPart – which is also part of the Abbey Road Red incubator (pictured above) – if they’d like to use their technology to explore music in an international context. In […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Italy 2021
Italy made a great leap in the transition to digital music during the pandemic. Now its music industry is growing strongly.
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Source: Music ally
Music Ally Startup Files: Freeme invests in Afrobeats’ bright future
Freeme – pronounced “free me” – is an independent distributor & label services company based in Lagos. Founder and CEO Michael Ugwu has international industry experience: he was previously general manager at Sony Music West Africa, and is the first Black person to be appointed to the Merlin Board.
As a business, Freeme has twin focuses: providing services in the Nigerian market, and acting as a bridge between Afrobeats culture and curious markets in the rest of the world.
Freeme has recently relaunched, with a new platform, Freeme+, providing A&R, marketing, sync licensing and publishing services for independent African rights holders. Freeme+ will operate under Freeme Digital’s new premium label services and distribution arm Freeme Music.
Ugwu’s explanation of what Freeme does is simple: “We offer access to the African content. We’re in Lagos, working with Afrobeats. Our focus is squarely on music of African origin. Our African DNA and roots makes us different, and we educate and guide clients across the industry.”
The post Music Ally Startup Files: Freeme invests in Afrobeats’ bright future appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Music and NFTs are buzzing, but should you believe the hype?
The music industry has got quite… well, let’s say “excited” about Non-Fungible-Tokens (NFTs) in the last couple of months. The headlines have been breathless and the figures eye-popping. Grimes sold $5.8m of NFTs in 20 minutes! 3lau sold 33 NFTs for $11.6m! The former boss of T-Mobile US paid Steve Aoki $888,888.88 for an NFT called ‘Hairy’! STONKS!
The hype is real. Twitter hosts – what else? – endless threads of people shouting at one another about the true nature of NFTs, while Clubhouse is home to many NFT and crypto-art clubs.
In calmer parts of the music business, experienced thought-leaders are convinced that NFTs are incredibly important. Shara Senderoff, president of music/tech investment firm Raised In Space, speaking at the NY:LON Connect conference in January, correctly predicted that NFTS were a trend about to “blow up”, due to the, “ability for a fan to purchase an asset that is scarce, that is limited, that is exclusive, and has potential offerings tied to that that make them as a loyal fan feel unique, feel rewarded.”
The post Music and NFTs are buzzing, but should you believe the hype? appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Syncfloor awarded patent for ‘natural language search’ of music catalogue
SyncFloor, the music discovery and licensing platform, has been awarded a technology patent for the key part of its platform designed with the needs of video production teams in mind: its “natural language search.”
As CEO Kirt Debique explained to Music Ally in our Startup Files piece in June 2020, SyncFloor believes it can generate more licensing deals by allowing music supervisors to search through catalogues of music in a language aligned with their workflow: ”we can recognise a search request of ‘a song like the one from American Beauty.’”.
SyncFloor now holds the patent for its method of music identification, categorisation and serving the results to the user.
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Source: Music ally
Music Ally Startup Files: Bitfury Surround – After the initial hype disappointed, can blockchain tech have a second coming for music?
Bitfury Surround says it is about to provide a platform that can take all your data, attach it to the blockchain, and standardise it. Then, you can look at this vast, interconnected set of data and figure out, for instance, the money you’ve not recovered, and who you need to get it from. Or figure out who to market to […]
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Source: Music ally
China stiffens its copyright laws including music aspects
China’s copyright laws are getting an update, including more careful definitions of copyrighted works, and much bigger punitive damages for infringement.
Music is included: with the industry having lobbied hard for the creation of public performance rights and broadcasting rights in China, both have now been implemented in law.
There are some big implications for short-video platforms like Douyin (TikTok’s Chinese version), as the use of music in video is now clearly defined, and owners of songs have the right to exercise their copyright where those songs are used in user-generated videos.
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Source: Music ally
Experts panel: how can the music industry diversify its income streams?
Music Ally’s Global Experts panel is an international group of industry leaders, and each month we put a single, vital question to them about the state of the music industry, and what we should be doing to change it.
We hope that these Experts panels can help zero-in on the really meaningful issues, and describe the actions that make a real impact.
In our debut Experts panel, we asked our experts what the music business needed to do to thrive, post-Covid, and one recurring idea was the diversification of income streams. It’s a complex topic, with many different routes available – so our second question to the panel asked, ‘OK, but how?’.
“In your music industry sector – what is the most effective tool, idea, or approach to take in the next 12 months in order to best diversify your income streams?”
Our Experts didn’t disappoint, giving advice, sharing examples and explaining their rationale. Importantly, their message is not to panic – but to acknowledge that right now is the time for decisive action. Here are their answers, grouped into lessons.
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Source: Music ally
Livestreaming startup Moment House raises $1.5m from starry seed investors
Scooter Braun, Troy Carter, Patreon CEO Jack Conte, actor Jared Leto and artist Kygo’s Palm Crew Investments are among the investors in the latest ticketed livestreams startup, Moment House, which announced its $1.5m seed funding round today.
The round was led by Forerunner Ventures, with Sequoia Capital partner Jess Lee also among the angel investors, as the startup also announced the first set of artists who’ll be using its platform.
Kygo is one of them alongside Yungblud – who’s using Moment House for his ‘digital world tour’ – Blackbear, Kaytranada, Denzel Curry and Ruel.
Ahead of the announcement, Music Ally talked to CEO and co-founder Arjun Mehta about his plans for livestreaming experiences that fans will be happy to pay for.
A graduate of the USC Jimmy Iovine & Dr. Dre Academy, Mehta counts on the strong support of his “mentor” Iovine, alongside the angel investors who are being announced today.
In one sense, Moment House is not wildly different to the other livestreaming platforms jostling for attention during the Covid-19 pandemic: Maestro, Veeps, StageIt, Release Party, Bulldog DM and the rest.
In this case, artists announce shows (or “moments”) and sell tickets to those shows, along with up-sells to merchandise and VIP experiences. Mehta is hoping that the quality of the fan experience will help Moment House to stand out from the crowd.
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Source: Music ally
Tim Westergren talks Sessions: ‘Artists need to recover their audience’
In the Covid-19-era music industry, the old income dichotomy of recorded music and live performances is not dead so much as it is becoming fleshed out.
A variety of different fan experiences, earning money for artists on different platforms, is emerging as a common approach. Livestreaming is at the heart of many of them.
It seems intuitive: if you can’t play live in the physical world, then play live online. With a glut of livestreaming and virtual ticketing startups springing up alongside established platforms like Twitch, YouTube and Facebook/Instagram, there’s also a sense that livestreaming has not yet taken its final form.
What does it look like, how does that differ for each artist, and how should they be making money from it? We’re still very much in an experimental stage for those and other questions.
The post Tim Westergren talks Sessions: ‘Artists need to recover their audience’ appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Music opportunities in China: ‘Artists really need to move fast…’
In China, the music industry works differently. Music fans quickly – and in the tens of millions – adopt new technologies, new methods of supporting artists or ways of consuming music. The audience seeks a different experience from artists, who are often hybrid stars – equally at home as actors, TV personalities or models. What happens in China is a useful indicator of what may soon happen around the globe.
It’s also a tricky market to fully understand without some context. So, last Friday we invited the experts from Kanjian, the Chinese music services company – and partner for Music Ally China – to join us on Music Ally TV Show to help us understand the business and cultural differences.
Kanjian’s VP of international business, Tinko Georgiev, international marketing manager Jane Polubotko and international business Specialist Yutong Situ explained how in China, artist branding must hit different touch-points, and how building a long-term, diversified approach across multiple businesses is essential for success. They also explained what artists looking to break into China must do to properly engage with the market.
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Source: Music ally
Declan McKenna teaches fans how to play his songs on Yousician
Another day, another artist reaching a carefully-targeted audience via an app that isn’t a social network or DSP. Gen Z favourite Declan McKenna collaborated with music teaching app Yousician to connect with his fans via a private livestream and, perhaps more interestingly, via some lessons from the man himself. The thinking is simple: if you use Yousician to […]
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Source: Music ally
MTN Nigeria and Tidal announce partnership
African telco MTN Nigeria and Tidal have announced a partnership which allows MTN users to access Tidal’s streaming service via their phones in a wide variety of short and long-term subscriptions. In December 2018, MTN launched its own streaming service, MusicTime, in South Africa, which is sold on a per-minute basis: customers buy as many minutes of mobile music streaming as […]
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Source: Music ally
FUGA hire new senior staff from Ditto Music, 7digital, and AWAL
Music distribution company FUGA has announced the appointment of new senior hires, six months after being acquired by Downtown Music Holdings. The Netherlands-based company has now signalled their ambition by bringing in a trio of new faces, all with strong digital music experience. Former Ditto Head of Artist & Labels Services Craig May is joining FUGA as Global […]
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Source: Music ally
Artist Rights Alliance challenges Amazon Music-Twitch integration
The Artist Rights Alliance (ARA), an industry body representing songwriters and musicians, has been vocal in its criticism of Amazon, sending Jeff Bezos a letter demanding a better answer than, “I don’t know” when he was asked by the US Congress about music licensing on the Amazon-owned Twitch platform. After yesterday’s announcement of Twitch’s music livestreams being […]
The post Artist Rights Alliance challenges Amazon Music-Twitch integration appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Patent filing: Spotify experimenting with TikTok-like user-generated videos
Spotify has filed a patent for a feature that would allow users to create “video moments” with accompanying music within the Spotify app, Digital Music News reports. The short videos, with high-quality embedded music, would be sharable outside of the app and would be discoverable alongside the song itself: so searching for a song could also […]
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Source: Music ally
Music Ally Startup Files: Mime takes the music business hyper-local
Made In Memphis Entertainment (Mime), launched in 2015, has a quietly radical idea at its core: ‘disruptive decentralisation’. It’s about creating a root-and-branch alternative to the traditional music business structure. And the company is starting local, in Memphis, Tennessee.
At present, Mime’s family of companies includes Beatroot Music, the only Black-owned music distributor in the US; Mime Records, an independent label; Heavy Hitters Music, a film, TV, and ad sync company; Royalty Claim, a platform to recover unclaimed royalties; and 4U Recording, a recording studio and central creative hub in Memphis.
Mime intends to roll out similar models in other cities, however, to create a network of hyper-local recording, A&R, distribution and artist development businesses. That’s the disruptive part.
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Source: Music ally
Music Ally Startup Files: SoundStorming opens up the creative process
SoundStorming could be a lot of things, and at a glance the platform appears to begin a trek up that unassailable summit of music-tech: A Social Network For Music. But co-founders Alícia Rius and Arnau Bosch are keen to explain that their aim is simple.
“We want to get the fans on board earlier than the release date, and bring them to the beginning of the creative phase to make them fans sooner. Our mission is to build a more equitable ecosystem for artists and fans.”
Their big idea is that musicians should use music to communicate with fans, and that SoundStorming “helps them make music while they promote it. It allows them to use their musical ideas as a social post to connect with an audience to bring them along their journey.”
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Source: Music ally
AWAL says ‘hundreds’ of its artists now earn $100k+ a year from streaming
Music distributor AWAL says that “hundreds” of its artists now earn more than $100k a year from streaming, and that this number (of artists) has grown by more than 40% in the last year.
The company also said that “dozens” of its artists earn more than $1m from streaming every year. This is all a step on from the announcement in March 2018 by AWAL’s parent company Kobalt that hundreds of artists were then earning more than $50k a year.
Speaking to Music Ally, AWAL’s CEO Lonny Olinick declined to say how many hundreds of artists are now breaking the $100k threshold, but said it was a “sizeable number”. He also claimed that the potential to earn these amounts while staying independent is driving business to AWAL.
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Source: Music ally
Tencent’s WeSing is keeping China’s karaoke sector thriving
Karaoke is enormously popular with people of all ages in China, with millions flocking to ‘KTV venues’ [karaoke bars] to partake in singalongs.
The Chinese government’s 2019 China Music Industry Development Report valued the karaoke sector at RMB 101.07bn (nearly $14.6bn) in 2019, up 12.3% year-on-year with that rise driven in part by online karaoke services.
Tencent’s app WeSing (known as K Song in China) is the biggest player, estimated to account for 77% of online karaoke users in China, including a younger, wealthier demographic. 25-29 year-olds are 50.3% of its user base, with half of them having high incomes and living in major cities like Beijing.
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Source: Music ally
Music Ally Startup Files: SyncFloor aims to shake up the sync market
Kirt Debique met his SyncFloor co-founder Cestjon McFarland during a 20-year stint at Microsoft. Immersed in the Seattle music scene, he left the tech giant to start a label (Brick Lane records, named after his favourite part of London) when the music industry was struggling.
“I spotted the bottom of the trough of the last disruption in 2012 and saw that everyone was having a hard time. It disproportionately affected the indie community and I wanted to try to find a way to help them,” says Debique.
At his label, he tried to create an environment that was good for artists – investing in them, with an artist-favoured split. “One of the artists’ legal team once asked me, ‘so are you guys a non-profit?’ because they were so amazed at the terms! That’s how I learned about the music industry.”
As the music business returned to health he realised that, “the back end had a lot of archaic processes, with a disproportionate impact on the indie industry. So I wanted to combine my tech background with my interest in the indie sector – and use software as a connector.”
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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
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
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
Music Ally Startup Files: Ampled’s artist-owned ‘relationship platform’
As the Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic drapes the world in uneasiness, many of our established economic systems are blinking under the cold light of community-centric scrutiny – including the music industry.
The impact on streaming is still being debated, but the abrupt shutdown of the live music industry – and the disappearance of the income associated with it for musicians – is very clear. That in turn is sparking renewed discussion about the wider financial support system for artists and songwriters.
Artist and Ivors Academy committee member / PRS for Music director Tom Gray didn’t mince his words when recently addressing major label and streaming service executives alike in a Twitter thread about the current structure. “It is time, under the present circumstances for these people to fix the problem if they give a fuck about the ecosystem.”
Startups have a role to play in how this system evolves too. Ampled is one of them, although ‘startup’ may not be the best description. It’s an artist-owned cooperative, which is building a platform for fans to directly support musicians.
Music Ally wrote about its launch in January this year, but now we have spoken to founders Austin Robey and Collin Lewis about what they’re doing. The interview was conducted before the coronavirus pandemic took a worldwide grip on society – in case you’re wondering why it’s not discussed – but some of their thoughts may be even more relevant in the light of developments since.
Why is it a cooperative? “It’s the only way to address systemic inequalities in the platform economy,” says Robey. “We’re fundamentally optimistic. Cynicism is why entrenched music industry incumbents are not qualified to make a company like this.”
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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.
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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.
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Source: Music ally
Music Ally Startup Files: Flutin, India’s new music discovery app
Indian startup Flutin has a bold, dual-pronged mission: to round up millions of music fans and serve them – for free – new music that they’ll love; and to provide artists with an easy-to-reach fanbase that’s eager to engage and even purchase.
Dig a little deeper into the company, and there are some interesting lessons on how the music industry might find new ways to make a lot more money from streaming platforms in the future.
Music Ally chatted to Flutin CEO and Co-founder Vishu Gupta about his ambitions for an app that by October 2019 had been downloaded nearly 10m times, and had 370,000 daily active users.
Gupta describes the app as a home for emerging artists, who Flutin treats as small businesses needing tools to growth-hack themselves to success. “They can identify their relevant audience with Flutin and promote their music to them, increasing their fanbase with relevant users.”
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Source: Music ally
Music Ally Startup Files: Jambl, the music-making app for non-musicians
Music is different to other creative acts: there’s a palpable barrier to entry compared to, say, photography. Jambl aims to change that by making music-creation fun, simple and entertaining, but with a full industry vertical behind it. Can hits be made, remixed, identified, and fully exploited, all in one platform?
Jambl, which recently received half a million euros of funding from another music-apps firm, Gismart, is one of a few apps – like the recently profiled Voisey – trying to lower the bar of entry to music creation. What unites these apps is ease of creation, collaboration, and the aim of turning little loops of music into something more meaningful, workable and sellable.
Co-founder Gad Baruch Hinkis’ enthusiasm for Jambl is real. “Music is for everyone: you don’t need to be a genius with natural-born talent to have a great experience and connect with other people,” he says. His pitch certainly won over the judges of the Midemlab 2019 startups contest last June: Jambl won the music creation and education category.
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Source: Music ally
Music Ally Startup Files: Voisey is the TikTok for music creation
If co-founder Olly Barnes’ infectious optimism is correct, Voisey is a phenomenon-in-waiting. It’s an app that has the potential to shake up how songs are made; tap into hitherto locked-away artistic talent; develop a new breed of pop star and pop songs; and maybe even bypass the traditional label system.
Sounds too good to be true? Barnes suggests that it’s already happening. In an alternate music-biz timeline, Voisey might be the “missing” social media platform: combining early SoundCloud’s zealous userbase, early Hype Machine’s excitement of discovery; Snapchat’s intimacy; and TikTok’s front-facing camera appeal.
Barnes currently divides his time between Voisey and mobile games firm Space Ape, having previously held influential roles at Universal Music and Rdio. He also founded GoMix, an early collaborative music platform.
His pitch is certainly bullish: that Voisey could be a one-stop shop that will help people graduate from TikTok lip-sync wannabes to bona-fide songwriter/performers earning royalties.
“It’s not an application, it’s a movement. People are writing little loops, and users are jumping on them! Voisey may have huge implications for the music industry at large…”
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Source: Music ally
Music Ally Startup Files: Musiio talks AI-tagging
AI-music analysis startup Musiio has had a good 2019: it recently raised $1M in seed funding, is already working with a slew of clients, and is looking to raise money again in 2020.
Musiio’s technology is a mixture of the advanced (AI that can listen to music) and the pragmatic (efficiently labelling catalogue). Right now, its focus is on two B2B products: the automated tagging of tracks, and smart searching of catalogue, all using their proprietary AI. But the future holds possibilities that may be more end-user-friendly, like smarter playlists, sensing “good” songs, and more human sub-genre search.
Music Ally spoke to Musiio co-founder Hazel Savage, who has years of music-tech experience, having worked for Shazam, UMG, Pandora and Bandlab, before meeting her co-founder and CTO Aron Pettersson whilst part of the Entrepreneur First incubator in Singapore.
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Source: Music ally
Music Ally’s Music/Tech Startup Files #1: Five Vectors
Gamer music fans want music that fits the exact gaming moment they’re experiencing, and they want to show off their fandom. Five Vectors’ tech scans and funnels music programmatically to those audiences, and helps fans pay for it in ways that make interaction meaningful and status-based, like being skins in Fortnite.
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Source: Music ally
Capitol Gains: Capitol Records talks innovation, startups and music
In September, Music Ally spoke to three of Warner Music Group’s senior innovation and business-development execs, about how they work with startups and innovative technologies. That month, we also interviewed some music/tech startups, who gave some blunt, honest feedback on the challenges they have faced working with major labels in general.
It’s a conversation that’s worth continuing. Our first follow-up is another major-label interview, with three of UMG subsidiary Capitol Records’ innovation leads: Ching-Ching Chen, Josh Remsberg and Nick Osbourne. All three have a palpable enthusiasm for music-tech; were at pains to express that their goals are always artist-first; and that they see innovation as much more than just a new, quick-fix marketing tool.
The wider context: UMG’s overall strategy includes creating a global music-tech A&R network: scouting via a series of partnerships with its Accelerator Engagement Network; through the Abbey Road Red startups incubator; and the idea-exchange hothouse that is the Capitol360 Innovation Center, based in Capitol’s landmark Los Angeles HQ.
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Source: Music ally
Most Wanted: Music report – Scott Cohen, diversity, Africa and more
In Berlin, talk around music usually takes two paths: techno or the blockchain, and both involve a lot of earnest nodding. At the Most Wanted: Music 2019 conference, conversation was nudged towards the creation of new value streams, pushing for meaningful diversity, and embracing change in an age that demands it.
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Source: Music ally
Reeperbahn Festival day two: Gender equality, secondary ticketing and more
With digital now firmly driving the music industry, the second day of the conference at this year’s Reeperbahn Festival saw a lot of chatter about the industry’s resolutely-analogue elements: human beings. From gender equality in terms even the least humane person can understand, to where bots meet humans, and how smaller, people-centric businesses can survive in the face of big-money land-grabs.
Music can play a major part in reducing gender inequality
In the suitably futuristic “Future Dome,” Reeperbahn showcased an impressive programme of panels on sustainability and equality. And with steady persistence, each speaker made it clear in front of an industry that has often dragged its feet: gende
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Source: Music ally
Reeperbahn Festival day one: Copyright, Brexit and more
Authenticity, Copyright law, and – oh yes – Brexit were all on the agenda during the first day of conference sessions at the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg.
In an era where perceived authenticity counts for so much, songwriters composing for clients who want songs for adverts might be asked to create songs that fulfil two seemingly opposing needs: writing songs that are authentic – but also that sound alike – or even “just-a-like” a famous hit. Can you balance this, and what does it tell us about music consumers today?
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Source: Music ally
Warner Music Group talks startups, technology and investment
In Music Ally’s latest analysis report, we take a look at the three major labels’ strategies around music/tech startups and investment. The full report is for Music Ally subscribers only, but you can sign up for a free trial, which includes access to the latest report. An extract from it follows, focusing on Warner Music Group.
As noted in our overview of the three majors’ strategies, WMG has a multi-faceted approach to its engagement with music startups. To find out more about the specific strategic thinking behind WMG Boost, its involvement in Techstars and to discuss some of the less obvious benefits of plugging into the startup ecosystem, Music Ally spoke to a trio of WMG’s leading lights in biz-dev.
They were: Oana Ruxandra, fresh from her promotion to lead WMG’s business development whilst also serving as executive VP of new business channels and chief acquisition officer; Jeff Bronikowski, SVP, global business development and head of new technology and innovation; and Alex Kamins, WMG’s VP, global digital business development – innovation.
All three were enthusiastic about what they saw as WMG’s nuanced, inquisitive and “lean-in” approach to engaging with the notoriously unpredictable startup world.
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Source: Music ally