TikTok is hitting back with a lawsuit to overturn a planned ban of its app by the US state of Montana, due to start in January 2024. The post TikTok challenges the US state of Montana over ban of its app appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

In 2020, musician and composer Maria Schneider filed a class action lawsuit against YouTube. The case is coming to trial this June. The post Musician Maria Schneider’s YouTube lawsuit set for June trial appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

US-based campaigning organisation the Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC) has published its latest ‘Music Industry Action Report Card’. The post Black Music Action Coalition publishes its latest industry report card appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Concert ticketing is currently a heated political topic in the US, and now there’s another lobbying coalition joining the fray. The post Music industry bodies launch Fix The Tix ticketing coalition appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The Restoring Artistic Protection Act (RAP Act) has been reintroduced by Democrat congressmen Jamaal Bowman and Hank Johnson. The post The RAP Act aims to limit use of music lyrics in US court cases appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Pressure on Live Nation and its Ticketmaster business from US politicians isn’t letting up, led by Amy Klobuchar and Richard Blumenthal. The post US senators target Ticketmaster with Unlock Ticketing Markets Act appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The latest stats from industry body the RIAA offer the latest evidence for the long-term, streaming-fuelled surge of Latin music in the US. The post Latin music soared to $1.09bn of US recordings revenues in 2022 appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The body representing music streaming services, DiMA, has published a report estimating ‘The Impact of Digital Music Streaming’ in the US. The post DiMA says music streaming contributed $14.32bn to US GDP in 2021 appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Did TikTok CEO’s appearance before a congressional hearing yesterday make a US ban more or less likely? Probably neither. The post Will TikTok CEO’s congressional testimony stave off a US ban? appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

In peak crypto times, some companies in that space were waving dollars (or non-fiat currencies, of course) at any passing celebrity. The post SEC files charges against celebrities over crypto promotions appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Today’s the day for TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew’s appearance at a US congressional hearing. Ahead of that, the Washington Post published a poll. The post Washington Post poll finds 41% of Americans support a TikTok ban appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Ahead of TikTok CEO Shout Zi Chew’s appearance at a US congressional hearing tomorrow, his written testimony has been published. The post TikTok CEO’s promise: ‘ByteDance is not an agent of China’ appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

This Thursday, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will be appearing before a congressional committee in the US for a grilling. The post TikTok says it now has 150m monthly active users in the US appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Does art created by an AI qualify for copyright protection? It’s complicated. The simple answer, in the US at least, is a firm no… The post US Copyright Office issues guidance on AI works and copyright appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Stones overturned. Cans of worms kicked open. Cats flung into flocks of pigeons. Light is being shone into the music streaming economy. The post Public Knowledge urges the FTC to investigate music streaming appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The Music Business Association (Music Biz) has offered its views on the recent legislation passed in its home state of Tennessee. The post Music Biz criticises Tennessee’s new anti-LGBTQ+ legislation appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

US-based PRO ASCAP has published its figures for 2022, revealing that its collections passed $1.5bn for the first time ever. The post ASCAP’s annual collections passed $1.5bn for first time in 2022 appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Industry body the RIAA has published its annual figures today, showing that the value of recorded music grew by 6.1% in 2022 to $15.87bn. The post US recorded music revenues grew 6.1% to $15.87bn in 2022 appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

We’re going to need some kind of wall-chart to keep track of the growing number of US legislative bills that could lead to a ban on TikTok. The post RESTRICT Act is the latest US bill threatening a TikTok ban appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

As 2023’s economic headwinds continue to bite, US satellite radio firm SiriusXM has become the latest company to announce a round of layoffs. The post SiriusXM lays off 8% of staff ‘affecting nearly every department’ appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Changes to the US system of travel visas that could greatly increase the costs for foreign musicians touring there are still sparking unrest. The post UK music bodies protests against rise in US visa costs for artists appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

TikTok has announced its latest new features focusing on the wellbeing and safety of its younger users, including a big move. The post TikTok adds teen time-management features as US pressure ramps up appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Musician, professor and artists’ rights campaigner David Lowery has raised the alarm about a draft bill in the US state of Georgia focusing on ticketing fees. “Simply a Trojan horse bill that seems to limit artist fan clubs, indie venues and others to sell face value non-transferable tickets to fans,” is how he described it […]

Last June, the Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC) published a report called ‘Three Chords & The Actual Truth’ on country music diversity. The post Academy of Country Music teams up with Black Music Action Coalition appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The boss of the US-based National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) has been giving his views on creative AI. The post NMPA boss talks AI music: ‘This is not necessarily bad…’ appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

In 2021 at the height of the British government’s self-made Brexit mess, a campaign called #LetTheMusicMove launched in the UK. The post #LetTheMusicMove campaign expands to US over visa-cost fears appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

US president Joe Biden gave his annual State Of The Union address last night, including a couple of legislative priorities relevant to music. The post Biden talks crackdown on ticketing fees and kids’ data collection appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Another front has opened up in the pressure on Apple and Google to make changes to the way their mobile app stores work. The post White House’s NTIA says current app store models are ‘harmful’ appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

TikTok has been facing increasing pressure in the US over issues including privacy and children’s safety. Its CEO will appear at a hearing. The post TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to appear before US House in March appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

A group of artists have been denied class-action status in a lawsuit focusing on termination rights and Universal Music Group. The post Artists denied class-action status in UMG termination rights lawsuit appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

New York’s attorney general Letitia James has written to MSG Entertainment with some pointed questions about its facial recognition tech. The post Madison Square Garden owner questioned about facial recognition tech appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The US Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit focusing on Google’s dominance of the digital advertising market. The post US Department of Justice sues Google over digital ads market appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Look what you’ve made them do, Taylor Swift. ‘Them’ being the politicians on the US Senate Judiciary Committee. The post Live Nation talks bots but US politicians are talking breakup appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Front-row seats are brilliant, right? Possibly not if you’re Joe Berchtold, president and CFO of Live Nation Entertainment. The post US Senate Judiciary Committee prepares for ticketing hearing appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights has set a date for its hearing on the ticketing industry. The post US Senate will hold its Ticketmaster hearing on 24 January appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

In the US, the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) was set up to collect mechanical royalties from streaming services, then pay them out to publishers and songwriters. The post Musicians press for US rule over post-termination mechanicals appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

TikTok’s difficult end to 2022 in the US, related to security tensions with China, continued right up to the wire. The post TikTok is still battling against the political winds in the US appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

What was that we wrote yesterday in our look back at the big TikTok news stories of 2022? The post US Senator Marco Rubio wants TikTok to be banned in the US appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Step by step, the American Music Fairness Act is working its way through the US legislative system. The post American Music Fairness Act takes another step forward appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

TikTok is ending 2022 with more legal headaches in the US: two lawsuits filed by Indiana’s attorney general against the company, focusing on user data and children’s safety. The post Indiana’s attorney general files two lawsuits against TikTok appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Live Nation has been under the spotlight since the difficulties with the ticket on-sales for Taylor Swift’s next tour. The post US senators put FTC under the microscope over ticket-buying bots appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Yes, every single one. Which according to the latest blurb means 194 Taylor Swift songs will be performed at the two-day festival. The post Get set for a festival playing every Taylor Swift song ever appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Record label lawsuits against ISPs for piracy conducted by the latter’s customers feels like a story from a different age. The post ISP faces $46.8m damages after losing piracy battle appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

There has been a growing wave of concern and anger within the music industry about how Black artists’ lyrics have been used as evidence against them in US courtrooms. The post Labels, artists and DSPs join campaign to protect Black art appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Women may be underrepresented in Blokur’s chart of the top 100 songwriters globally, but this week at least, it’s a different story in Billboard’s Hot 100 tracks chart in the US. The post Taylor Swift clean-sweeps top 10 in Billboard Hot 100 chart appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Live Nation and Ticketmaster completed their merger in January 2010, after receiving regulatory approvals. The post Activist groups team up for ‘Break up Ticketmaster’ campaign appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Latin music’s growth continues to outstrip the overall market: revenues were up by 23% year-on-year, over double the overall market growth. The post Latin music now generates 6.6% of US recorded music revenues appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

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

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

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

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

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

The US Justice Department has decided to leave the ‘consent decrees’ governing public performances of music unchanged, sparking an unimpressed response from publishers and collecting societies there. This is the legislation that means Ascap and BMI have to license their entire catalogue of music for public performance by any company that requests it. Both PROs […]

The good news for Spotify is that something other than its Discovery Mode is causing a stink today. The bad news for Spotify is that the something is the ongoing battle over new streaming royalties for songwriters set in the US by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) – which Spotify along with Amazon, Google and Pandora […]

Marc Geiger was the music boss at talent agency WME, before leaving earlier this year. Now he’s setting up to invest in a network of independent music venues across the US. Geiger has founded a company called SaveLive and raised $75m to invest in venues and small clubs, taking 51% ownership of them in the […]

The US Department of Justice has filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Google, accusing it of “unlawfully maintaining monopolies through anticompetitive and exclusionary practices in the search and search advertising markets”. It’s the latest (and biggest) move in the US antitrust debate over big tech companies, following the recent high-profile hearing involving Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon. […]

Is the biggest recorded-music market in the world nearing ‘peak streaming subscriptions’ for music? In an article for Billboard, former Spotify chief economist Will Page offers some reasons for optimism, even though there are now 110 million music subscribers in a country with 110m households. For example, he notes that there were worries that Sweden and […]

We’ve written about the #SaveOurStages campaign in the US to support independent music venues, launched by their representative body NIVA. Now there’s another campaign, #SaveLiveEventsNow, which expands the remit to larger venues and the people who work on concerts and festivals using them. It’s backed by a who’s who of the industry: the RIAA, Recording Academy, Live Nation, […]

Wake up, take a look at the US app stores (if you can) and see that… TikTok remains available to download. That’s because a US District Court judge issued a preliminary injunction last night to prevent the Trump administration’s proposed ban on new downloads of the app from taking effect. The judge’s written explanation of the ruling […]

It’s been another topsy-turvy weekend in the US for TikTok. On Friday, the Department of Commerce announced that as of 20 September (Sunday) US app stores would be banned from making the app available to download, or for it to be updated for existing users. Yet on Saturday, the department announced that “in the light of recent positive developments” […]

US music industry body the RIAA has published its annual mid-year stats for the recorded music market there. They show that revenues grew by 5.6% year-on-year to $5.7bn in the first half of 2020. The story here, as in other countries, is that Covid-19 had a significant impact in the second quarter of this year, […]

With less than two months to go to the US presidential election, efforts to encourage people to vote are heating up. Musicians – and now even music streaming services – are playing a prominent role. Global Citizen, which was at the forefront of music-related Covid-19 relief efforts earlier this year, has turned its attention to the US […]

The question of how long the ‘long tail’ of streaming is – and also how miserable it might be – has long been a subject for debate in the music industry. US analytics firm Alpha Data has some new figures to contribute, but they may not make reassuring reading for musicians lower down that tail. Rolling […]

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 […]

The US-based Digital Media Association (DiMA) is the lobbying body for music streaming services from companies including Amazon, Apple, Pandora, Spotify and YouTube. Its new ‘Streaming Forward’ report – produced with consultancy firm Midia Research – thus focuses on the positive aspects of streaming’s impact on the US music industry. Its data from 2019 notes that […]

Strap in: the TikTok sale process may be even speedier than President Trump expected. CNBC reported today that TikTok is “nearing an agreement” to sell its operations in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – as soon as next week. Its sources claimed that the deal could be worth between $20bn and $30bn, but […]

We promised you twists in this tale. TikTok is taking to the courts to battle the Trump administration’s executive order forcing its sale or shutdown in the US, but it will be doing so without its recently appointed CEO. Former Disney executive Kevin Mayer has resigned barely three months after taking the reins at TikTok […]

TikTok has followed through on its promise to sue President Trump’s administration over its recent executive order setting a deadline for the app’s US operations to be sold or shut down. The lawsuit includes some important new figures on TikTok’s business globally, as well as in the US.  Globally, TikTok grew from 54.8 million monthly active […]

Even as Covid-19 lockdowns ease and physical concerts tentatively start to return, independent music venues are still facing a battle to survive. The level of support they’ve been getting from governments varies widely around the world, but in the US there are new moves afoot to help those venues (plus promoters and festivals) to stay […]

Earlier this month, President Trump set a 45-day deadline after which transactions by US companies with ByteDance or Tencent’s WeChat would be banned. That was seen as a deadline for a sale of TikTok’s US operations, but now a new executive order from the president has set a longer deadline for that. ByteDance has been ordered do divest all […]

We reported yesterday on the ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on the appeal by Amazon, Google, Pandora and Spotify against new songwriter royalty rates set by the US Copyright Royalty Board. The decision was seen as backing the streaming services in ruling against the procedure used to set the new rates. Now […]

$115 to see Metallica? We know concerts are in short supply, but this is outrageo… Oh wait. Metallica’s upcoming concert does cost $115 for a ticket, but that ticket covers a vehicle with up to six people: potentially just over $19 per head, which is actually rather good value. The band are the latest artist to […]

Who’d have thought it: untangling a company from its parent corporation takes time. Reuters is reporting that if Microsoft wants to buy TikTok within President Trump’s 45-day deadline, it will surely have to negotiate more time to actually separate the social app from ByteDance. “A technically complex endeavor that could test the patience of President Donald Trump’s […]

Events around TikTok and its proposed ban in the US are moving so fast, any data on how consumers are responding risks being out of date as soon as it’s published. Still, Sensor Tower has some new numbers on how TikTok’s rivals are benefitting from the uncertainty. “As talk of a ban ramped up from […]

As promised, President Trump has signed an executive order banning all transactions by US companies with TikTok’s parent company ByteDance. However, a separate order extends the ban to messaging app WeChat AND its parent company Tencent – including “any subsidiary of that entity”. Strap yourselves in. Given Tencent’s web of investments in and from music industry […]

Events have moved fast since Friday for TikTok’s business in the US, it’s fair to say. We’ll start with the latest news: confirmation from Microsoft that it’s in talks about an acquisition of TikTok in the US and certain other countries, with a mid-September deadline to reach an agreement with the app’s parent company ByteDance […]

As predicted, Facebook is officially launching music videos, courtesy of licensing deals with all three major labels plus indie licensing agency Merlin, as well as BMG, Kobalt, and other labels, publishers and collecting societies. It’s not a global launch. For now, it’s in the US, as well as in India and Thailand, where the new […]

Another day, another licensing deal for TikTok, and this one’s a biggie. It’s signed a global, multi-year agreement with the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) in the US. That’s big because the NMPA has been rattling its sabre at TikTok for some time over licensing, with publishers angry at the lack of royalties coming their […]

The US’s new Mechanical Licensing Collective body (MLC) has provided an update on its plans to launch a portal for independent songwriters to register their works. At the NY:LON Connect conference in January, MLC chair Alisa Coleman said the aim was to have the portal live early in the second quarter of 2020. Then the […]

US industry body the Recording Academy has faced a lot of criticism about the diversity of its membership in recent years. It’s hoping to win some praise for its 2020 intake though. More than 2,300 new people have been invited to join, and while the big names include John Legend, Ozuna and Yolanda Adams, it’s the demographics […]

In June 2019, Wixen Music Publishing sued streaming service Pandora, alleging ‘unauthorized commercial exploitation’ of lyrics from songs in its catalogue. The case focused on Pandora’s feature showing lyrics from partners including LyricFind, which was mentioned in the lawsuit. How’s the case going? Well, there’s been a development this week. The latest filing reveals that Pandora moved to […]

TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have been hit by a ban in India as part of a wider crackdown on apps of Chinese origin. But there may be trouble brewing for the companies in the US, too, due both to the political jockeying around hardball trade negotiations between the US and China, and specific […]

US industry body the Recording Academy has announced a partnership with racial justice organisation Color of Change, including making a $1m donation to it. The pair will be working together on initiatives including creating a Black music advisory group for the Academy; a membership campaign to sign up more Black voting members; and an industry-wide […]

Research firm Nielsen Music/MRC Data has published the ‘fifth wave’ of its ongoing study of Covid-19’s impact on the music and entertainment industries, based on surveys in the US up to the week of 10-14 June. Among the findings: audio and video music streams have recovered from their initial decline in the early weeks of […]

With the UK ‘Brexiting’ the European Union, it’ll need a new trade deal with the US. Unsurprisingly, the big American internet companies have views on what that trade deal should require from the UK in terms of copyright and safe harbour rules. And no, sticking to the spirit of the recent European Copyright Directive isn’t […]

The debate about how Apple runs its App Store continues to rumble, and politics website Politico suggests that there could be a significant development in the US soon. “The Justice Department and a coalition of state attorneys general are taking the first steps toward launching an antitrust probe of Apple,” it claimed, adding that the probe may […]

A coalition of US music industry organisations has launched a campaign called Fair Trade of Music, banging the drum for American musicians to be paid what it sees as their rightful royalties for usage of their music abroad. “Many countries deny some non-native music creators royalties for the use of their work even though royalties are […]

Attempts by Live Nation to change its agreements with artists for concerts and festivals in 2021 have sparked a big row in the US which shows little sign of abating, even as the company began to row back from some of the controversial changes. A memo sent to talent agencies had suggested that “unprecedented times” required […]

US publishing body the NMPA held its annual meeting yesterday – the first time it’s been online. It included some new stats from president and CEO David Israelite. He revealed that US publishing industry revenues grew by 11.6% in 2019 to $3.72bn, making last year the fifth consecutive year of growth for the sector. However, the […]

We’ve been reporting recently on the #saveourvenues campaign in the UK, which identified 556 venues that were in danger of permanent closure as a result of the Covid-19 lockdown. Last we heard, its fundraising had enabled 140 of them to be taken off its ‘critical’ list, which was a positive step. There’s a similar campaign underway […]

This story begins with an article by author and activist Cory Doctorow on the website of the Electronic Frontier Foundation: ‘A Plan to Pay Artists, Encourage Competition, and Promote Free Speech’. It proposed extending the kind of blanket licensing that allow clubs, restaurants and radio stations to play music to the internet as a whole, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

In its last financial earnings call, Disney said that it ended 2019 with 26.5 million paid subscribers for its Disney+ video streaming service, representing a very strong start in the US. Now, ahead of its rollout in Europe, Variety has some new stats that point even more towards Disney+ being a huge hit back home. “Approximately 50% of American […]

Research company MusicWatch has revealed some of the findings from its Annual Music Study, which surveys 5,000 Americans on their music habits. Among those findings: there are now 116 million ‘music buyers’ in the US, the highest total since 2007. That’s a metric covering people who pay for subscriptions and/or CDs, downloads and vinyl. Meanwhile, […]

One of the facts that may have gone overlooked in the USA’s recent surge in recorded music revenue is the country’s incredibly strong music subscription numbers, which come under the microscope in our latest US country profile. In 2019 the US averaged 60.4m paid subscriptions, up from 46.9m in 2018, according to the RIAA. If we […]

Music streaming is surging in the US, bringing with it strong growth in recorded music income. But questions remain about how long this can last The post Country Profile – USA 2020 appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

David Israelite, president of the National Music Publishers Association in the US, has never been a man to pull his verbal punches when taking digital services to task. “Songwriters: This week, Spotify and Amazon are quite literally taking you to court,” is how his latest guest column for Billboard begins, and it doesn’t get any less […]

An investigation into opera star Placido Domingo has concluded that he “engaged in ​inappropriate activity, ranging from flirtation to sexual advances, in and outside of the workplace” over several decades. The investigation was launched last September by US union the American Guild of Musical Artists, which represents performers in the opera, choral and dance fields. […]

It appears to be the day for new figures on the US music market. Industry body the RIAA published its year-end numbers for 2019 last night, revealing that recorded music’s retail value grew by 13% to $11.1bn last year. Meanwhile its wholesale value – the earnings for labels – grew by 11% to $7.3bn. Within the […]

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) appears to be preparing for another crackdown on shady influencer marketing. Commissioner Rohit Chopra has published a statement that suggests the current regulations there need to be toughened up. “Misinformation is plaguing the digital economy, and recent no-money, no-fault FTC settlements with well-known retailers and brands to address fake reviews and […]

Whenever Apple buys a startup not big enough to ping any regulatory radars, it has a standard statement that it gives to journalists requesting comment on the acquisition: “Apple buys smaller companies from time to time, and we generally don’t discuss our purpose or plans.” Now, however, Apple – along with Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook, Google and […]

US performing rights organisation BMI has settled its rates dispute with the Radio Music License Committee (RMLC) and signed a deal that will cover radio royalties from 2017 to 2021 – a date span that clearly illustrates how long the dispute has lasted so far. “The new license carries a rate that reflects the strength of […]

NPR and Edison Research have published their latest ‘Smart Audio Report’, based on a telephone survey of 1,002 people in the US, focusing on smart speakers. The study claims that 24% of American adults – around 60 million people – now own a smart speaker. That’s up from 21% in December 2018, 18% in December 2017, and just […]

Valence Media, the owner of Billboard, is buying the Nielsen Music “insights and product suite’ that it uses for its charts in the US.  The two companies were previously under the same roof between 1999 and 2009 when they were part of Dutch media group Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen (VNU). That was until VNU sold Billboard […]

We reported before on the (sadly inevitable) squabbling over the budget for the new Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) in the US, with the bill to be footed by digital music services. However, the latter’s representative in the negotiations, the Digital Licensee Coordinator (DLC) has reached an agreement with the MLC to bring the argument to […]

Research firm eMarketer has published some new estimates and predictions for the size of the US digital-audio market – music-streaming, podcasts, online and satellite radio. The big claim is that by 2020, American adults will be spending more time listening to that than to traditional radio for the first time – averages of 83.9 daily minutes and […]

We referred to it in our story about Pandora adding full credits for songs last week, but now US music body the Recording Academy has officially launched its ‘Behind the Record’ campaign. It’s an initiative encouraging artists to credit all of the collaborators on their music. “Credits have been a casualty of the digital age, […]

Advertising-industry body the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has published its mid-year report on digital ad revenues in the US. The big figure is $57.9bn: that’s how much money was spent on digital advertising in the US in the first half of 2019. That’s 17% growth year-on-year, and the highest ever first-half total for this category. Trebles all […]

Things had gone a bit quiet in Spotify’s anti-competition battle with Apple: we’re still waiting for official word from the European Commission on any plans for a formal investigation into Apple’s stewardship of its App Store and devices, following Spotify’s complaint in March and Apple’s response in June. Now attention is quickly shifting across the Atlantic, to the […]

Democrat congressman Tim Ryan is one of the runners in the race to take on Donald Trump in the next US presidential election. Not one of the front-runners, or even a mid-runner in fairness: he didn’t clear the bar of fundraising and polling to qualify for this week’s televised debate between candidates. However, Ryan is […]

Pop the champagne corks! Well, if you’re one of Music Ally’s American readers reading this story at the start of your working day, perhaps leave that until… whatever time won’t get you sacked for too-early-in-the-day boozing. But yes: celebrations, because the latest mid-year figures for the US recorded-music market are out from the RIAA, and they look […]

If you’ve been following the smart-speakers market with interest, you’ll have seen this coming a few months ago: Chinese tech firm Baidu is now selling more of these devices than Google is. Well, that’s what research firm Canalys claims, anyway. But its latest report also points to a potentially-worrying decline in shipments in the US. […]

Breaking news: there isn’t just one appeal against the new songwriter-royalty rates proposed by the Copyright Royalty Board in the US. The one from Spotify, Pandora, Google and Amazon we all know about – it was officially filed yesterday in the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, and if you’re keen you can read […]

Just the latest potential shakeup to the US system of music-licensing is the Department of Justice’s antitrust division’s review of the ‘consent decrees’ which govern collecting societies ASCAP and BMI. Now the body that represents streaming services, the Digital Media Association (DiMA) has teamed up with radio-industry body the Radio Music License Committee (RMLC) to […]

Research firm NPD has published its latest ‘Rural America and Technology’ study, which has a surprising finding: 31% of US households still don’t have a broadband internet connection. “The number works out to roughly 100 million,” reported TechCrunch (we think that’s people, not households), adding that in rural areas, less than one fifth of the population has […]

YouTube and TikTok (among other digital services) will have been put on notice by an announcement this week by the US Federal Trade Commission about children’s privacy regulations. The COPPA rule was first implemented in the US in 2000, and concerns how websites and digital services handle personal information from children aged under 13. Now […]

The US recorded-music market enjoyed healthy growth in 2018, with retail revenues up by 12% to $9.8bn, while on the industry-revenues side, music subscription income grew by 32% to $5.4bn. It was the third straight year of double-digit growth overall for the world’s biggest music market, as the US averaged 50.2m paid subscriptions for the year. […]

The keenly (and very publicly) fought race to oversee the US’ new Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) has been won by the consortium led by publishing bodies the NMPA, NSAI and SONA. The group prevailed over the rival American Mechanical Licensing Collective, with the pair competing to run the new body set up as part of […]

British music-streaming / hardware startup Electric Jukebox was announced in October 2015, and launched in November 2016 in its home country – although it postponed its planned debut in the US citing Spotify’s songwriter lawsuits as the reason. Then, in August 2017, the company revealed a new product called Roxi and suggested that it would go public in 2018. Fast forward […]

Spotify launched its first bundled subscription with video-streaming service Hulu in the US in September 2017, for $4.99 a month. The company later rolled it out as a $12.99-a-month option for all American customers in April 2018, then dropped the price to $9.99 a month in March this year. Now a surprise: Spotify has ended […]

Deborah Dugan has been confirmed as the new president and CEO of the US Recording Academy, replacing outgoing boss Neil Portnow. Dugan has promised that she is keen for the organisation to use its platform “to affect positive change” – including around diversity in the music industry, an issue which saw Portnow cause controversy last […]

We’re not sure how intentional the nod towards the ’50 Shades’ books is in the title of new website 50 States of Music. Perhaps it’s better not to ask. But the site is a good thing: launched by US music-industry bodies A2IM, ASCAP, BMI, the RIAA and SoundExchange to pull data together showing music’s economic value […]

If you’re keen to follow the debate about which entity should run the soon-to-be-created Mechanical Licensing Collective in the US, fill your boots on the official Copyright Office regulations site: it has published hundreds of submissions from industry bodies and individuals in support of one or other of the two groups (the MLC and AMLC) competing […]

With the European Copyright Directive having made it through its approval vote in the European Parliament, could attention be about to switch to the US in the arguments over safe harbour? Maybe not straight away, but an interview with the US speaker Nancy Pelosi by tech site Recode is worth a read. In it, she’s asked about Section […]

We’ve already reported on claims by research firm eMarketer that Snapchat’s UK users are falling, under intense competition from Instagram’s growth. Now the company has put out its estimates for the US, and the trend is similar. “For the first time, Snapchat will lose monthly US users this year, with growth expected to flatten in 2020,” claimed […]

Earlier this week, we reported on figures published by research firm eMarketer, suggesting that Spotify might overtake Pandora for US listeners by 2021. Now the company has broken out some more of its predictions for the US market, this time focusing on Amazon’s music-streaming business. “Amazon Music will cross 35 million monthly listeners in the US this […]

As part of the recently-passed Music Modernization Act (MMA) in the US, a new ‘Mechanical Licensing Collective’ (MLC) will be created to license and administer mechanical rights in that country. Two groups are competing to be awarded the contract, and details of their plans have now been published, as part of the process. Billboard has […]

We’ll be honest: there are lots of reasons that US Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren thinks the biggest technology companies should be broken up: and none of them are directly about what the benefits might be for music listeners, artists and the music industry. But given the ongoing debate about ‘platform-to-business’ regulation – how the […]

The National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) in the US has given Amazon and Spotify both barrels over their decision to appeal against the recent songwriter royalty rates set by the Copyright Royalty Board. Yet it seems other companies are also appealing. Spotify, Google and Pandora have confirmed that they have asked the US Court of […]

Sound Diplomacy has been working for some time with a range of entities to help cities build better music strategies. Now it’s expanding its activities to the US, with a new office in New Orleans. “I believe Trump’s election has made people think more about how they want to express themselves separately from the federal […]

Last week, Music Ally reported on the latest figures from US industry body the RIAA, including the fact that the number of paid music subscriptions in the US grew by 42% to 50.2 million in 2018. That was an annual-average figure, rather than a year-end figure. Anyway, research firm MusicWatch has now published its own figures […]

We recently wrote about music-streaming service Gaana’s growth to 80 million active users, making it a leading service in its home country India. Yet Gaana is keen to build its brand around the world, including the US. This June, it’ll hold its second Gaana Music Festival Stateside, in Holmdel, New Jersey and Mountain View, California. RadioAndMusic reported that […]

We reported earlier this week on moves afoot in the US to modernise / replace the longstanding ‘consent decrees’ governing licensing in the US. Now collecting societies BMI and ASCAP have published an open letter setting out their views on what should happen. They are calling for an “orderly transition” with new decrees that would […]

US regulator the Federal Trade Commission has created a new task force which it says will be “monitoring competition in US technology markets, investigating any potential anticompetitive conduct in those markets, and taking enforcement actions when warranted”. This, after a succession of news stories about how the biggest US technology companies are running their businesses […]

Even as the row over Spotify’s publishing licensing in India rages, so attention is switching back to the US, where the Department of Justice is mulling a shakeup of the long-established ‘consent decrees’. “The Justice Department in the coming weeks is expected to call for public input on whether it should modify or terminate two […]

Music-streaming service Qobuz will go live in the US today: a launch that the company has been teasing for several months. The company will be offering its established blend of hi-res streams AND downloads to American users for the first time. “Nobody else is offering high-res music like this,” its US managing director Dan Mackta […]

Research firm Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) has issued its latest estimates on the smart-speaker market in the US. It claims the number of speakers in use grew from 37m at the end of 2017 to 66m at the end of 2018, including 13m bought in the fourth quarter of the year. The relative market-shares […]

One of the key parts of the Music Modernization Act (MMA) was the plan to create a new collective to license and administer mechanical rights in the US. Yesterday we got more details on the pitch from the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) and Songwriters of North America (SONA) for their ‘Mechanical Licensing Collective’ (MLC), […]

We’ll be blunt: anyone who tells you that labels are dead is talking out of their trumpet. But anyone who tells you that an artist can’t succeed without a label is just as big a fibber. The truth of the matter is that the ability for artists to thrive outside the traditional labels system in […]