Many doubted The Civil Media Company’s ambitious plan to sell $8 million worth of its cryptocurrency, called CVL. The skeptics, as it turns out, were right. Civil’s initial coin offering, meant to fund the company’s effort to create a new economy for journalism using the blockchain, failed to attract sufficient interest. The company announced today that it would provide refunds to all CVL token buyers by October 29.

Source: Blockchain media startup Civil is issuing full refunds to all buyers of its cryptocurrency

Spotify Technology SA is disrupting another part of the music business: the soundtrack album. Independent movie studio A24 is releasing the music to the new film “Mid90s” as a playlist on Spotify, rather than as an album distributed by a record label.

Source: The New Movie Soundtrack: A Spotify Playlist

Companies like Viacom Digital Studios and Pocket.watch are syndicating videos previously published to YouTube on other platforms like Snapchat, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video. Jukin Media, The Young Turks and Tastemade have mined their libraries to stitch together 24/7 streaming channels for their OTT apps and digital linear video platforms like YouTube TV and Pluto TV.

Source: ‘Skinning the cat 30 ways’: How digital entertainment companies are making new money from old videos – Digiday

The video streaming giant said today it added an impressive 5.87 million global subscribers in the third quarter of 2018, far higher than a FactSet estimate of 4.46 million cited by CNBC. Domestically, Netflix added 1.09 million subscribers, compared to an estimate of 673,800. All told, the Los Gatos, California, company now has more than 137 million subscribers around the world, including 130 million paid members.

Source: Netflix just keeps growing larger than anyone predicted it would

The music streaming behemoth announced on Wednesday that it is working with digital distributor DistroKid to help artists choosing to upload directly via its Spotify for Artists site to “seamlessly distribute” their music to other platforms as well. “As part of this partnership, Spotify has made a passive minority investment in DistroKid,” the company said in a blog post.

Source: Spotify Enlists DistroKid to Help Enhance Its Direct Upload Feature

Scribd is partnering with the ‘New York Times’ to offer a joint subscription for $12.99 that will include full digital access to the ‘New York Times’ in addition to Scribd’s inventory of more than a million books, audiobooks, and newspaper and magazine articles.

Source: Scribd, ‘New York Times’ Team to Offer Joint Subscription

Considering the volumes, Google cannot ask permission every time it would like to use an image for advertising. Thus, it needs to automate it. What better than using a model they already have in place with Youtube. Have owners to opt-in, via a revenue share. Moreover, how best to identify owners? Their credit line. In other words, build a content ID for photography.

Source: Google, Images and rights – Kaptur

Services like Spotify and Apple Music have returned the music business to growth by getting consumers to pay again after years of rampant piracy. But those same services are being used in violation of usage policies in commercial settings like coffee shops and small retail stores, according to a new report from Nielsen Music.

Source: Attention Shoppers: The Background Music You Hear May Not Be Licensed

DJs and dance music producers have been missing out on performance royalties for decades. Now, that’s starting to change — with performance rights organizations PRS for Music and PPL taking a serious step forward on music recognition technology.

Source: PRS for Music, PPL Dramatically Expand Their Music Recognition Capabilities

Shamrock Capital has acquired Tor Hermansen’s and Mikkel Eriksen’s Stargate music publishing catalog, which includes such songs as Katy Perry’s “Firework,” Rihanna’s “Diamonds” and “Rude Boy” and Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable,” among others. Shamrock’s Capital’s Entertainment IP Fund, which invests in existing entertainment intellectual property rights film, made the acquisition.

Source: Shamrock Capital Acquires Stargate Publishing Catalog, Including Katy Perry, Rihanna & Beyonce Hits