On April 9-10 in Frankfurt, the new RightsTech Europe conference will explore rights management and monetization in book publishing and media industries. The program in April is produced in partnership with the Frankfurter Buchmesse, and will be focused on Europe’s leading role in driving rights management and monetization in many parts of the world.
Source: RightsTech Europe: A New Summit for Publishing and ‘Related Sectors’
With just days to go before the European Parliament meets to conduct its final negotiations on copyright reform, a consortium of trade bodies and rights holder organizations published an open letter on Thursday (Jan. 17) warning that the draft legislation requires “urgent” and “substantial” improvements. International music body IFPI and European indie label trade group IMPALA are among the signatories of the letter
Source: European Rights Holders Call for ‘Urgent’ Changes Over Watered Down…
In Canada, Access Copyright is working on developing blockchain solutions for book publishing, including smart contracts and an attribution ledger. What the team has discovered is that others experimenting with blockchain are seeing the same thing: an initial problem of knowing whether the person identified as the copyright owner is, in fact, the copyright owner.
Source: Blockchain in Publishing: Modeling the Future at Access Copyright
The move, made by Sony/ATV Music Publishing division EMI Production Music (EMI PM), means every recording in the KPM catalog has been made available for sync licensing at EMI PM’s website. You can also find the tracks on services like Apple and Spotify, and download stores like iTunes and Amazon.
Source: Sony/ATV’s EMI Completely Digitizes the Iconic KPM Music Library
Source: ‘They Own the System’: Amazon Rewrites Book Industry by Marching Into Publishing
WordPress is launching a news publishing platform backed by Google and ConsenSys, with blockchain tools on offer from Civil. The new product – Newspack – is described as an “inexpensive” platform offering technology and support for small- and medium-sized news organizations.
Source: New WordPress Publishing Platform Will Offer Blockchain Features – CoinDesk
Spotify’s monthly worldwide ARPU has declined dramatically over the past three years, most recently falling to €4.73 ($5.50) in Q3 2018. That was down over €2 per month, or €24 per year, on the equivalent figure at the close of 2015 (€6.84). One way to push ARPU back up, suggest some, would be for Spotify to increase the price of its offering to consumers.
Source: Netflix just raised its prices for the third time since Spotify launched in the USA
Global blockchain company The Bitfury Group, valued recently at $1 billion, announced on Wednesday the launch of a music and entertainment division that will create an open-source music platform secured by the bitcoin blockchain. The open-source platform, named Surround, will encourage collaboration and promote innovation within the industry, the company said.
Source: Global blockchain unicorn Bitfury launches music business
PixEOS is creating a Dapp with new features including a profit-sharing system, an Auction House for patrons of the digital arts, and an Art House where various Creative Media and Visual Art projects can be commissioned as it builds on the success of other pixel art games.
Source: Integrating Art, Gaming And Commerce Through Blockchain
When it comes to writing top 10 hits, it appears that the more songwriters you have, the better. That’s because the average number of songwriters for the top 10 streaming hits of 2018 in the U.S. was a whopping 9.1, according to research done by Music Business Weekly based on information stored in the ASCAP and/or BMI databases.
Source: How Many Songwriters Does It Take To Write A Hit? 9.1