The new venture, the Colorado Sun, will be launched in partnership with the Civil Media Company, a New York-based startup that aims to use blockchain technology to launch 1,000 publications nationwide by the end of the year.

Source: Ex-Denver Post Journalists Launch New Media Venture on the Blockchain

Today, if a copyright holder finds infringing content online, they can ask a publisher or internet service provider to remove it. But the law, as with any new technology, hasn’t kept pace with blockchain, which has gained popularity in part because no single person can remove or alter information or transaction records.

Source: Budding Blockchain, Copyright Relationship Needs Work

“This is about where we are – not we, YouTube, but where the industry is – and how do we move forward? And to me that’s the key: how do we elegantly move forward as we are transitioning from 18 years of decline, where artist development may have gone a little thin?”

Source: Lyor Cohen on YouTube Music: ‘How do we actually grow the business?’

Sony Music and The Orchard have confirmed that they will share the proceeds from the sale of  shares in Spotify with their eligible distributed labels after acquisition costs, bankers and legal fees. Checks are expected to be sent as early as August.

Source: Sony, Orchard Share $750M Spotify Windfall With Indie Artists, Labels Regardless Of Recoupment

The Intellectual Property Office has published its latest corporate plans and strategies. In addition to improving services, the IPO wants to enhance the climate for rightsholders by making enforcement options, such as site blocking, both cheaper and easier. The IPO also wants to forge deals with Internet intermediaries while making piracy socially unacceptable to all.

Source: UK Govt Mulls Options to Make Anti-Piracy Enforcement Easier – TorrentFreak

The announcement will likely be strongly welcomed by the cryptocurrency community which has stood by the belief that most of its decentralized digital assets do not function liked securities of a company and accordingly should not be regulated like them.

Source: SEC official: Ether is not a security

Sony is now splitting its considerable Spotify pie with artists and sub-labels.  The major label offered detailed payout information in a letter issued Thursday (June 14th), with generous terms laid out. At a top level, Sony Music is offering to split its Spotify windfall based on how much revenue a particular artist generated during the time the company retained an equity position.

Source: Here’s Exactly How Sony Music Is Sharing Its $750,000,000 Spotify Windfall

Spotify cannot of course go all guns blazing yet, as it simply cannot afford to operate without the major labels. Netflix could get away with what it did because the TV rights landscape is fragmented. Therefore, Spotify will have to tread carefully until it can pick away at major label market share through various forms of direct deals.

Source: Spotify’s New Rules of Engagement

The news that Spotify is now striking direct licensing deals with artists hasn’t exactly delighted the world’s biggest rights-holders. This is the latest flashpoint in a fascinatingly edgy marriage between Spotify and the labels, where both spouses remain publicly enamoured with, and financially dependent on, one another – yet utterly paranoid that their betrothed is trying to get their leg over elsewhere.

Source: Spotify must tread carefully if it wants to strike direct deals with artists

Much of the focus on blockchain’s application within the cultural sphere has focused on its role in markets. One might surmise that artists would therefore find it uninspiring—but no. Rob Myers, one of the early adopters of blockchain as an artistic tool, has written: “The ideology and technology of the blockchain and the materials of art history…can provide useful resources for mutual experiment and technique.”

Source: Artists as cryptofinanciers: welcome to the blockchain