Pandora, SoundExchange and the RIAA are joining together to support the CLASSICS Act, a bill in the U.S. Congress that would benefit artists and music creators who recorded music before 1972 by establishing royalty payments whenever their music is played on digital radio services.
Source: Pandora, Sound Exchange, RIAA Join In Support Of Pre-1972 Royalty Bill – hypebot
Music royalties last 70 years beyond the longest living participant’s life, which, if all goes well, makes a very long-lived income stream. Just how long that stream lasts and how much it pays is very much an open question, however.
As Spotify works to hammer out its final major-label licensing deal with Warner Music Group, controversy over its playlisting of songs by “fake” or pseudonymous artists has not only enraged label partners but could cost the streaming service at the negotiating table.
While some artists such as Zoe Keating and Imogen Heap embrace blockchain as a way to release tracks with greater control over the terms of their creative work, blockchain-ready artists remain a small minority.
Source: How can creative industries benefit from blockchain? | World Economic Forum
The program was instituted in 2014 and, according to a release from the company, has since been used by more than 11,000 artists who have produced 14,000 Artist Audio Messages (direct messages to fans) that have been “heard by Pandora listeners a billion times.”
Source: Pandora’s Artist Marketing Platform Hits 1 Billion Impressions | Variety
A pair of lawsuits launched on Tuesday in Nashville, Tennessee, indicate that on the road to a widely expected IPO, Spotify still has a big copyright problem to solve.
Source: Spotify Hit With Two Lawsuits Claiming “Staggering” Copyright Infringement | Hollywood Reporter
Panay, a Berklee grad who founded Sonicbids, will remain the director of Berklee Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship. He will also continue to lead the Open Music Initiative.
Source: Berklee Promotes Panos Panay to VP for Innovation and Strategy – hypebot
Following SiriusXM’s $480 million investment in Pandora in June, some label insiders fear SiriusXM will use its new clout to upend the direct licensing deals Pandora inked last summer, which led to its on-demand subscription service.
Source: SiriusXM Becomes Music’s New Best Frenemy Amid Pandora Investment & Capitol Hill Debates | Billboard
Respected Japanese business paper Nikkei reported that Sony Music was on course to acquire a majority stake in Believe before the end of the year for somewhere north of $350m. But Believe CEO Denis Ladegaillerie said today that Believe is instead in the process of raising funds for its own acquisitions.
Source: Believe: We’re not selling to Sony (but we are raising money) – Music Business Worldwide
Jean-Noël Tronc claims that SACEM played a key role in getting the issue of the ‘value gap’ (between consumption of music on platforms like YouTube and the royalties that generates for rightsholders and creators) onto the radar of European politicians.
Source: SACEM boss talks YouTube, blockchain and user-centric streaming royalties