April, 2018

The internet gave rise to innumerable new forms of artistic expression and exchange, but it also forced creators to reckon with piracy on a scale previously unheard of. Will blockchain hurt artists or help them? Dispatch Labs argues that blockchain will empower artists.

Source: How Blockchain Technologies Will Empower Artists

There is currently a lot of control over how and where content is consumed, thanks to brand affiliation and media control. But if you took this away and allowed consumers to pay for content directly from the publisher without dealing with a media company, this would change.

Source: Blockchain is set to alter the future of content marketing

Instead of licensing content for certain locations, blockchain tech could make any content globally available provided it is paid for. Its infrastructure fully allows for direct payments from users to copyright holders. Additionally, it could make all content cheaper to access by removing intermediaries.

Source: How Blockchain Solutions Change the Paradigm of Copyright | BTCMANAGER

The first major poll of MoviePass subscribers comes to an indisputable conclusion — the monthly subscription service is dramatically changing moviegoing habits for the better at a time when theater owners and Hollywood studios are hard-pressed to stem the continued downtick in cinema attendance.

Source: MoviePass Poll: Subscribers See Far More Films; Many Go Alone and Midweek (Exclusive)

For quite some time, studios have been trying to figure out a way to attract more millennials to the box office in a mobile-streaming era, and the key to unlocking this demographic may lie in more theater chains offering monthly movie ticket subscription programs. They just don’t want any third-party players butting in on their turf.

Source: Will Big Chain Exhibitors Bypass MoviePass & Create Their Own Monthly Movie Ticket Clubs? – CinemaCon

After over a decade of being ravaged by piracy, the industry as a whole has finally returned to growth, as shown by upward trends across local trade body data globally. Like any entity experiencing growth however, questions about the extent and durability of this prosperity loom overheard.

Source: How streaming will continue to change everything in the music business

As investors pour into the fast-rebounding music business, funding new ventures for veterans like Antonio “L.A.” Reid, Doug Morris and Steve Stoute, Create Music Group is a next-generation startup with a focus on prospects for music in the video realm, and its brazen approach is both maddening and attracting some of the old-school executives in charge.

Source: How This Startup Is Finding Millions in Unclaimed YouTube Revenue For Artists and Labels

Participants of the Tech Media Telecom Pulse survey by HarrisX said that they want tech companies to be legally liable for content on their platforms and want more aggressive penalties for companies that experience data breaches.

Source: Americans want tougher regulations for tech companies: poll

Coalitions representing more than 670 companies from the entertainment sector has written to Congress urging a strong response to the Facebook privacy fiasco. The groups, which include all the major Hollywood studios and key players from the music industry, are calling for Silicon Valley as a whole to be held accountable for whatever appears on their platforms.

Source: Facebook Privacy Fiasco Sees Congress Urged on Anti-Piracy Action – TorrentFreak

Federal legislation enacted in the late 1990s holds up a hyper-profitable business model that’s damaged our media and compromised our democracy, writes the president and CEO of the Village Voice.

Source: Congress Needs to Rethink Its Outdated Digital Privacy Laws Now (Guest Column)