UK-based fitness brand (and Peloton rival) Echelon has launched a fully-licensed music offering with MediaNet, a music distribution and rights management platform designed for business use. SOCAN-owned MediaNet will provide licensing, catalog, and rights management services for Echelon through its MediaNet Enterprise product integration.
Source: Peloton rival Echelon launches fully-licensed music offering for fitness classes
Recognized data science expert, statistician, and author Dr. Kobi Abayomi has joined Warner Music Group (WMG) as SVP, Data Science and Analytics. In this newly created role, he will lead analytics globally across WMG, driving valuable business insights through which the company can measure and maximize success for its artists and songwriters.
Source: Dr. Kobi Abayomi joins Warner Music Group as SVP, Data Science and Analytics
The Authors Guild and other writer organizations are gathering signatures on a letter protesting a policy by Audible that enables Audible Premium Plus customers to exchange audiobooks they have purchased within 365 days and deducts those returns and exchanges from authors’ accounts.
30West, the investment and advisory firm with deep ties to the movie business, is backing Special, a new streaming service geared towards independent moviemakers and content creators. The platform, which had its beta launch last week, was co-founded by Sam Lucas and Paul Burton.
Source: 30West Invests in Special, Independent Distribution Platform (EXCLUSIVE)
In the last few years, everyone from Barry Manilow to Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders to Nikki Sixx of Motley Crüe to Journey has cashed in by making similar deals with the Hipgnosis Songs Fund, which is run by Quebec-born Merck Mercuriadis. Its portfolio of songs is so big — it’s somewhere north of 5,000 — that the company trades on the London FTSE and has raised well over a billion dollars to acquire even more song copyrights.
Source: Why are so many artists selling off their song catalogues to faceless companies?
A coalition of music industry groups including the RIAA, NMPA and Artist Rights Alliance today (Nov. 23) sent the latest in a string of recent letters to congressional leaders, urging them to provide additional government assistance to music industry workers impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
Source: Music Groups Again Pressure Congress For Pandemic Relief: ‘More Must Be Done’
For Warner Music, the opportunities in games are numerous, and the recent Fortnite events with Marshmello and Travis Scott show how much impact these tie-ups can have. “Seeing persistent worlds become more popular in games has been a big thing for music,” Vicars says. “Fortnite is social in a way that people in the music industry can understand.”
As the theater’s biggest commercial motor, Broadway, has languished, resourceful artists and producers are making work that incorporates video, gaming and interactivity into hybridized digital-theater forms that, rather than serving as mere stopgaps, stand poised to endure even after the return of theater as we knew it.
Source: ‘All Arts Organizations Are Media Companies Now’: How the Pandemic Is Transforming Theater
Knight is taking the lead into uncharted territory with the push to make all dance and choreography copyrightable. “When you are at a concert or watch your favorite music video, the excitement in the room is unavoidable and powerful but unfortunately, the creator is often left behind. It’s time for the choreographers to be recognized and receive appropriate credit and protection.
Source: JaQuel Knight Is Paving The Way For The Future Of Copyrighting Dance
The Orphan Works Directive was adopted in October 2012 and sought to facilitate the mass digitisation projects going on across Europe by removing some copyright barriers. It created an exception to copyright, so that the digitisation and dissemination of orphan works could be done without necessarily seeking permission from every rights holder.
Source: Evaluating the Orphan Works Directive | Europeana Pro