Streaming is a classic natural monopoly, in which fixed costs (the price of servers, web developers, and especially rights to music) vastly exceed the marginal costs (the price of sending one song over the internet). It follows that under a typical market dynamic, one or a few companies will eventually vacuum up the vast majority of market share.
Source: The case for music.gov
The paper, published today, finds that major labels have an unfair advantage when it comes to playlist access – and that they take the lion’s share of subscription revenue as a result. As a possible remedy, the research team suggests changing the payment system, so that royalties generated by individual listener subscriptions go direct to the labels, bands and artists they are listening to.
Source: UK study questions majors/indies split on streaming playlists
The latest non-fungible token (NFT) crypto collectibles success isn’t tied to a sports league, celebrity, or athlete. It’s an original project called Ether Cards that serves up digital art collectibles with a twist, including randomized “traits” and other potential benefits—and the unique hook seems to have driven demand.
Source: Crypto Art NFTs With ‘Superpowers’ Ether Cards Sell $9M in One Day – Decrypt
Say what you like about non-fungible tokens (NFTS) – and right now, everyone appears to be doing exactly that on Twitter – but it’s undeniable that there is a gold rush of musicians towards the idea. In the past few days alone, there has been a mini-blizzard of announcements and on-sales, with some prominent artists.
Source: NFTs explosion: Crypto.com, The Weeknd, Gorillaz, Lindsay Lohan…
As the market for NFTs has exploded, and as buyers have shown an appetite for bragging rights regarding ownership of the NFT associated with popular or even iconic works, some artists have complained that their work has been tokenized into an NFT without their permission.
Source: NFTs: Legal Risks from “Minting” Art and Collectibles on Blockchain
The defense of a lawsuit has Bob Dylan’s attorneys discussing for the very first time some details about the legendary songwriter’s recent $300 million sale of his entire catalog to Universal Music. This week, Dylan moved to dismiss a lawsuit brought in New York by the estate of Jacques Levy, who collaborated with Dylan on his 1976 album Desire.
Source: Bob Dylan Argues Co-Writer Gets No ‘Double-Dip’ From $300M Songs Sale
The RIAA, the Recording Academy, Songwriters of North America, and additional entities yet took aim at the social-media platform in an open letter, delivered to lawmakers ahead of Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey’s appearance before the House’s Energy and Commerce Committee. (Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Alphabet/Google CEO Sundar Pichai also participated in the virtual hearing, which centered on disinformation and extremism.)
Source: RIAA, NMPA, Others Call Out Twitter for Alleged Copyright Infringement
The number of leaked pirate screeners has dropped to an all-time low. Thus far, only three screeners of Oscar contenders have been released, which slashes the previous low in half. While it may be tempting to conclude that Hollywood finally has the screener problem under control, shortening release windows and online streaming premieres appear to be the main driver.
Source: Pirated Screener Leaks Drop to New Low as Release Windows Shorten * TorrentFreak
Cineworld CEO Mooky Greidinger said today that the No. 2 global exhibitor is “actively negotiating terms and structures of evolving theatrical windows with our studio partners.” He made the comment on an earnings call after Cineworld reported 2020 results which included its first-ever annual operating loss ($2.26B) as the industry has been greatly impacted by the Covid pandemic.
VC funding for music startups fell by 67% from over $1 billion in 2019 to $328.9m last year. That’s according to new figures published by researchers at BusinessFinancing.co.uk in a report revealing how start-up funding changed from 2019 to 2020 and the difference in spending by country and industry. The report also shows that the number of startup music companies receiving VC funding fell from 87 in 2019 to 68 last year.
Source: Music startups saw funding levels sink by 67% in 2020 (report)