Is MoviePass rising from the ashes? On Tuesday, a MoviePass website launched a countdown clock — set to end on Monday, March 22 — and a tagline “the movie is about to start.” (It appears the “MoviePass Ventures” website, which is separate from the company’s original Moviepass.com, was registered anonymously on Feb. 7, 2021.)
Source: MoviePass Teases Mysterious Relaunch, but It’s Unclear Who’s in Charge
The proposed rules — which the lobby group is hoping will provide a stimulus for an ongoing EU regulatory effort — cut to the core of efforts underway at various levels across Europe to change the rules of engagement with Netflix, Amazon Studios, Disney Plus and other Hollywood-based giants.
SoundCloud’s move is by no means an immediate game-changer. At launch in April, only indie artists on two of SoundCloud’s own distribution services will get access to these user-centric royalty options. And SoundCloud is not where the majority of music streaming in the world takes place. Still, the symbolism of the decision — which raises another round of conversation about whether artists can make a living wage from streams — has the music industry’s interest piqued.
Source: Will SoundCloud’s Fan-Centric Royalties Spark Wider Change?
For decades, corporate concentration and the rise of streaming music platforms has shifted power to tech giants, and to a conglomerate that, through the staggering failures of US monopoly regulation, has come to dominate terrestrial and satellite radio, concert promotion, ticketing, artist management, and venue ownership, essentially every revenue-generating slice of the industry.
Source: Big Music Needs to Be Broken Up to Save the Industry
Facebook has agreed to pay Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp for its journalism content in Australia, a month after the social media platform temporarily blocked news links inside the country over legislation pressing digital giants to compensate publishers. The multiyear deal, announced on Tuesday, includes news content from major Murdoch conservative media outlets like The Australian, a national newspaper; and the news site news.com.au.
Source: Facebook Agrees to Pay for Murdoch’s Australia News Content
Downtown Music Holdings’ Chief Strategy Officer Joe Conyers III has left the company to join Hong Kong-headquartered Crypto.com as EVP, Global Head of NFTs. While at Downtown, Conyers co-founded Songtrust, a global music royalty collection and publishing administration company headquartered in the United States.
While the investment gold rush for non-fungible tokens has made some artists millionaires, many others are reporting their work has been stolen and sold without their knowledge or permission. In response, they’ve been sharing block lists to bar automated accounts from creating unauthorised NFTs of work posted on social media.
Source: Artists keep finding their work on NFT auction sites — and they never agreed to the sale
On February 26th, cryptoartist Max Osiris wrote “low effort ‘NFT’” on his desk in pencil. He took a photo of his scribbling and uploaded it to Foundation, an exclusive, invite-only platform to share digital art. Less than twelve hours later, low effort “NFT” sold for 1 Ethereum, a form of cryptocurrency that’s worth about $1,600 at the time of writing.
Source: The Work of NFT Art in the Age of Blockchain Production
Sotheby’s has become the latest auction house to jump into the NFT space, with its announcement that it will be hosting work by the anonymous artist Pak next month. “There’s a lot here that’s really exciting and we think has staying power,” Sotheby’s CEO Charles Stewart told CNBC Squawk Box this morning.
Source: Sotheby’s Announces First NFT Sale for Crypto Artist Pak – Decrypt
This Thursday (March 18), UK artist Big Zuu is selling 75% of the rights to a song on his forthcoming album, divided up into several different chunks and wrapped up into NFTs. Another Ditto-affiliated act, Taylor Bennett – brother of Chancelor ‘Chance The Rapper’ Bennett – is selling 75% of the rights to an upcoming recording, also through separate NFTs.