The main impact of the trial won’t be getting one game back on the App Store. A big enough loss for Apple could make the company basically rewrite iOS. “Apple has a lot more at stake here than Epic does, though Apple has the stronger hand,” says Christopher Krohn, adjunct associate marketing professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Source: Next week’s Fortnite trial could upend Apple’s App Store model — even if Epic loses
SAMR’s investigation partly focuses on Tencent Music Entertainment Group which was spun off and listed in the United States in late 2018, two of the people and an additional two sources close to the business said. The regulator has informed Tencent that it should expect a fine, give up exclusive music rights, and may even be forced to sell the acquired Kuwo and Kugou music apps, said the people.
Source: EXCLUSIVE China readies Tencent penalty in antitrust crackdown- sources
Can Twitch revolutionize the music industry? The Amazon-owned livestream video platform is making its case with a new microsite examining data from its users, showing artists on the platform can earn 3 to 15 times what they would get from Spotify and similar platforms.
Source: Twitch Makes Its Case: Artists Can Earn 3-15 Times More Using the Video Platform
Source: WSJ News Exclusive | For Music-Rights Deals, the Hits Keep Coming
The European Commission is issuing antitrust charges against Apple over concerns about the company’s App Store practices. The Commission has found that Apple has broken EU competition rules with its App Store policies, following an initial complaint from Spotify back in 2019. Specifically, the Commission believes Apple has a “dominant position in the market for the distribution of music streaming apps through its App Store.”
Source: EU accuses Apple of App Store antitrust violations after Spotify complaint
There are some interesting industry-wide predictions made in the latest Music In The Air, which is co-penned as ever by respected music biz analyst, Lisa Yang “We anticipate a faster shift to music streaming and greater monetization of music content from new formats (e.g. short-form video, connected fitness, gaming, etc.), a trend that has been further accelerated by the pandemic,” reads the paper.
Facebook on Thursday said it will give $5 million to pay local journalists in multiyear deals as part of its new publishing platform to help independent writers attract an audience and make money through the social media network. The move is part of Facebook’s answer to the trend of email newsletters, led by platforms like Substack, as it focuses on reporters “who are often the lone voice covering a given community,” the company has said.
Source: Facebook to pay $5 mln to local journalists in newsletter push
BMG says that it is speeding up payments to more than 20,000 US and UK songwriters on old contracts. The company says the move is “part of [our] program to ensure established clients are not left behind by changes in the industry”. It will see songwriters paid within 60 days of the close of a royalty period rather than the 90 days specified in their contracts.
Source: BMG is speeding up payments for over 20,000 songwriters (which is also good news for KKR)
Creator technology organization Rally announced today that it has raised $57 million in funding for its community treasury, and plans to release an The Rally Network allows people to purchase Rally’s own custom cryptocurrency, $RLY, using established cryptocurrency Ethereum.
Mega-platforms like Spotify and Amazon Music tend to dominate music industry headlines. But Tuned Global is quietly helping the fitness industry deliver customized streaming music experiences for classes — while avoiding the potential pitfalls of today’s complex licensing landscape.
Source: Tuned Global Is Helping the $26B Fitness App Industry Figure Out Music