Artists, label heads and industry schemers know that success in pop music today requires racking up plays on TikTok and streaming services. But there’s another, unlikely platform that’s picking up steam: Roblox. Last year the platform spawned its own music genre — robloxcore. Mostly made by young teenagers, it’s a strain of chaotic, profanity-laden rap that’s overloaded with frantic sound effects.
May, 2021
Amazon Publishing, DPLA Ink Deal to Lend E-books in Libraries
The deal represents a major step forward for the digital library market. Not only is Amazon Publishing finally making its digital content available to libraries, the deal also gives libraries a range of models through which it can license the content, offering libraries the kind of flexibility librarians have long asked for from the major publishers.
Source: Amazon Publishing, DPLA Ink Deal to Lend E-books in Libraries
Deepfake dubs could help translate film and TV without losing an actor’s original performance
What exactly is lost in translation when TV shows and films are subbed or dubbed into a new language? It’s a hard question to answer, but for the team at AI startup Flawless, it may be one we don’t have to think about in the future. The company claims it has the solution to this particular language barrier; a technical innovation that could help TV shows and films effortlessly reach new markets around the world: deepfake dubs.
Source: Deepfake dubs could help translate film and TV without losing an actor’s original performance
Facebook, German publisher Axel Springer strike global cooperation deal
Source: Facebook, German publisher Axel Springer strike global cooperation deal
YouTube Is Paying Creators $100 Million to Use Its TikTok Clone
YouTube plans to pay creators to use the service through 2022, according to a company spokesperson. The beta test for Shorts just because available to all U.S. and Indian YouTube users for now. YouTube plans to bring the feature to other markets in the coming weeks. The feature is a near-identical copy of TikTok’s short-form video format. It allows users to create vertical videos that last up to 60 seconds long, stitched together from various takes.
Source: YouTube Is Paying Creators $100 Million to Use Its TikTok Clone
Sony Music Breaks From Exclusive China Licensing Agreement to Sign with Both Tencent and NetEase
Sony’s NetEase deal is the latest to shift power away from TME in China’s streaming industry and make the space slightly more competitive. It comes amidst a government antitrust probe of TME and its parent company Tencent Group. TME announced its quarterly results on Monday and acknowledged that regulators are taking a growing interest in its business.
Source: Sony Music Breaks From Exclusive China Licensing Agreement to Sign with Both Tencent and NetEase
Influence Media Partners buys catalog from Grammy-nominated songwriter Julia Michaels
Influence Media Partners launched a fund in March to invest in what it described as “award-winning catalogs of some of music’s most influential female music creators”. The fund, co-founded with Municipal Employment Retirement System (“MERS of Michigan”), carries an initial value of up to $100 million in investable capital.
Source: Influence Media Partners buys catalog from Grammy-nominated songwriter Julia Michaels
Round Hill Music acquires master recordings from Swedish label Telegram Studios
The artists represented in the deal include Estelle (American Boy), Caesars (Jerk It Out), Serj Tankian of System of A Down, Jamelia, Coal Chamber, Sick of it All, Ziggy Marley And The Melody Makers, Soul Coughing, Throwing Muses, The Ark, Stina Nordenstam, The Sounds, Surfer Blood and more.
Source: Round Hill Music acquires master recordings from Swedish label Telegram Studios
How Discord wants to conquer music
Most people who don’t use Discord still think of it as a chat service for gamers. That’s not an accident: The company’s logo is a gamepad. Since then, Discord has grown beyond games, with 150 million users flocking to the service’s 19 million active communities every month to talk about anything and everything. Music was part of that mix early on, and there are countless servers dedicated to individual bands, labels and musical genres.
Amazon Said to Make $9 Billion Offer for MGM
Amazon is weeks into negotiations on a deal to acquire MGM for about $9 billion, industry sources tell Variety. Chatter that Amazon (and other tech and media giants) have been sniffing around MGM has circulated for some time. But sources indicated that Amazon’s interest in acquiring the studio has taken on a new tenor beyond the usual rumor mill.