Luminate, the entertainment industry data company responsible for powering the Billboard Charts, has acquired Quansic, a global music artist identification service. France-headquartered Quansic claims to operate the world’s largest artist identification database which includes over 2.5 million ISNIs (artist identifiers) and 200 million asset identifiers.
Source: Luminate acquires artist data identification service Quansic
Independent music rights admin platform Music Reports has announced the acquisition of music licensing and data platform Blokur. The deal will leverage the strengths of both entities to provide a more robust set of services to a wider array of clients. Founded in 2015, Blokur is a music data and licensing platform centered around connecting music to “the next generation of online experiences.”
Source: Music Reports Acquires Licensing & Data Platform Blokur
Apple has quietly tightened its reporting of how many people listen to podcasts, sending shock waves through an embattled audio industry still reeling from the end of the COVID-era production bubble. The shift, Apple wrote in a blog post, was technical: The dominant podcasting platform had begun switching off automatic downloads for users who haven’t listened to five episodes of a show in the last two weeks.
According to Luminate’s 2023 Year-End Music Report, fully 158.6 million tracks each received 1,000 or fewer plays on audio streaming services in 2023. That number amounts to a whopping86.2% of the 184 million music tracks that Luminate measured on audio streaming services at the close of last year via ISRCs. Even more tellingly, a total of 45.6 million tracks received zero plays in 2023.
The three camera giants have agreed on a global standard for digital signatures, which will make them compatible with a web-based tool called Verify. This tool, launched by an alliance of global news organizations, technology companies, and camera makers, will allow anyone to check the credentials of an image for free. Verify will display the relevant information if an image has a digital signature.
Source: How Nikon, Sony and Canon are fighting deepfakes with new technology
Netflix has taken its biggest step toward data transparency yet with the release of an exhaustive list of viewing time on the platform in the first half of 2023. Original series and movies dominate the top of the chart, but Smith said the split between original and licensed titles was more even: About 55 percent of viewing was for originals and 45 percent was for licensed shows and films.
Source: Netflix Takes Big Data Transparency Step, Releasing Viewing Numbers for 18,000 Titles
The Mechanical Licensing Collective has debuted a ‘Supplemental Matching Network’ through which five companies will help match royalties. The MLC says it chose these businesses – London-based Blokur, credits database Jaxsta (now part of the overarching Vinyl Group), Too Lost-partnered Pex, Session parent Salt, and SoundExchange’s SX Works – based upon the results of a “comprehensive selection process” that encompassed pilot programs.
Source: Mechanical Licensing Collective Debuts Royalty ‘Matching Network’
Australia’s sole ASX-listed music company, Jaxsta, has announced a significant transformation that includes changing its name to Vinyl Group, after the company expanded into online vinyl sales earlier this year. This rebranding effort is not merely cosmetic as the company’s constitution has been updated to reflect the new name. The ticker code on the ASX will also change from JXT to VNL.
Source: Music credits company Jaxsta rebrands as Vinyl Group
Credits Due is the initiative launched in 2021 by ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus to encourage musicians to create accurate metadata for their work. Backed by the Ivors Academy and Music Rights Awareness Foundation, it has since picked up support from PROs including PPL in the UK. Now it’s getting another push with the launch of a toolkit that music organizations can use to hold events promoting the initiative to musicians.
Source: Credits Due toolkit aims to boost music metadata campaign – Music Ally
California’s Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) is preparing for its next trick: Putting guardrails on AI. The state privacy regulator, which has an important role in setting rules of the road for digital giants given how much of Big Tech (and Big AI) is headquartered on its sun-kissed soil, has today published draft regulations for how people’s data can be used for what it refers to as automated decision-making technology (ADMT*). Aka AI.
Source: California’s privacy watchdog eyes AI rules with opt-out and access rights | TechCrunch