A new report suggests traditional radio is no longer the dominant platform for new music discovery for Americans. That brings into question whether the ‘promotional value’ touted by broadcast corporations as a reason not to pay artists royalties is even valid. That may have been the case fifty years ago when radio was king, but as The Buggles put it, “video killed the radio star.”
Source: For Americans, Radio No Longer Dominant Music Discovery Medium
Six years after it was acquired by Pandora, music analytics platform Next Big Sound is going quiet. In a blog post published Friday, the brand said it will be shutting down effective Nov. 1. “It’s been a wild ride,” reads the post, signed by “The Next Big Sound Team.” “After 12 years of tracking music data across hundreds of thousands of artists and hundreds of billions of streams, it’s time to say goodbye.”
For 2021 to date, global music streaming is up by a remarkable 25.9% from the same period in 2020, according to a new study of international music trends from MRC Data. The total amount of on-demand audio song streams from January through August of this year was 1.7 trillion, as opposed to 1.4 trillion during the first eight months of last year.
Source: Global Song Streams Are Up 25.9% This Year, Says MRC Study of Worldwide Music Trends
Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s co-CEO and chief content officer, revealed what he said was the “most comprehensive look so far” at the streamer’s top 10 TV shows and movies. Shonda Rhimes’ “Bridgerton” Season 1 scored as the No. 1 series based on both number of Netflix households and time spent viewing while “Extraction” was the most-viewed film in terms of households and “Bird Box” was the most-watched movie in terms of hours.
Source: Netflix Releases New Data on Most Popular TV Shows and Movies
For musicians who earn money from their music, 40% said that their overall income has increased since 2015, 32% said that it had decreased, and 28% said that it had stayed the same. Note the ‘overall’ word there: one of the report’s other findings is that for many musicians, recorded music is only a ‘small proportion’ of their earnings.
Source: UK research on music creators’ digital earnings is out today – Music Ally
BMG has pledged its support for Credits Due, a new campaign by songwriters to ensure they are credited and paid for their work. The campaign was launched yesterday (September 21) by ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus at the Ivors music awards event in the UK. BMG is the first international music company to commit to the campaign.
Source: BMG backs Credits Due campaign for songwriters launched by ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus
Bjorn Ulvaeus, co-founder of ABBA and president of CISAC, unveiled a new global initiative called “Credits Due” on Tuesday that is intended to upgrade the music industry’s payment processes. The initiative, created by the Ivors Academy and the Music Rights Awareness Foundation is intended to “unite the music industry’s approach to ensuring that complete and accurate song metadata is attached to all recordings at the point of creation.”
Source: ABBA’s Bjorn Ulveus Unveils ‘Credits Due’ Program to ‘Ensure the Right People Get Paid’ for Music
Believe is refusing to share domestic market data with SNEP, which is responsible for tracking the size of the French recorded music market. That has led SNEP to choose not to publish first-half figures for the French recorded music market for the first time in more than a decade.
Source: French Labels Body SNEP Blames Believe For Holdup Of Market Report
YouTube chief business officer Robert Kyncl has revealed that a full 25 percent of YouTube viewer hours are spent on music, with another 25 percent deriving from media companies and the remaining half coming from user-generated content. Factoring based upon Google higher-up Philipp Schindler’s statement that there were “a billion-plus hours of video watched every day” on YouTube as of Q2 2021, users spend over 250 million hours daily enjoying music on the service.
Source: YouTube Exec Says 25% of All Viewer Hours Are Spent on Music
Curators say playlists are being reported for a variety of reasons, though oversight is lacking and claims aren’t properly investigated. Playlists can be reported for a variety of reasons, including sexual, violent, deceptive, or hateful content. As soon as a report is received, the playlist’s metadata is removed immediately. That includes the title, description, and any custom playlist image. No internal review process stops the metadata removal from happening once a single report is received.
Source: Spotify Playlist Curators Says ‘Copyright Abuse’ Is On the Rise