Data

Lockdown and stay-at-home orders due to the novel coronavirus have been a big boost for online pirates, with a new study showing double-digit growth in digital piracy across major territories in Europe and North America. The data, published Monday by London-based piracy analysts Muso, shows visits to illegal film streaming and download sites shot up by 41.4 percent in the United States and by 42.5 percent in the U.K. in the last seven days of March.

Source: Online Piracy Spikes Amid Coronavirus Lockdown: Study

Universal is reporting that Trolls: World Tour scored the biggest opening day and opening weekend for a digital title, with a figure 10x larger than Universal’s next-biggest traditional digital release (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom). It is top on every relevant digital platform, including Amazon, Comcast, Apple, Vudu, Google/YouTube, DirectTV, Verizon Fios and FandangoNow.

Source: ‘Trolls: World Tour’ Breaks Records And Nabs Biggest Digital Debut Ever

Spend on music streaming subscriptions is also up significantly year-on-year. From what we can tell from the data published over the weekend by the New York Times, consumer spending on the likes of Apple Music and Spotify Premium rose by just over 20% YoY in the week when compared to the same seven days in 2019. That’s a bigger spending rise than that seen on News Media and eBooks, according to the NYT article, but a smaller jump than that seen by video streaming (Netflix et al) and video games.

Source: Positive signs: Music streaming spend is rising in the US, even amid Coronavirus lockdown

A new report published by Counterpoint Research predicts that the number of music streaming subscriptions globally will exceed 450 million by the end of 2020, which would be more than a 25% year-on-year increase.  Counterpoint reports that global music streaming subscriptions grew 32% YoY to reach 358m subscribers by the end of 2019.

Source: Music streaming subscriptions forecast to top 450m by the end of 2020 (report)

According to an internal report, more than 90 percent of the clicks to coronavirus content came from “Power News Consumers” and “Power News Discussers” — Facebook’s terms for users who read and comment on news stories much more frequently than the average user. The company is now considering several options for targeting those people with higher-quality information to make sure it is “being spread downstream.”

Source: The Coronavirus Revives Facebook as a News Powerhouse

The app gives artists stats like total listening stats or more granular data like 24-hour performance. Artists can see which country their fans are from, real-time streaming data, and which fans engage the most. The app also keeps track of the Amazon Music playlists and stations where their music appears. Data goes back to 2018 and refreshes every few hours.

Source: Amazon Music for Artists Officially Sets Sail With Deep Alexa Integration

The U.K.’s trade negotiators have prioritized striking a strong digital trading partnership within its coming framework. An entire chapter of the negotiating objectives deal with “digital trade” including data protection, an open internet and cross-border data flows, among other issues.

Source: UK Trade Negotiators Eye Blockchain Provisions in Coming US Trade Talks

The worldwide recorded music industry generated $21.5bn across all formats last year, growing 11.4%, according to Midia Research. Some 56% of that, or $11.9 billion, came from streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube. Interestingly, Midia has revised upwards its preliminary estimate for the ‘artist-direct’ sector, i.e. those DIY artists independently uploading their own music via platforms like Amuse, Ditto, TuneCore, CD Baby etc.

Source: The global recorded music business generated over $50m a day last year – and more than $2m of it went to DIY artists