Finance

Exceleration Music acquires catalog of Japan’s Ryuichi Sakamoto

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Exceleration Music and Japanese rights company NexTone have acquired the recording and publishing catalog of Ryuichi Sakamoto, purchased directly from the late composer’s estate. Sakamoto, who died in 2023 at the age of 71, co-founded the electronic trio Yellow Magic Orchestra in 1978. He became the first Japanese composer to win an Academy Award, a Grammy and a Golden Globe, all for his score to the 1987 film The Last Emperor.

Source: Exceleration Music acquires catalog of Japan’s Ryuichi Sakamoto

Phonorecords V Settlement Proposal Emerges

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The majors and the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), along with the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), the Music Artists Coalition, and the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), just recently informed the Copyright Royalty Board of their settlement. And according to their letter, the agreement is straightforward enough: The current Phono IV rates, also extending to ringtones, “should not be amended except for continuing inflation adjustments

Source: Phonorecords V Settlement Proposal Emerges

Spotify slashes streams of hit song after suspicious activity on prediction market Kalshi

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Spotify has removed more than 500,000 registered streams from Malcolm Todd‘s Earrings, after the song’s rise to No. 1 on the platform’s daily US chart was tied to bets placed on the prediction market Kalshi. Kalshi is a US prediction market, regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, on which users stake real money on future events – including which song will be the most-streamed on Spotify in the US in a given month.

Source: Spotify slashes streams of hit song after suspicious activity on prediction market Kalshi

TIDAL cracks down on AI music by cutting off monetization

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Music streaming service TIDAL is the latest to take aim at AI-generated music with the introduction of a new policy that will prevent fully AI-generated music from making money on its platform. In addition, TIDAL will use automated tools to remove AI-generated music that attempts to impersonate an artist or a group, the company said.

Source: TIDAL cracks down on AI music by cutting off monetization

Google accepts need for ‘new value exchange’ with publishers

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Google has said it is exploring new “value exchange models” with publishers and accepted the need for independent regulation of AI. The tech giant’s paper, A Pragmatic Approach to AI Governance in America, has defended the use of publicly available online content for training AI models, but said it is “piloting novel ways to partner with websites whose content meaningfully contributes to the freshness and factuality of generative AI responses”.

Source: Google accepts need for ‘new value exchange’ with publishers

New Lawsuit Accuses Spotify of ‘Undisclosed Filtering Practices’ to Boost Majors Over Indies

Mark Kratter, who appears to release music as part of a namesake band, submitted the concise complaint to the Stamford Superior Court. Off the bat, the action reads like a recap of well-established facts concerning Spotify’s far-from-ideal royalty realities. However, the suit, alleging violations of the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act and more, doesn’t solely retread already-covered angles.

Source: New Lawsuit Accuses Spotify of ‘Undisclosed Filtering Practices’ to Boost Majors Over Indies

Getty Images makes a surprise deal with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI

On Sunday, Getty Images said it has entered into a partnership with OpenAI. The deal will see images from Getty’s licensed content libraries surface in OpenAI search results and “discovery experiences within ChatGPT.” “High‑quality, licensed visual content makes AI‑powered search and discovery more useful and more trustworthy,” Getty CEO Craig Peters said in a statement. “This partnership with OpenAI reflects a shared recognition of that, and together we will deliver richer visual experiences to ChatGPT users.”

Source: Getty Images makes a surprise deal with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI

Streamers’ Bundling Has Cost Music Publishers Nearly $500 Million Since 2024, NMPA Reveals

The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) revealed some worrying data tied to the sustained hit the industry has taken from streaming providers’ “bundles.” As Spotify (and similarly, Amazon Music) started reclassifying its “premium” subscription tiers as a bundle with other services such as audiobooks, royalties paid by both companies have been cut by approximately 30% over the past two years.

Source: Streamers’ Bundling Has Cost Music Publishers Nearly $500 Million Since 2024: NMPA

Authors Guild Looks at Why Author Incomes Are in Decline

A new study sponsored by the Authors Guild examining the causes of the decline in authors’ earnings found that only 25% of print books and e-books read in the past month were bought new or through a paid subscription. The study, conducted by the Codex Group, notes that while books are available in more formats and channels than ever before, average author earnings, now pegged at about $10,000 annually, have declined about 42% since 2009, the year Kindles first entered the market.

Source: Authors Guild Looks at Why Author Incomes Are in Decline

Merck Mercuariadis on Hipgnosis, vindication, and his next move

Last month, Sony Music Publishing agreed to buy a collection of songs from Blackstone reported to be worth up to $4 billion. They included catalogs by Neil Young, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Shakira, Leonard Cohen, and Nile Rodgers. This was the same portfolio of songs that Merck Mercuriadis assembled for around $3 billion ($2.2 billion in Hipgnosis Songs Fund; $700M+ in Hipgnosis Songs Capital) – and for which he was, for a while, near-universally flamed for “overpaying” to obtain.

Source: Merck Mercuariadis on Hipgnosis, vindication, and his next move

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