Sony Music’s quarterly recorded music revenues rose by 48.2% year-on-year in calendar Q2 2021 (the three months to end of June). In fact, they were up by a massive USD $451 million versus the same period in 2020. This increase came off the back of an uncharacteristically soft quarter for Sony in calendar Q2 2020, when – hit by the effects of the pandemic – it turned over $936 million from recorded music.
Source: Sony’s recorded music revenues jumped by $451m YoY in calendar Q2, as streaming revenues rose 50.2%
Warner Music Group posted $1.34 billion in revenue for its fiscal third quarter ended June 30, the company announced on Tuesday, with a 32.7% year-over-year revenue boost and a 33% jump in streaming. And vinyl and other physical product sales were up to such a degree — 155%! — that it actually cut into digital’s percentage of recorded-music venues.
Music technology company VNUE, Inc. is acquiring online concert platform StageIt. The deal will add over $9 million in revenue and “hundreds of thousands” of live music fans and complementary technology to VNUE’s portfolio, according to a statement from VNUE.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, attorneys for Johansson allege that the actress’s contract was breached when the studio opted not to debut the film exclusively in theaters, a move they claim depressed ticket sales for the Avengers spinoff. Much of Johansson’s compensation was tied to the box office performance of “Black Widow” — if it hit certain benchmarks, bonuses would kick in.
Advertising revenue at the world’s biggest video platform jumped 84%, up from $3.81 billion in the year-earlier period when COVID put a damper on marketing spending. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, reported YouTube’s ad revenue as part of its Q2 earnings — which blew past Wall Street expectations.
Back in late May, songwriters demanded greater mechanical-royalty transparency from the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB). Now, music-creator organizations are once again expressing “strong opposition” to a proposed mechanical-rate freeze as well as “non-transparent elements” that could be introduced to the CRB by the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) and the Big Three record labels.
Spotify now has 165 million premium subscribers and 365 million monthly active users according to a new earnings report released today. It’s a year-over-year increase of 20 percent and 22 percent respectively, and up from the 158 million subscribers and 356 million MAUs seen last quarter.
The content M&A market is booming, triggered by low interest rates and increasing streaming competition. “It does feel like a bit of a frenzy,” says Thomas Hughes, CEO for the Americas at Vuulr, a global online content marketplace. However, seemingly outlandish prices can be justified based on the long-tail value of well-known intellectual property. Hughes, for one, doesn’t think Amazon is overpaying for MGM, calling the studio “a treasure trove.”