Finance

The gold rush surrounding non-fungible token (NFT) digital collectibles continues: MakersPlace, a marketplace for buying and selling digital artwork and other creations, has raised $30 million in funding from investors including rapper Eminem and Sony Music Entertainment.

Source: Eminem, Sony Music Invest in NFT Marketplace Startup MakersPlace as Part of $30 Million Funding Round

As more and more institutional money is invested into NFTs, issues that may have been ignored in a niche industry are suddenly becoming important in a multibillion-dollar industry.  In the NFT sphere, one previously ignored issue is intellectual property (“IP”) law. Even in the decentralized world of NFTs, copyright laws apply, and investors should understand their importance prior to investing.

Source: Commentary: How copyright violations can crash your NFT party

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.

Source: Warner Music Posts Strong Quarter as Streaming and Vinyl Soar

Slip.stream, described as a “creator safe music platform” was launched by entrepreneurs by David Carson (Fuse, Heavy.com, New Stand founder), Dan Demole (Jingle Punks founder) and Jesse Korwin (Jingle Punks CMO). The platform offers a copyright strike safe library of over 50,000 tracks and 40,000 sound effects, filled with what it says is “real music from real artists”.

Source: Music licensing startup Slip.stream raises $3.25m

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.

Source: Music technology company VNUE to acquire livestream platform Stageit

The acquisitive music rights company confirmed the closing of its previously announced business combination with Roth CH Acquisition II Co. (ROCC), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) formed by Roth Capital Partners and Craig-Hallum Capital Group. That combined company’s name is Reservoir Media Inc., and it continues to be led by Reservoir’s founder and Chief Executive Officer, Golnar Khosrowshahi.

Source: Reservoir is now a public company, as it successfully floats on Nasdaq via SPAC merger

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.

Source: Scarlett Johansson Sues Disney for Breach of Contract Over ‘Black Widow’ Release

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.

Source: YouTube Q2 Ad Revenue Hits Record $7 Billion as Alphabet Trounces Estimates

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.

Source: Songwriters Urge CRB to Reject Proposed Mechanical Rate Freeze