On Monday, Chinese anti-trust regulators were reported to have penalized U.S.-listed Tencent Music Entertainment for its build-up of a dominant position in online music. Among the penalties are fines for the company’s failure to properly report the acquisition of two smaller operations in 2016, and a commitment to end exclusive deals with music labels.
Source: Chinese Regulators May Require Tencent Music to End Exclusive Deals (Report)
According to Vivendi’s annual financial report, UMG spent some €2.54 billion ($2.87 billion) on catalog acquisitions and artist advances last year. That figure was up 71% on the €1.48 billion UMG spent on the category in 2019. UMG then recouped €1.02 billion from those advances within the 2020 calendar year, resulting in that €1.52 billion ($1.71 billion) net expenditure.
US-based investment firm Shamrock Capital is best known in music for buying blockbuster entertainment copyrights (including Taylor Swift’s first six albums, which it acquired for around $300 million in November). Now, it’s offering music rights-owners an alternative to selling up.
Source: Shamrock just raised $196m to loan music and entertainment rights-holders money
That figure is slightly higher than the £150 million ($210m) Hipgnosis targeted with its announcement of the share placing in June. Why? Because the raise was over-subscribed, thanks to what Hipgnosis says was “significant demand from existing and new investors”. The over-subscribed offer of new shares significantly boost warchest of acquisitive UK-listed firm.
Source: Hipgnosis Songs Fund raises $215m with new share placing – as investor demand exceeds target
The issues surrounding MDRCs — minimum delivery release commitments — rose to the broader industry’s attention over the past year, due largely to songwriters’ advocacy groups beating the drum about them. But although these clauses are not included in new deals as often as they once were, extracting them from long-standing deals will take time.
Source: MDRCs: The ‘Archaic’ Contract Clause That’s Harmed Many Songwriters
Hipgnosis spent over $1 billion to acquire 84 catalogs in FY 2021, while earnings came in at $138 million and debt approached $500 million. Hipgnosis revealed these and other operational specifics in its 2021 annual report. Spanning a staggering 172 pages and featuring everything from financials to creator interviews and a breakdown of the 35-employee company’s environmental impact to a complete list of IP holdings
Source: Hipgnosis Spent Over $1 Billion to Acquire 84 Catalogs in FY 2021
Sales of non-fungible token collectibles throughout January through May 2021 were massive. But a new report suggests sales in every single category is drying up. In fact, sales of NFTs seem to have peaked in May, when $102 million were sold in a single day. Data analyzed by Protos shows that only $19.4 million in NFT sales have been processed in the past week.
Source: Music NFTs Were Huge In March, But Has the Bubble Popped?
Following on its announcement earlier this month that it would allow rightsholders to sell off their royalty streams as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), online music royalties marketplace Royalty Exchange has partnered with A Tribe Called Quest to auction off a 1.5% share of the sound recording royalties from the hip-hop group’s first five studio albums.
Source: A Tribe Called Quest to Auction Off Portion of Royalty Streams as NFT
The funding will support the Palace Project, a nascent partnership between LYRASIS and the Digital Public Library of America to “develop and scale a robust suite of content, services, and tools for the delivery of e-books, audiobooks, and other digital media to benefit public libraries and patrons.”
Source: Knight Foundation Invests $5 Million in ‘Library-Centered’ Digital Platform
After the artist has sold or otherwise transferred the NFT, it could continue to produce taxable income for the artist and generate taxable income for its new owner. For example, subject to the intellectual property license terms of that particular NFT, the owner can collect payments from viewers of the NFT; “smart contracts” embedded in the blockchain technology underlying this item can automatically channel to the creator a specified share of those fees.