The main impact of the trial won’t be getting one game back on the App Store. A big enough loss for Apple could make the company basically rewrite iOS. “Apple has a lot more at stake here than Epic does, though Apple has the stronger hand,” says Christopher Krohn, adjunct associate marketing professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Source: Next week’s Fortnite trial could upend Apple’s App Store model — even if Epic loses
Source: WSJ News Exclusive | For Music-Rights Deals, the Hits Keep Coming
There are some interesting industry-wide predictions made in the latest Music In The Air, which is co-penned as ever by respected music biz analyst, Lisa Yang “We anticipate a faster shift to music streaming and greater monetization of music content from new formats (e.g. short-form video, connected fitness, gaming, etc.), a trend that has been further accelerated by the pandemic,” reads the paper.
Creator technology organization Rally announced today that it has raised $57 million in funding for its community treasury, and plans to release an The Rally Network allows people to purchase Rally’s own custom cryptocurrency, $RLY, using established cryptocurrency Ethereum.
Sony Music Group‘s strong calendar Q1 results were revealed today – including a $1.3bn recorded music revenue haul in the three months to end of March, and an 11% YoY jump in global publishing revenues. Meanwhile, SMG’s recent acquisition drive continues apace under the leadership of its Chairman, Rob Stringer.
Source: Sony says it’s ‘aggressively pursuing’ music acquisitions… and buys a Mexican catalog to prove it
The Google-owned video platform brought in more than $6 billion in advertising revenue in the first quarter of 2021, according to the quarterly earnings report of parent company Alphabet. That is up from $4 billion in the same quarter of last year, a 50 percent year-over-year growth rate.
The Music Credit Fund (MCF) launches today to help artists and content owners raise funding while retaining the rights to their music. MCF says that it will offer long-term and “competitively priced” loans to music rightsholders, secured solely against intellectual property assets and/or future income streams across all music industry sectors.
Source: New UK investment fund offers loans of $2m-plus to artists, songwriters and music rightsholders
British performance rights organization PRS for Music saw a nearly 20% fall in collections for its members, warning of difficulties ahead. It’s not all bad news, though, as the society saw record payouts of £699.4m ($973.5m) to songwriters, composers, and music publishers. However, collections on behalf of its members fell 19.7% to £650.5m ($905.4m). That’s mostly attributed to a precipitous 79.1% drop in revenue from live music events in 2020.
Source: PRS for Music Reports 20% Downturn In 2020 – Says ‘Difficulties to Come’
Streaming content boomed during the pandemic as homebound consumers turned to screens and smart speakers for entertainment. Spotify executives have cautioned that uncertainty lies ahead, however, as the markets it is relying on for growth endure pandemic spikes and listeners in more established markets emerge from lockdowns.
Source: Spotify Adds Subscribers, Says Joe Rogan Drawing More Users Than Expected
Music, games and pictures all contributed to a doubling of full year net profits at Sony
, the Japanese electronics and entertainment group, despite disruptions caused by the coronavirus. Reporting its financial results for the January to March quarter and 12-month results from April 2020 to March 2021, Sony said that annual sales increased by 9% to JPY9.00 trillion ($83.3 billion).
Source: Sony’s Doubled Profits Driven By Games, Music and Film