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.
Finance
New UK investment fund offers loans of $2m-plus to artists, songwriters and rightsholders
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
PRS for Music Reports 20% Downturn In 2020 – Says ‘Difficulties to Come’
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’
Spotify Adds Subscribers, Says Joe Rogan Drawing More Users Than Expected
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
Sony’s Doubled Profits Driven By Games, Music and Film
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
Microsoft reports strongest quarterly growth in years, as profit also rises.
The results surpassed both the company’s and Wall Street’s expectations, underlining how Microsoft and other big tech firms have been winners in the coronavirus pandemic. “Digital adoption curves aren’t slowing down,” Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s chief executive, said in a statement. “They’re accelerating.”
Source: Microsoft reports strongest quarterly growth in years, as profit also rises.
Songtradr acquires film, TV and gaming music data platform Tunefind
Tunefind, described as “the world’s most comprehensive database and online source of information for music in television, film and video games”, partners with over 250 music supervisors worldwide to source song data directly from the executives responsible for selecting music featured in TV shows, movies, and video games.
Source: Songtradr acquires film, TV and gaming music data platform Tunefind
Hasbro Sells eOne’s Music Business for $385 Million
Hasbro announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell Entertainment One Music (eOne Music) for $385 million. eOne Music will be acquired by entities controlled by Blackstone, which also owns the performing rights organization SESAC, and “will focus on building a creator-first music brand with global scale and expertise,” according to the announcement.
Spotify expected to report subscriber slowdown
When the audio streaming company updates investors on Wednesday, it is not expected to maintain the blistering rate of new subscriber growth experienced last year. Spotify, which reported 6 million new subscribers in the first three months last year and 11 million in its most recent quarter to the end of December, has told investors not to expect the boom to continue at such a pace.
Concord buys Downtown’s owned music copyright catalog for around $400m
An affiliate of Concord has acquired 145,000 copyrights from New York-headquartered Downtown. This portfolio constitutes Downtown’s entire owned and/or co-published music catalog, and takes Concord’s owned and controlled music assets to over 600,000 works. As part of the transaction, Downtown will continue to manage global royalty collection for the affected copyrights through the end of 2021.
Source: Concord buys Downtown’s owned music copyright catalog for around $400m