Banking giant JPMorgan made a rare public apology on Friday, admitting that it regrets backing Europe’s doomed Super League of top-tier soccer teams, which has sparked a violent backlash from fans. “We clearly misjudged how this deal would be viewed by the wider football community and how it might impact them in the future,” a representative for the bank said.
Source: Super League backer JPMorgan admits it ‘misjudged’ reaction from fans
HBO Max gained about 3 million total subscribers sequentially, AT&T said — a number the company should be pleased with, after concerns HBO Max might have trouble retaining subs after a big lift from “Wonder Woman 1984” in December.
Source: HBO Max Gains 3 Million Subscribers in Q1, AT&T Beats Wall Street Forecasts
Netflix revealed that it will spend over $17 billion on content this year, according to its first-quarter earnings report. “As we’ve noted previously, the production delays from Covid-19 in 2020 will lead to a 2021 slate that is more heavily second half weighted with a large number of returning franchises,” said the company in its letter to shareholders.
Source: Netflix Reveals $17 Billion in Content Spending in Fiscal 2021
Songtradr has confirmed the acquisition of Pretzel (aka Pretzel Rocks), a platform that supplies “stream safe” music to livestreamers on platforms such as Twitch and YouTube. Said livestreamers have to be very careful of playing licensed music via services such as Spotify when recording their videos. Doing so will likely result in a DCMA takedown of their content, or see it stung by YouTube’s Content ID.
Source: Songtradr acquires Pretzel, which provides DCMA-proof music for Twitch and YouTube livestreamers
Included in what Primary Wave describes as a “multi-million-dollar deal”, are Leonard’s share of a number of hits from Leonard Cohen such as You Want It Darker, It Seemed the Better Way, and If I Didn’t Have Your Love. The deal also encompasses his share of songwriter royalties from his work with Madonna. Songs include a number of her No.1 hits such as La Isla Bonita, Frozen, and the classic Like A Prayer.
Source: Primary Wave buys catalog of Madonna collaborator Patrick Leonard in ‘multi-million-dollar deal’
For Q1, the company reported a gain of 3.98 million in net global streaming subscribers. That was below its previous guidance of 6 million. Meanwhile, Netflix predicted even lower gains for the current quarter: It expects to add just 1 million members in Q2, with roughly zero growth in the U.S./Canada and Latin America regions. As of the end of March, Netflix had 207.4 million paid streaming customers worldwide, up 13.6%.
Source: Netflix Falls Short of Q1 Subscriber Targets as COVID-Driven Growth Slows
On Friday, the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC), which officially launched Jan. 1, made its first distribution of mechanical royalties to rights holders for the month of January, paying out $24 million out of about $40 million collected from digital services.
Source: MLC Collects $40M for January, Makes First Rights Holders Payments
Last month, New York-based music and entertainment investment firm Influence Media Partners launched a fund to invest in what it described as “award-winning catalogs of some of music’s most influential female music creators”. Today, Influence Media has announced its first acquisition as part of the partnership with MERS.
Rebalancing the Song Economy shows that we live in an era where the song fuels everything: whereas albums used to be the go-to consumption format, the dominant currency in streaming is individual songs; data shows that when people use a streaming platform such as Spotify, they search more for songs than they do for artists. That means songwriters are more important than ever – but, if you are a songwriter, the system is dysfunctional.
Source: Today’s pop industry cheats songwriters | Björn Ulvaeus
Amazon spent a cool $11 billion on TV series, movies and music for Prime last year, an increase of 41% from $7.8 billion in 2019. The megabucks that the company is plowing into Prime Video and Amazon Music underscores Amazon’s goal of becoming the global digital entertainment leader.
Source: Amazon Spent $11 Billion on Prime Video and Music Content in 2020, up 41% From Year Prior