Finance

One of the most hotly-debated concepts in the modern music rights business is user-centric licensing. This model sees streaming royalties paid out based on individual subscriber behavior – with a percentage of each subscriber’s subscription fee being distributed only to the artists/labels they have individually listened to that month.

Source: SoundCloud is about to revolutionize streaming payouts, launching user-centric royalties for 100,000 indie artists

Economic downturn brought on by the pandemic couldn’t stop the U.S. music industry from its fifth consecutive year of growth as revenue increased 9.2% to $12.15 billion in 2020 from the prior year’s $11.13 billion total, according the RIAA’s year-end revenue report released Friday (Feb. 26).

Source: US Recorded Music Revenue Surpassed $12B in 2020: RIAA

About .09% of the 8 million or so creators on Spotify make $100,000 or more per year in royalties on the leading music streaming service. The noteworthy statistic came to light earlier this week, during the Stockholm-based service’s ‘Stream On’ investor conference.

Source: Just 7,500 Artists on Spotify (Out of 8 Million) Make $100,000 or More

EU countries face a June deadline to adopt national versions of a bloc-wide law that aims to improve media producers’ bargaining position against tech powerhouses including Facebook and Google. Under the law, passed in 2019, news publishers can demand payment for reuse of their content.

Source: Facebook Fight Over Media Payments Shifts Focus to Europe

After a tumultous month that saw Facebook pull news from its platform in protest, Australia’s government agrees to make the News Media Bargaining Code law. After a last-minute round of senate amendments were added to the bill on Tuesday, the bill was sent back and quickly passed to the lower house on Wednesday.

Source: Australia passes law forcing Google and Facebook to pay news publications

For years, Disney has been keeping 80% of the revenue from older shows that it distributes to streaming platforms, leaving only 20% to be available to stars and other profit participants. It does so by classifying the revenue as “home video.” Under a formula dating from the introduction of the VCR, Disney subtracts an 80% royalty to its in-house distributor to cover the costs of distribution.

Source: Disney Keeps 80% of Streaming Revenue By Calling It ‘Home Video’

Facebook announced on Wednesday that it would be investing $1 billion in the news industry over the next three years, a week after a standoff with Australia over new laws that would require it to pay publishers to share their content. “We absolutely recognize quality journalism is at the heart of how open societies function — informing and empowering citizens and holding the powerful to account,” Facebook said in a statement.

Source: Facebook pledges $1 billion investment in news over next 3 years

In recent weeks, the UK arms of the major record companies – Universal Music UK, Sony Music UK, and Warner Music UK – have filed written submissions with this Parliamentary Committee, setting out their views on a number of streaming’s most fiercely-debated talking points. Each of these submissions was published online February 23.

Source: What the major record companies really think about the economics of music streaming

Today’s hearing in the UK’s streaming economics inquiry was the long-awaited appearance of Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music to field questions from the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee. There were some strong signals about where the committee is heading in terms of its likely recommendations though, and some interesting signs of willingness on the part of the DSPs to engage with them.

Source: Spotify, Apple and Amazon at the UK streaming economics inquiry

Splice, the music creation platform helping creators make and collaborate on music easily from home, has closed a $55 million Series D funding round led by Goldman Sachs Growth, Splice announced in a blog post yesterday (Feb. 22). Other investors in the round include investment firm MUSIC (a joint venture between SONGS Music Publishing founder/former CEO Matt Pincus and Liontree), USV, True Ventures, DFJ Growth and Flybridge.

Source: Music Creation Platform Splice Raises $55M Following Record Year for Payouts