Maestro intends to use this latest $15 million tranche to “fuel value chain expansion of its products and continued diversification of its customer base,” according to the text. Furthermore, the six-year-old company dedicated a substantial portion of the release to highlighting the considerable success that it enjoyed last year, as many fans and artists began utilizing livestream platforms.
Source: Livestream Monetization Platform Maestro Scores $15 Million In Financing
Prominent Middle Eastern Spotify rival Anghami has entered into a definitive merger agreement with publicly traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Vistas Media Acquisition Company Inc. The deal will result in Anghami listing on the NASDAQ in New York, with the combined company set to operate under the Anghami name and trade under the new symbol ANGH.
Source: Spotify rival Anghami to list on NASDAQ via merger with Vistas Media Acquisition Company
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.
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