The three organizations write that “at the heart” of the authors’ coalition’s complaints has been “a lack of transparency—around the implications for authors of key contract terms and in opaque accounting practices which make it impossible for any author to get a true picture of how their income is being calculated.”
Source: Three Authors’ Associations Address Status of Audible Talks
Representatives of Europe’s creative industries — from film and TV to theater, music, and video games — are calling for more government help to rebound from the economic damage wrought by COVID-19. A study published Tuesday by European Authors Society GESAC showed overall revenue in Europe’s creative sector dropped 31 percent in 2020 from a high of $783 billion (€643 billion) in 2019, pre-pandemic, to $540 billion (€444 billion) last year.
Source: COVID-19 Knocks 76 Percent Off Europe’s Music Revenue
YouTube has paid out more than $30 billion to creators, artists, and media organizations over the last three years, according to a new letter published by CEO Susan Wojcicki. The letter also focuses on the work YouTube’s team still has in front of them. Mainly, transparency, especially where content strikes and advertising dollars are concerned.
Source: YouTube has paid more than $30 billion to creators, artists, and others over the last three years
Parallel success stories in the decentralized world can offer plenty of insight, and Hollywood as a frontier of the film industry should make the next move, or else it might be too late. In a decentralized world where the film industry would be, creators could upload their project concepts on a blockchain platform and promote them by interacting with fans and investors.
Source: It’s time for Hollywood to move to blockchain — Yes, you read that right
Hipgnosis Songs Fund is raising big money again. According to a prospectus issued to the markets January 21, the UK-listed company has proposed the issuance of up to 1.5 billion shares – across an initial issue of ordinary shares, and then further placing programs of new ordinary shares and/or C class shares – over the course of the next 12 months.
Source: Hipgnosis is selling a lot more shares to raise a lot more money to buy a lot more music
Though the financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, Live Nation noted in a message that “Veeps has helped artists make millions of dollars in revenue” since its 2017 founding. During 2020, the ticket-focused livestreaming platform hosted approximately 1,000 gigs, the most popular (and financially successful) of which came in the year’s latter half.
Source: Live Nation Acquires Majority Stake in Ticketed Livestream Platform Veeps
In the fourth quarter of 2020, Netflix added 8.51 million paid streaming subscribers, about 2.5 million more than expected, to stand at 203.7 million worldwide at the end of the year. The strong Q4 subscriber results come as the No. 1 SVOD player faces stepped-up competition from a slew of rivals including Disney Plus, Hulu, HBO Max, Peacock, Discovery Plus, Paramount Plus and Amazon Prime Video.
Source: Netflix Tops 200 Million Streaming Customers, Handily Beats Q4 Forecast
Cinedigm continues its rollup of niche streaming brands: The company has acquired the assets of Fandor, a subscription-streaming service with a catalog of 4,600 films that has been in hibernation mode for the last two years. Cinedigm plans to beef up Fandor’s offerings with some of the 7,000-plus films titles in the Cinedigm library as well as relaunch the service’s apps.
Source: Cinedigm Acquires Fandor, Plans to Reboot Indie-Film Streaming Service
With Jacobson as CEO and Chairman of The Music Acquisition Corporation, the SPAC’s leadership also includes ex-Lehman Brothers and Barclays Capital veteran Todd Lowen as COO. In addition to Jacobson and Lowen, The Music Acquisition Corporation’s Directors are named as Michael Levitt, Ben Silverman and Tunde Balogun.
Source: Ex-Geffen head Neil Jacobson plots $200m US IPO to buy music rights, tech startups
Shares of Spotify took a hit after analysts at Citi downgraded the stock because the audio-streaming giant hasn’t shown “any material benefit” from its $800 million-plus investment in podcasting content and tech. Spotify’s stock price fell more than 5% in morning trading Friday, outpacing smaller declines in the broader market.
Source: Spotify Stock Slips After Analysts Cast Doubt on Success of Podcast Push