GitHub recently stood up to pressure from the Recording Industry Association of America, the latest example of how its large network attracts controversy. One GitHub user, on the site, described the incident as “a shame for GitHub” and said “that Microsoft acquisition was really a mistake.” Another called for Microsoft to resign from the RIAA, an organization that consists primarily of record labels and musicians.
Source: GitHub is forcing Microsoft to deal with thorny controversies two years after acquisition
30West, the investment and advisory firm with deep ties to the movie business, is backing Special, a new streaming service geared towards independent moviemakers and content creators. The platform, which had its beta launch last week, was co-founded by Sam Lucas and Paul Burton.
Roblox averages 100 million monthly active users between the ages of 12 and 18. That’s a prime target for the music industry. Kids are spending hours upon hours of time on the platform, and artists and labels are taking notice. Nearly half of all children aged 9-12 in the US play Roblox at least once a week.
The dynamics of streaming are fundamentally different to the old-world, which means contracts based on “unit sales” risk being redundant in a market based increasingly on streaming. As a result, we need fundamental changes such as the writing-off of unrecouped balances after a set period of time, say 15 years, and a modern and fair artist royalty rate on all digital revenues.
The year is 2023. After intensive lobbying, the governments of the US, the EU, and Britain have decreed changes to the way music streaming services pay out artists. Instead of pooling all of users’ revenue together and distributing it pro-rata based on the number of streams, the money will now be divided based on listening-share per user.