PRS paid out GBP £274.9 million (USD $367.6 million) at the current exchange rate) to songwriters, composers and music publishers in December, a 4% increase over the same period a year earlier. In all, 51,500 PRS members will receive a payment this quarter, among them 400 songwriters and composers who will receive royalties for the first time.
Source: The UK’s PRS for Music reports largest-ever quarterly royalty payout at $368m, up 4% YoY
Warner Bros. Discovery’s board has formally said “no thanks” to the $108 billion takeover bid from David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance and unanimously reiterated its support for the Netflix deal. Following WBD’s announcement, Paramount affirmed that it will continue to make its case directly to shareholders for the latest $30-per-share hostile offer — indicating for now that it won’t be going any higher.
IP acquisition is only the first step – one quickly followed by potentially overwhelming blocking and tackling. A typical catalog requires ingesting data from hundreds of platforms and sources spanning DSPs, sub-publishers, CMOs, and social media platforms, often in conflicting formats. And that’s just a working list of initial considerations to properly collect associated IP revenues, with downstream payouts and revenue splits another major area of concern.
Source: Billions Are Flowing Into Music IP — Can Financial Systems Handle It?
Disney’s three-year licensing partnership with OpenAI includes just one of exclusivity, Disney CEO Bob Iger told CNBC. The company signed the partnership with OpenAI last week that will bring its iconic characters to the AI firm’s Sora video generator. Once that exclusive year is up, Disney is free to sign similar deals with other AI companies.
Source: Disney’s OpenAI deal is exclusive for just one year — then it’s open season | TechCrunch
Paramount promised to release more than 30 films theatrically as the company launched its hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery. In a call with press and investors on Monday, the company said it will also honor “healthy traditional windows.” It’s a clear swipe at Netflix, which outmaneuvered Paramount to reach a binding agreement to acquire Warner Bros. and HBO for $82.7 billion.
David Ellison is not going away quietly in his quest to land Warner Bros. Discovery. On Monday, Ellison’s Paramount Skydance announced it has commenced an all-cash tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding shares of WBD for $30 per share — the same terms it offered in a Dec. 4 bid submitted to the Warner Bros. Discovery’s board.
Global think tank and advocacy group ORCA (Organization for Recorded Culture and Arts) has released a first-of-its-kind report revealing how independent labels generate tangible value and income for artists through long-term partnerships and investment. It shows that in 2023, these labels invested $134 million that supported 569 artists across different genres and geographies, generating a combined revenue of $239 million.
Source: Indie Labels Return 77% of Profits Back to Their Artists—STUDY
Getty CEO Craig Peters told the Financial Times that if regulators block the $3.7 billion deal, “there’s parts of these businesses that probably don’t continue to invest in the UK.” But the real story isn’t whether two large companies should be allowed to merge. It’s what their convergence reveals about the collapsing economics of visual evidence and whether anyone is building the infrastructure that makes real images valuable before the last people who know how to create them find something else to do.
Source: Why the Getty-Shutterstock Merger Is Really About Who Controls “Real” – Kaptur
The track, credited to Haven (the project of producer Harrison Walker), went viral on TikTok in October and was on course to chart in both the UK and US before being removed from streaming services following takedown notices alleging artist impersonation. In a statement published via Instagram, FAMM alleged that Walker “used AI to make his voice sound like Jorja’s and had used Jorja’s name (without permission) suggesting to the public that it was actually Jorja singing.”
WhoSampled offers an extensive database of songs, samples, covers, remixes, artists, and more. According to its website, it’s now tracking more than 1.2 million songs and nearly 622,000 samples. That data is powering Spotify’s latest features, like its upcoming music discovery tool SongDNA. However, WhoSampled was known to Spotify for some time, as it had partnered with the streamer back in 2016 to allow its users to access their Spotify playlists and saved tracks in its app
Source: Spotify acquires music database WhoSampled | TechCrunch