US-based collection and licensing society ASCAP has reported that its revenues topped $1.274 billion in 2019, which marks a $47 million increase over 2018, and a fifth year of record-breaking financial results. Royalty distributions to ASCAP members in 2019 increased by $75 million, crossing the $1bn mark for a third year with $1.184bn in total royalties paid out.
Source: ASCAP paid out $1.18bn to songwriters and publishers in 2019
The impressive revenue benchmark – which totals about $4.038 billion overall – represents a 33 percent uptick from YouTube’s Q1 2019 earnings of approximately $3 billion. And significantly, YouTube’s Q1 2020 income accounted for nearly 10 percent of Google’s earnings, despite the fact that the leading search engine also experienced a substantial revenue increase from Q1 2019.
Source: YouTube Quarterly Revenue Surges 33%, Past $4 Billion In Q1
Source: Coronavirus Shutdown Puts Disney+ in a Programming Crunch
Cable giant Comcast, led by chairman and CEO Brian Roberts, on Thursday reported lower earnings for entertainment unit NBCUniversal for the first quarter as the novel coronavirus pandemic started hitting TV advertising revenue and the firm’s theme parks unit.
Source: NBCUniversal Earnings Drop as Pandemic Hits TV Advertising, Theme Parks
Content consumption on Spotify’s streaming platform has been dramatically affected by the COVID-19 crisis — with usage initially down in areas affected by lockdown orders — but the company saw a rebound in active listeners in Q1. For the first quarter of 2020, Spotify netted 6 million new Premium subscribers globally — beating expectations — to stand at 130 million worldwide.
Source: Spotify Gains 6 Million Paid Subscribers in Q1 as COVID-19 Disrupts Listening Patterns
British music licensing company PPL has amended its annual payment schedule in order to bring forward part of its June distribution to support its members during the COVID-19 crisis. On April 30, 2020, PPL will make an advance payment of £23.9 million (approximately $29.7m) to more than 15,000 performers and recording rightsholders.
Source: PPL to make advance distribution payment of $29.7m in April
TME, which runs music services QQ Music, Kugou and Kuwo in China, ended 2019 with 39.9m paying music users worldwide. The company told investors in a full-year update on March 16 that its online music subscribers paid $160m to the firm during the course of Q4 2019.
Source: Tencent Music makes equity investment in Chinese music-for-business service, Radio Music Warehouse
Facebook plans to allow users to charge for livestreams, which will provide a way for musicians and other creators to monetize their performances and events on the platform, the company announced Friday. “To support creators and small businesses, we plan to add the ability for Pages to charge for access to events with Live videos on Facebook – anything from online performances to classes to professional conferences,” the company said.
Source: Facebook to Introduce Paid Livestreams for Musicians and Other Creators
A UBS survey cited by Yahoo Finance shows digital ad spending is down nearly 50%, national TV nearly 40%, and print nearly 20%. “For the first time in history, you’re probably going to have the highest point of media usage in the history of the United States and the lowest point of advertising in the U.S.,” former AOL CEO Tim Armstrong told The Information.
Source: “A Darwinian Moment”: The Coronavirus Is Blowing Up the Media Landscape
The streaming platform has long enabled artists to highlight a piece of music on their profile via the ‘Artist’s Pick’ headline. Now, Spotify has launched a sister version of this feature, ‘Artist Fundraising Pick’, which allows acts to pin a specific destination on their profile where fan can pay them ‘tips’.
Source: Spotify now enables fans to pay artists money direct, via Cash App and PayPal.me partnerships