Finance

Music royalties trading platform JKBX launches with approval from the SEC

JKBX has announced that it has received qualification from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its assets. The result: as of this week, investors – including consumers aka ‘retail investors’ – can legally purchase shares in the royalty streams of hits via JKBX.com. The JKBX platform soft-launched last year, but while awaiting SEC qualification, its users could only ‘reserve’ (rather than outright buy) these royalty shares.

Source: Music royalties trading platform JKBX launches – with regulatory approval from the SEC

Disney Working to Get Streaming Platforms on Technical Par With Netflix, Iger Says

Disney CEO Bob Iger acknowledged the company is behind Netflix in terms of technical capabilities — and that it’s in the process of catching up. “When we launched Disney+ in 2019, our goal was to have basically robust video experiences at scale,” Iger said. “What we didn’t have was the technology that we needed to basically lower customer acquisition and retention cost, to essentially grow our margins by reducing marketing expenses.”

Source: Disney Working to Get Streaming Platforms on Technical Par With Netflix, Iger Says: ‘We Need to Be at Their Level’

Bryan Ferry Partners With Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists

The deal sees the company acquiring 50% of Ferry’s sound recording, publishing, and name, image and likeness rights from his solo work and Roxy Music catalog, which reaches back to the group’s galvanizing 1972 debut album and includes such hit songs as “Love Is the Drug,” “More Than This,” “Avalon,” “Virginia Plain,” “Dance Away,” “Slave to Love” and more. Further terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Source: Bryan Ferry Partners With Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists; Company Acquires 50% of Roxy Music Frontman’s Catalog

Three Publishing Veterans Form a New House, Authors Equity

Madeline McIntosh, Nina von Moltke, and Don Weisberg—most recently at Penguin Random House US and Macmillan, respectively—have joined forces to form a new publishing company. As its name implies, the publisher will operate outside of traditional publishing business models, offering no advances but paying authors a high percentage of a book’s profits—a model followed by some other types of hybrid publishers.

Source: Three Publishing Veterans Form a New House, Authors Equity

Apple Slapped With $2 Billion EU Fine Over ‘Abusive’ Streaming Music App Restrictions 

After a years-long investigation, the European Commission levied a fine against Apple of €1.8 billion — about $1.95 billion — for “abusing its dominant position on the market for the distribution of music streaming apps” to iPhone and iPad users. The EU said Monday its investigation into Apple found that Apple applied restrictions on app developers preventing them from informing iOS users about alternative and cheaper music subscription services available outside of the app, which is illegal under EU antitrust rules.

Source: Apple Slapped With $2 Billion EU Fine Over ‘Abusive’ Streaming Music App Restrictions After Complaint by Spotify; Apple Says It Will Appeal

Hipgnosis Songs Fund’s assets are now valued at $690 million less than they were before

According to an investor update from HSF’s board, Shot Tower estimates the fair value of HSF’s portfolio (as of March 1, 2024) at between USD $1.80 billion and $2.06 billion (or between $1.74 billion and $2.00 billion after contingent catalog bonuses are deducted). According to the HSF board, the midpoint of Shot Tower’s valuation of HSF is $1.93 billion, which represents a reduction in value of 26.3% vs. that $2.62 billion valuation from Citrin Cooperman (as of September 30).

Source: Hipgnosis Songs Fund’s assets are now valued at $690 million less than they were before. Blackstone must be licking its lips.

beatBread Provides $10M in Capital to Indie Labels

beatBread, an AI-based funding platform for artists and independent labels, has announced the signing of a series of funding deals to empower label growth and expansion in 2024. The company has provided over $10 million in capital to a wide range of independent labels, including Too Lost Records, Lynx, Smith Music, and Delta Records in the United States, as well as M.A.D. Solutions, which serves Nigerian and West African artists, and Peral Group, which works with artists in the UK.

Source: beatBread Provides $10M in Capital to Indie Labels

$542M Apple EU Fine Set for March 5th Announcement: Report

The Apple EU fine, stemming from an antitrust complaint submitted by Spotify, will reportedly be announced on March 5th. Besides the fine, the Commission will reportedly order Apple to axe the allegedly unlawful practices at hand, which it appears will be addressed by the Digital Markets Act (DMA) next month in any event. Tech mainstays including Apple have until the 7th to comply with that law, though the specifics associated with this compliance are eliciting pushback from Spotify.

Source: $542M Apple EU Fine Set for March 5th Announcement: Report

ASCAP Reports Record Collections, Distribution 

ASCAP collections grew 14.1% to $1.737 billion in 2023 and payouts to songwriters and publishers increased 14.7% to $1.592 billion, the performance rights organization reported Wednesday (Feb. 28). Those figures represent a record year for ASCAP in both revenue buckets, as well as all-time highs for any U.S. performance rights organization ever, ASCAP claimed.

Source: ASCAP Reports Record Collections, Distribution While Casting Shade on For-Profit Competitors

Spotify Generated $4.5 Billion for Independent Artists and Labels in 2023

Streaming has leveled the playing field in many ways since it became the main platform for music around a decade ago, and the fact that independent artists — which Spotify defines as artists signed to a non-major labels or self-releasing — now account for half of that total, for the first time, is evidence. With some 236 million paying subscribers, Spotify remains by far the world’s largest paid music-streaming service, with the U.S. its biggest territory.

Source: Spotify Generated $4.5 Billion for Independent Artists and Labels in 2023

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