Spotify updated its annual Loud and Clear report on Wednesday, confirming that for a second consecutive year, the streaming giant paid out half of its royalties to independent artists. Of the $10 billion Spotify doled out to music rights holders last year, it gave about $5 billion to indie labels and artists, the company said, a $500 million increase from 2023. The report comes weeks after Spotify announced its first-ever full year of profit, 18 years after the company was founded in 2006.
Source: Half of Spotify’s Royalties Are Going to Indie Artists
Catalog management platform OpenPlay has launched OpenPlay Reach, a new service aimed at providing delivery, distribution, and monetization services for music and video assets. The company has appointed Bob Barbiere as Executive Vice President and General Manager to lead the new service. Barbiere brings extensive experience in music technology and rights management from previous executive roles at Dubset Media Holdings and Pex.
Canada supplies most of the newsprint used in America and there’s no easy way for the U.S. to quickly replace its production. Local newspapers already cut to the bone and then some in recent years. Especially hard hit are small papers in rural and suburban communities. Abruptly raising their largest material cost by 25% for no apparent reason will be the last straw for some.
An AI “licensing and protection” platform called Vermillio has raised $16 million in a Series A funding round led by Sony Music Entertainment and DNS Capital. Vermillio said on Monday (March 3) that it plans to use the funds to scale its operations and continue “building out solutions for a generative AI internet that enables talent, studios, record labels, and more to protect and monetize their content”.
So long, Spotify: Snoop Dogg says he’s “ditching” the streaming service for blockchain-powered competitor Tune.fm, where he’s exclusively released a new single. In no uncertain terms, the longtime crypto enthusiast Snoop Dogg attributed the switch to his allegedly miniscule Spotify royalty payments. And on that front, the rap mainstay said he’d pocketed only $45,000 or so from a staggering one billion Spotify streams.
