Artificial Intelligence is the shiny new thing venture capitalists are throwing money at—leaving once red-hot crypto projects flailing for funding. Mysten Labs co-founder and CEO Evan Cheng said this shift is due to the ability of AI products and applications to cater to a broader audience while the crypto industry continues to focuses on itself.
Source: Crypto Bumped to the Back Seat as AI Investments Accelerate – Decrypt
Reactional Music, whose President David Knox spent 26 years in senior global management positions at EA, says that its tech enables any commercial or production music to become interactive around the gamer within a game. It says that the funds will be used to deliver the Reactional beta platform and SDK for developers, continue its music licensing operations and scaling of its team across development, technical support and music supervision.
Source: Personalized music for gaming company Reactional Music closes $2m Pre-Series A funding round
Music industry economist Will Page has been ruffling feathers with his latest report: an examination of equitable remuneration (ER) models. “The logic here sounds simple: if we consider Spotify analogous to radio, then why not treat it like radio is treated in many countries, and give the artist 50% of distributable revenue?” he wrote. “Were such ‘equitable remuneration’ implemented, the artist’s gain would be the label’s pain.”
Source: Former Spotify economist Will Page causes a stir with equitable remuneration report – Music Ally
Berlin-headquartered Enote, which arrived on the scene in 2018 and says that it boasts “an advanced AI system,” just recently unveiled the multimillion-dollar raise. Having launched an iOS app about 18 months back, the platform uses the AI technology to analyze “millions of static pages and critical findings to reconstruct a definitive digital version of each work,” according to higher-ups.
Source: Digital Sheet Music Startup Enote Announces Nearly $11MM Raise
Warner Bros. Discovery has reportedly failed to receive the desired bids for its catalog and is considering pulling the plug on the sale. This twist in the rumored catalog-sale push just recently came to light in a piece from the Financial Times, which relayed in January that higher-ups were seeking a cool $1 billion+ for the music IP. According to the outlet’s newest article on the subject, however, the HBO and DC Entertainment owner “initially hoped to receive as much as” a staggering $2 billion for the catalog.
Source: Warner Bros. Discovery Catalog Sale Comes Up Short: Report
Songtradr said in a media release March 30 that the transaction “solidifies Songtradr’s position as a key leader in the B2B music industry, establishing the company as the only one-stop music solution for digital platforms and brands worldwide”. The acquisition will see UK-headquartered 7digital‘s music delivery platform combined, under one company, with Songtradr’s “technologies, licensing pedigree, and unmatched AI music search and metadata technology”.
Source: Songtradr closes $23.4m acquisition of B2B music firm 7digital
BMG‘s annual revenues hit EUR €866 million (USD $911m) in 2022 – climbing by €203 million, or 30.6%, year-on-year. In its annual fiscal report, Bertelsmann attributed the strong growth in BMG’s 2022 revenues and EBITDA to “organic growth in its recorded and publishing businesses… supported by an investment offensive”. That “investment offensive” involved a record €509 million ($535m) being spent on the acquisition of music catalogs plus artist signings in 2022.
Source: BMG annual revenues jumped 30.6% to over $900m in 2022, as it spent $400m on catalog acquisitions
Music tech startup Turntable LIVE has secured over $7 million in a seed round of funding, which it plans to use to power its new social music platform. The company is targeting a full public launch later this year and says it is currently working with music industry partners to be “fully legal and licensed” for the upcoming launch. In a press release announcing the funding round the company says that, “this funding will allow the platform’s originator to realize his original vision for the viral concept”.
Source: Turntable LIVE raises $7m in seed round to launch social music platform
New York State lawmakers are considering taxing streaming services as one way to help fund subways and other transportation systems around the state without raising fares. A proposal within the state assembly’s $233-billion proposed budget for the coming year would levy a 4% state tax and a 4% local sales tax on digital streaming products to help cover $9 billion in transportation and infrastructure maintenance and upgrades.
Source: Digital News Daily: New York State Mulls 8% ‘Netflix Tax’
The transaction includes master and publishing rights to a collection of film scores including the score for director Taika Waititi’s upcoming sports comedy-drama film Next Goal Wins starring Michael Fassbender, and the score for the upcoming animated version of George Orwell’s Animal Farm from Andy Serkis. Next Goal Wins includes a score by Academy Award and Emmy-winner Michael Giacchino, who composed themes for Up, The Incredibles, The Batman and Lost.
Source: Cutting Edge acquires ‘major’ film music catalog from First Score Music in multi-million dollar deal