Finance

Nashville-based Blue Sky Group and music rights and royalty auditing firm Royalty Compliance Group (RCO) will join Armanino effective April 1, 2023. “This will make Armanino one of the only business management groups in the world that will be able to offer the full slate of entertainment services while allowing us to deepen and expand our reach into Nashville, which we view as extremely important for our growth goals,” says Craig Manzino, Partner at Armanino.

Source: Former FTX Auditor Armanino Acquires Music Firms

In addition to the decentralized custody and control of money, “it has been argued that crypto assets may provide other benefits, such as improving payment systems, increasing financial inclusion, and creating mechanisms for the distribution of intellectual property and financial value that bypass intermediaries,” the authors wrote. “So far, crypto assets have brought none of these benefits.”

Source: President’s Economic Report Blasts Crypto for ‘Ignorance of Basic Economic Principles’ – Decrypt

The IRS and U.S. Treasury Department announced that they plan to issue guidance that could cause NFTs to be treated similarly to physical collectibles like art, coins, antiques, and alcohol, which retirement savers cannot add to their accounts. Additionally, classifying NFTs as collectibles could impact how they’re taxed when swapped or sold on secondary markets.

Source: IRS Considers Taxing NFTs Like Physical Art, Collectibles – Decrypt

According to Nettwerk CEO and co-founder Terry McBride, “the capital from Flexpoint will enable Nettwerk to invest in artists and make music catalogue acquisitions.” The new capital is being provided by Flexpoint’s second fund, Flexpoint Asset Opportunity Fund II, which, according to a media statement “leverages the firm’s institutional knowledge and relationships to complete opportunistic investments across the capital structure.”

Source: Nettwerk secures capital from private equity firm Flexpoint Ford to make catalog acquisitions and invest in artists

Founded by composer Sefi Carmel, SphereTrax’s platform allows musicians to publish and licence their music using the blockchain to third parties such as games and films. “The industry has always been weighted against creators, giving control and rights of their work to other stakeholders,” said Sefi Carmel, founder and CEO of SphereTrax.

Source: Blockchain music licensing platform SphereTrax picks up £250k

It’s no coincidence that major streaming services not named Spotify are largely customer acquisition plays for the big tech companies they sit under. Sure, these services still manage P&Ls, but the stakes are different. They follow the broader, uneasy, consumer tech trend: media has become more valuable as content marketing than as a standalone business. Meanwhile, the record labels want to maximize the music itself.

Source: Music Streaming Has a Pricing Problem – Trapital

Pink Floyd’s proposed $500 million sale of the rights to their iconic five-decade, multiplatinum recorded-music catalog is “basically dead” because the surviving band members “just can’t get along,” four sources close to the situation tell Variety — however, sources close to the band insist that it’s not. “You could say the deal is no longer ‘active,’” one of the four sources says. “But at the same time, it’s still on the table. It’s a strange situation!”

Source: Pink Floyd’s $500 Million Catalog Sale Is ‘Basically Dead’ — Or Is It?

SESAC, the Nashville-headquartered music licensing/collection society, has acquired New York-based content management, analytics, delivery and distribution tech provider AudioSalad. AudioSalad will remain headquartered in New York under the leadership of CEO Iain Catling and CTO Deane Thomas and will continue to function as a standalone business within the SESAC Music Group.

Source: SESAC Music Group acquires distribution and content delivery platform AudioSalad

Sweden-based song data startup Session has been acquired by Salt, a royalty processing firm described as the  “music society back-office SaaS platform for processing and distributing rightsholder royalties.” Session was co-founded by ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus and Swedish songwriters and record producers Max Martin and Niclas Molinder in 2019 with the goal of combatting inadequate song data collection. 

Source: Song data startup Session, founded by Max Martin, ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus, and Niclas Molinder, acquired by royalty platform Salt

The U.S. recorded-music industry reached an all-time high of $15.9 billion in 2022, marking the industry’s seventh consecutive year of growth. While overall streaming growth has been leveling off in recent years, with 92 million paid U.S. subscriptions, it’s clearly continuing to grow and fuel the market while the steady resurgence of vinyl continues. Collectively accounting for 84% of total revenues, streaming continued to be the largest driver.

Source: U.S. Recorded Music Revenue Scores All-Time High of $15.9 Billion in 2022, Per RIAA Report