Finance

A little less than one year after concluding a long-running legal battle with the Radio Music License Committee (RMLC), performance rights organization Global Music Rights (GMR) has settled a pair of lawsuits that it filed against radio groups Red Wolf Broadcasting and One Putt Broadcasting in October of 2022. 10-year-old Global Music Rights just recently announced these promptly finalized settlements, which, as mentioned, stem from a pair of complaints that the PRO levied in October.

Source: Global Music Rights Settles Months-Old Radio Group Lawsuits

AI may be getting hyped as the next billion dollar opportunity these days after that mega round for OpenAI from Microsoft, but that rising tide is not lifting all boats. SoundHound — the voice AI company — earlier this month laid off 40% of its staff and as a follow up, today announced that it had raised $25 million in equity to shore up its position in the market.

Source: SoundHound, the voice AI company, raises $25M after laying off 40% of staff earlier this month

Primary Wave says that the “monumental acquisition” includes Robby Krieger and the estate of Ray Manzarek’s interests in The Doors’ music publishing catalog, recordings, trademarks, and merchandise rights and income, among other things. The price of the deal with Primary Wave has not been disclosed. The Jim Morrison entities and the band’s drummer John Densmore retain their interests separately from Primary Wave.

Source: Primary Wave buys music rights of Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek of the Doors, in ‘monumental’ deal

The deal sees Warner acquire the recorded music rights and income streams from the band’s “complete” Atlantic Records era catalog. The company notes that the acquisition continues “a longstanding relationship” between the band and Warner Music, which now spans over a half-century, beginning with YES’ self-titled 1969 Atlantic debut album.

Source: Warner strikes ‘milestone deal’ with YES, buys recorded music rights to band’s Atlantic Records catalog

Nebula was founded by Alessandro De Luca, Fuad Hawit and Startup Incubators, and claims to be “a first-of-its-kind platform that lets fans own rights to royalty payouts for any song available in its marketplace”. EMPIRE’s venture into the Web3 space comes as the company doubles down on its approach to the digital music era across its label, distribution and publishing units.

Source: EMPIRE partners with Web3 music investment platform Nebula

Spotify is undertaking a broad restructuring amid economic uncertainty, announcing that it is cutting 6% of its headcount to reduce costs. The layoffs will eliminate nearly 600 jobs; Spotify most recently reported having 9,800 full-time employees worldwide as of Sept. 30. The company estimated that it will incur approximately €35 million-€45 million in severance-related charges.

Source: Spotify to Lay Off 6% of Employees, Chief Content and Advertising Officer Dawn Ostroff to Exit

In Q4 last year, Apple Music announced that it was upping its standard monthly subscription price from USD $9.99 to $10.99 in the US, and GBP £9.99 to £10.99 in the UK. It also increased the price of its Family Plan in both territories. Now Amazon Music has made a similar move: The company has confirmed to customers that, like Apple, it is raising its standard individual Amazon Music Unlimited monthly subscription price from $9.99 to $10.99 in the US, and from £9.99 to £10.99 in the UK.

Source: Amazon Music raises standard monthly subscription price from $9.99 to $10.99. (Spotify, so far, still refuses to do the same.)

The streamer added 7.66 million net new subscribers in Q4, compared to its own estimation of 4.5 million additions. And Netflix ended 2022 with 230.75 million worldwide, smashing its previous target of 227.59 million. That represents 4% year over year growth in total subs. Aside from the big news it had blown its own subscriber estimates away, Netflix revealed an even bigger bombshell in the Q4 financial update: Reed Hastings is stepping down as co-CEO.

Source: Netflix Adds More Than 7 Million Subscribers in Q4, Smashing Previous Target

US-headquartered Stifel hasn’t been shy in expressing its pessimism over HSF ever since the financial firm downgraded its view of the music company’s stock in early 2021 – via a report which led the Financial Times to surmise: “Stifel is worried that Hipgnosis Songs Fund is slipping out of tune.” Now, though, the narrative has changed a little. Stifel has today (January 19) issued a report in which it waves a not-insignificant amount of optimism in Hipgnosis Songs Fund’s direction.

Source: The investment bank that’s been most critical of Hipgnosis Songs Fund… just upgraded Hipgnosis Songs Fund to ‘positive’

Los Angeles-based music tech startup Orfium has acquired Soundmouse, a London-based media technology company that specializes in music cue sheet reporting and audio recognition services. Soundmouse is a music reporting platform used by broadcasters and other media companies, including British broadcaster the BBC. The company also works with collection societies.

Source: Music tech startup Orfium acquires music reporting and audio recognition company Soundmouse