Spotify added more users on both its free and paid tiers in the third quarter than expected, with the company citing strength in Latin America on the premium side of the business. In Q3 2022 (the three months to end of September), Spotify added another 7 million net Premium subscribers to its user base, taking its total global paying subs audience to 195 million.
Source: Spotify Reaches 456 Million Total Monthly Users in Q3, Topping Expectations
AI firm Stability AI, described as the “world’s first community-driven, open-source artificial intelligence company” just raised USD $101 million in funding. According to Bloomberg, the oversubscribed funding round values the London-based tech startup at $1 billion. In addition to its work in image, language and video, Stability AI backs AI research in audio (and music) via a “community-driven” organization called Harmonai.
Source: This AI firm just raised $101m at a reported $1bn valuation – and music is one of its areas of focus
San Francisco-based blockchain-powered music platform Audius has acquired Barcelona-based virtual music experience platform SoundStage.fm. The move marks Audius’ expansion into the virtual concert space. According to a press release announcing the acquisition, SoundStage.fm’s virtual concerts let fans “join via webcam and interact with both the audience and artist in a lifelike manner”.
Source: Web3 music streaming platform Audius buys virtual concerts platform SoundStage.fm
Book.io is putting e-books and audiobooks on the blockchain, where they can be traded as NFTs — a one-of-a-kind digital certificate of ownership. This will allow readers to own digital books and sell them if they choose to do so, the firm says, creating a secondary market “where publishers and authors earn royalties on every resale in perpetuity”.
Source: Bertelsmann’s BDMI becomes latest investor in e-book NFT firm
According to details emerging over the weekend, the London-based Hipgnosis Songs Fund has launched a debt-funded share buyback program after its stock valuation plummeted by 30% in the last six weeks. Per the Financial Times, the fund is backed by private equity giant Blackstone, which is financing the share buybacks using a fresh tranche of refinanced debt.
Source: Hipgnosis Songs Fund Repurchases Own Shares as Stock Plunges
After two straight quarters of subscriber losses, Netflix returned to growth in the third quarter of 2022 — and told investors it’s expecting a strong Q4 to finish the year, even though it doesn’t expect big gains right away from the launch of its cheaper, ad-supported plans. The streaming giant reported 2.41 million net new paid subscribers in Q3, including a gain of 100,000 in the U.S./Canada region, to stand at 223.1 million worldwide as of the end of September.
Reservoir has grown to represent over 140,000 copyrights and 36,000 master recordings and pulled off a major coup by agreeing a global administration deal with music icon Joni Mitchell last year. As time has gone on, the focus has stretched to labels (Chrysalis Records/Tommy Boy Records/Philly Groove Records) and management through ventures with Blue Raincoat Music and Big Life Management.
Source: Golnar Khosrowshahi: ‘Reservoir going public has created opportunities that I never imagined’
The streaming revolution was supposed to usher in a big, bright, beautiful future for media conglomerates. Instead, increased competition, rising interest rates, a looming recession and the mountain of debt that these corporations amassed to fuel a wave of consolidation has left everyone from Netflix to Warner Bros. Discovery scrambling to revise their pitch to shareholders.
Source: Why Wall Street Fell Out of Love With Netflix and Other Media Companies
Exceed enables investors to purchase interests in several musician-specific revenue categories (streaming and publishing royalties among them); interested individuals will receive any owed compensation quarterly, and the amount that each user can invest is limited by Exceed depending on his or her “net worth and annual income,” per the service.
Source: Artist-Investment Platform Exceed Raises $8MM, Hires President
During Tuesday’s market hours, Hipgnosis Songs Fund – the publicly traded operation that’s dropped billions on song rights in recent years – parted with 3.4 percent of its stock-price value to finish at an even 82 GBX (currently 93 cents). As mentioned, the figure represents an all-time low for Hipgnosis, shares in which have fallen by about 33 percent since mid-October of 2021.
Source: Hipgnosis Stock Dips to New Low, But Some Analysts Are Upbeat