The company’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) efforts certainly look like a success, particularly in light of the fact that Disney+ launched only two and a half years ago. Before celebrating, though, you should know that Walt Disney’s streaming business is still losing money. And worse, its operating losses are growing rather than shrinking as its DTC revenue grows.
Source: Walt Disney Has a Problem: Disney+ Is Costing It a Fortune
Medallion claims to be building technology that “helps artists create owned and operated digital worlds in web3 to expand fan participation, actionable insights, and economic potential.” Led by The Chernin Group, Medallion’s seed round attracted participation from additional investors from across the worlds of tech, crypto, and music.
Source: Web3 startup Medallion, led by former Songkick CEO Matt Jones, raises over $9m in seed funding round
The company’s results for 2021 mark its second highest annual revenue total, after collecting £271.8 million in 2019. PPL reports that it saw year-on-year growth across all three revenue streams in 2021, including International, Broadcast and online, and Public performance and dubbing, with International and Broadcast, and online licensing revenues reaching record annual amounts.
Source: UK music licensing company PPL reports revenues of $347.7m for 2021, up 12% YoY
According to the FT, citing people familiar with the talks between the band and the companies, the price of the deal, if agreed, has the potential to exceed what Sony Music paid for Bruce Springsteen’s recorded music and publishing catalogs in music’s first $500-plus million artist catalog deal.
Disney is beginning to take a closer look at content spend. Disney is not alone here (Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery executives have also indicated that they will be keeping a close watch on content budgets), but the company’s quarterly report gives some indication that the Mouse House is already making tweaks.
Source: Disney Trims $1B In Content Spend Amid Drive for Streaming Profits
Pond5’s customers include the likes of Netflix, Disney, NBC, BBC, Discovery Channel and The Wall Street Journal and its collection includes 30 million licensable video clips. The company also runs a royalty-free stock music service, with a library of 1.6 million music tracks and 1.7 million sound effects assets, which Shutterstock now owns, following a $210 million cash deal to acquire Pond5.
Warner Music Group posted a modest 10% revenue boost in Q1 ’22 due in part to a slowdown in digital, which saw its share decline from Q1 ’21. WMG’s digital income grew by just eight percent on the quarter, to $931 million, and accounted for 67.7 percent of total revenue – down from 68.8 percent in Q1 2021.
Source: Warner Music Group Posts 10% Income Jump, Digital-Share Dip In Q1 ’22
Spotify‘s share price on the New York Stock Exchange closed down 9.78% today (May 9), hitting an all-time low at USD $94.44. That share price was down by 61.3% versus the price that Spotify closed on the first trading day of 2022 ($244.16), and was close to a quarter of the size that Spotify hit at its peak ($364.59) in February last year.
Spotify boss Daniel Ek says that he is buying $50 million of shares in the music streaming company that he founded. The announcement came at a time when tech companies are falling out of favor with Wall Street. Ek has sought to distance Spotify from comparisons with video streamer Netflix, which recently revealed that subscriber growth had plateaued.
Source: Daniel Ek to Buy $50 Million of Spotify Shares, Predicts Streaming Growth Ahead
UMG says it expects a continuation of the boom in music streaming, led by its strength across artists, geographical regions, and formats. “Top sellers for the quarter included releases from Disney’s ‘Encanto’ soundtrack, King & Prince, The Weeknd, Fujii Kaze and Ado,” UMG says in its press release. The result bucks industry anxiety over a pending plateau in music streaming, particularly in cash-rich nations like the US.
Source: Universal Music Group Earnings Jump 22% Year Over Year