A group of roughly 30,000 session musicians have won tentative approval of an $8 million settlement to resolve a class action that accused the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) and SAG-AFTRA of charging an improper “service fee” on streaming royalty payments.
Source: Session Musicians Win Greenlight for $8M Royalty Fee Settlement With AFM, SAG-AFTRA
Soaring U.S. streaming consumer subscription revenue is up 19% to $18.5 billion through the first nine months of 2021 versus a year ago, according to Digital Entertainment Group. Streaming revenues is the only home entertainment consumer spending category to show gains this year, as physical and digital sales and rentals of movie and TV content — including video-on-demand — have declined.
Source: Television News Daily: Home Entertainment Rise: Streamers Record 19% Uptick In Subscription Revenue
The bill, which passed Congress with a final vote of 228–206, signals a historic moment for crypto in the United States. In drafting the legislation, senators inserted a provision that changes the Internal Revenue Service’s definition of a “broker” to include organizations that trade crypto assets. Brokers will have to file 1099 forms disclosing the names and addresses of their customers.
The Department of Justice’s attempt to halt Penguin Random House’s acquisition of Simon & Schuster finds support within an industry already burned by bad trends. “Obviously every agent is thrilled that the wheels might be grinding to a halt on this,” one insider says.
The concern for publishers should be that at some point Amazon will simply shift all its markets to the unlimited subscription model, because at the end of the day Amazon makes its money by pleasing the consumer, not the supplier.
Afterparty, a platform aiming to give digital content creators the ability to mint and sell their own NFTs, then offer “token gated” virtual events for The Los Angeles-based company launched in beta in August 2021, and is the brainchild of former Disney exec David Fields.
Source: Afterparty Raises $3 Million To Build NFT Minting, Virtual Events For Content Creators – Tubefilter
Source: News Corp Profit Surges on Gains in Real Estate, Book Publishing, News Media
Through the offering of Security NFTs (S-NFTs), a term coined by Republic to describe a non-fungible digital asset, offered and sold as a “security” (as defined by the Securities Act of 1933 and the Exchange Act of 1934), users are able to invest directly in artists’ music “for as little as $100” via Republic’s platform.
Source: Lil Pump royalty shares sell out in two hours via Opulous partnership, raising $500,000
Paramount Pictures Nov. 4 disclosed third quarter (ended Sept. 30) licensing and home entertainment revenue from movies of $513 million, which was down about 12% from revenue of $584 million in the previous-year period. When including television production, the “licensing and other” segment totaled more than $1.5 billion — up nearly 18% from revenue of $1.28 billion last year.
Source: Paramount Licensing, Home Entertainment Dwarfs Theatrical
Sony is in negotiations to purchase Bruce Springsteen’s recorded-music catalog, three decades after he won it back from the major label. While it is unknown what the asking price is for Sony to acquire complete ownership of his masters — which could mean no longer paying royalties to Springsteen depending on how the deal is structured — Billboard estimates that the albums carry a valuation of between $145 million and $190 million.
Source: Bruce Springsteen In Talks to Sell Recorded Music Catalog to Sony Music