News publishers analyzed by Press Gazette have sold more than $11m (£8.4m) worth of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) since March 2021. One publisher accounts for the overwhelming majority of that figure. The chief executive at another is leaving his well-known publication to spin off its newborn NFT initiative.
Source: How news publishers made $11m selling NFTs – Press Gazette
Because photographs are immensely reproducible and easily forged with a simple copy/paste function, authenticity and provenance remain an issue. The maturing of blockchain and other Web3 technologies is enabling solutions to these challenges—tracking the creation of the work, and its movement on the primary and secondary markets, and hence preserving and growing its value.
Source: What’s Fueling the Rise of NFT Photography Collecting – Decrypt
The dissonance between the government’s apprehension and managers’ enthusiasm has been nearly constant during the brief and tumultuous life of this Spotify program. Discovery Mode was immediately tagged as modern payola — by both its detractors and its supporters.
Source: Politicians Hate Spotify’s Discovery Mode. Managers Love It — For Now
The gripes many artists have with streaming and the fact that they get fractions of a penny per stream will remain unanswered. Changing to user-centric payments or higher subscription fees will not change this in a significant way. One option could be metered streaming, but in an internet of abundance, that’s too complex an offering for most consumers.
The News Media Alliance will absorb the MPA – The Association of Magazine Media under a merger agreement awaiting NMA member approval. The partnership will put together the historically distinct cultures of two arms of the legacy print industry with a particular emphasis on shared lobbying goals, including postal regulations and dealing with the big platform companies.
Source: Top American newspaper and magazine trade associations have tentatively agreed to merge – Poynter
Variety Intelligence Platform partnered with consumer insights firm GetWizer to assess the general appetite for NFTs. When asking those who don’t currently own an NFT if they’d be interested in owning one, the majority of those under 60 do want to, a stark contrast to the 75% of those over 60 who answered that they were not interested.
Warner Bros. Discovery is expected to compete with Disney, Comcast and others to expand its global portfolio of major sports rights. Warner Bros. Discovery, the newly combined company, will be home not only to Turner Sports in the U.S., but also Eurosport, a French TV network that holds European rights to broadcast the Olympics and is available in 54 countries.
Source: Warner Bros. Discovery Aims to Become Aggressive ‘Global Operator’ in Wide World of Sports
The average amount of time viewers spend streaming video per week rose to 169.4 billion in Feb 2022, up from m143.2 the same time last year. Most consumers are spending between $15 and $49 per month on streaming service subscriptions, and 93% plan to increase their streaming options or make no change to their current plans.
Source: Nielsen: Consumers Stream a Collective 169B Minutes Per Week, Up 18% Since 2021 | Cord Cutters News
Three members of Congress have written to Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek, criticizing him over the company’s policy of promoting an artist’s music on its Discovery Mode platform in exchange for a reduced royalty rate. Among other notes, the letter requests that Spotify label such songs as paid content;
Source: Members of Congress Slam Daniel Ek and Spotify Over ‘Troubling’ Discovery Mode Policy (EXCLUSIVE)
Researchers from data and analytics group WordsRated looked at nearly 17,500 libraries over the last three decades and found that these institutions aren’t dying in the digital age — they may actually be thriving. Although visits to U.S. libraries have dropped by 21 percent since 2009, there are actually more people borrowing books than ever before.