Marketplace

When the market surged to new heights late last summer, project Art Blocks saw one of the steepest ascents. The generative artwork project jumped from $11 million in secondary market trading volume in June to $63 million in July—and then $587 million in August. Rapidly, Art Blocks went from a crypto-native curio—blockchain-generated artwork—into a blue chip collection that many investors sought to profit from.

Source: How Art Blocks Is Building for the Future After the Ethereum NFT Boom – Decrypt

A competition legal expert, backed by a powerful litigation fund, is set to mount a multibillion-dollar class action suit against Facebook/Meta for breach of competition law on the basis that it abused its dominance of social networking in the U.K. for several years. If successful, the action would see Facebook having to pay $3.1 billion (£2.3 billion) in damages to Facebook U.K. users.

Source: UK class action lodged against Meta seeks $3.1B for breach of competition law

Video in 2022 is going to be shaped by several key trends. On the service side, consolidating the content appeal of subscription video on demand (SVOD) and advertising video on demand (AVOD) through effectively replicating traditional broadcast and linear TV offerings will be key. MIDiA defines these basic strategic content pillars, which are essential for providing a mainstream streaming TV consumer proposition, as G.O.L.F. (Genres, Originals, Library, and Formats).

Source: Reaggregation versus siloing in 2022

In the latest bit of regulatory woe for Big Tech in Europe, Google is trying to settle a German antitrust investigation into its news licensing product by offering not to expand the display of News Showcase “story panels” into general search results. The German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) announced today that the company has proposed several measures in response to its antitrust concerns.

Source: Google offers not to put News Showcase into search results in Germany as antitrust probe rolls on

The Stockholm-based company is launching a blockchain-based marketplace for music rights in the first half of 2022 to democratize music ownership. Numerous creators are backing the company, including Steve Angello, a Greek-Swedish DJ, music producer, and label owner. He is also a member of the Swedish House Mafia. Advisors to the project include legendary Canadian-American music producer Doc McKinney.

Source: Swedish House Mafia’s Steve Angello backs new blockchain-based music rights marketplace anotherblock | Silicon Canals

The Associated Press has announced that it’s starting a marketplace to sell NFTs of its photojournalists’ work in collaboration with a company called Xooa. It’s billing its foray into NFTs as a way for collectors to “purchase the news agency’s award-winning contemporary and historic photojournalism” and says that the virtual tokens will be released at “broad and inclusive price points.”

Source: The Associated Press is starting its own NFT marketplace for photojournalism

Dead and Company canceled its upcoming Playing in the Sand festival in Cancun. John Mayer pulled out of the event’s first weekend due to testing positive for COVID-19. The 2022 Grammy Awards are postponed indefinitely due to COVID-19 concerns in Los Angeles. “After careful consideration and analysis with city and state officials, health and safety experts, the artist community, and our many partners, we have postponed the 64th Grammys,” the Recording Academy statement reads.

Source: COVID Cancellations for 2022 Are Piling Up – The List So Far

Due to COVID-19 concerns, the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE) has canceled its annual conference in Miami, which was set to take place from Jan. 18 to Jan. 20. The organization announced it would not be proceeding with the in-person conference on Saturday. Dates and locations for the next conference and marketplace event are currently under consideration.

Source: NATPE Miami Cancels In-Person Conference Due to COVID-19 Concerns

The European Parliament (EP) is expected to pick up where it left off last year on the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act, the EP announced Monday, (Jan. 3). In addition, Parliament has called for a comprehensive legal framework for artificial intelligence technologies and cryptocurrencies. The goal is to boost the European economy, while protecting the fundamental rights of consumers and investors.

Source: European Parliament Agenda Includes Platforms

According to MBW’s calculations using MRC Data’s numbers, ‘catalog’ records accounted for a stunning 82.1% of total recorded music consumption in the US in the second half of 2021. You know what that must mean: ‘current’ records made up just 17.9% of US music consumption in the last six months of 2021… or less than a fifth of the market.

Source: Over 82% of the US music market is now claimed by catalog records, rather than new releases