At present, networks, studios and streamers can hold writers and talent under exclusive deals for anywhere from nine months to more than a year in some cases, per standard series agreement deals. That prevents them from booking other jobs in that time without a complicated process of approvals, hindering scribes’ ability to chase other job opportunities.
Source: How Exclusive Contracts Leave Writers and Actors Scrambling to Navigate Supercharged Job Market
What do you call a podcast that presents a single, fictional story in 90 minutes? It might feel like a movie but clearly isn’t one. It recalls midcentury radio drama but involves no radio. Whatever the new form’s ultimate name, the content has arrived. This fall, Cadence13 released its first two “podcast movies”: “Treat,” a Halloween teen horror story starring Kiernan Shipka, and “Ghostwriter,” a psychological thriller led by Kate Mara and Adam Scott.
Source: ‘Podcast Movies’? Feature-Length Fiction Stretches the Medium
A never-before-heard Whitney Houston recording has broken NFT(Non-Fungible Token) sales after it was auctioned for $999,999 on the Tezos blockchain. According to the New York Daily News, the song was reportedly “uncovered” last year, and the late singer allegedly recorded the track at age 17. The title of the song has not been disclosed and the winning bidder has not been identified.
It’s like the rerun from hell, as we’re once again seeing overwhelmed emergency rooms, widespread event and travel cancellations, and people desperately trying to get tested, vaccinated or boosted in time for the holidays. Dismaying as those realities are, it also should give Hollywood executives further pause in their halting segue to a post-pandemic release strategy.
Source: Spider-Man’s Massive Theater Debut, Omicron Explosion Complicate 2022 Streaming Calculations
No-shows, as such concert-goers are called, have increased in significant numbers since the U.S. live-music business restarted this summer, music executives say. For some performances, as many as 20% or more of ticket-buyers were no-shows for major artists like George Strait, the Eagles and Dead & Company, according to industry insiders.
Source: Major Music Acts Are Seeing 20% No-Show Rates at Concerts
Over nearly two years, as Covid-19 has kept people away from movie theaters and in front of their TVs, the economics of Hollywood have been transformed. Digital streaming apps have displaced the box office, and that in turn is changing how everyone in the business gets paid — even stars in the wealthiest reaches of show business.
Amid a growing gulf between haves (anything Marvel) and have-nots (‘West Side Story’), distribution chiefs are making difficult calls on which titles to send to streaming as early as 45 days after a theatrical run begins. “There is no cookie-cutter approach anymore,” opines one studio exec. “I personally believe in the theatrical window, and there are movies that should be day-and-date. Windowing is getting very tricky.”
Source: Studios Eye 2022 Theatrical Slates: “Windowing Is Getting Very Tricky”
The centuries-old art auction house Sotheby’s reported that it earned $100 million from non-fungible token (NFT) sales this year. The auction house held its first NFT sale from the digital artist Pak between April 12-14, which brought in $16.8 million from 3,000 buyers. Since then, Sotheby’s sold an NFT of the original World Wide Web source code for $5.3 million, and a rare CryptoPunk worth $11.8 million.
Source: Sotheby’s netted $100 million from NFT sales in 2021: report
Midem parent company RX France has confirmed that it has axed the event, in an email sent out to former delegates today (December 15). In today’s email, signed off by Midem Director Alexandre Deniot, Midem’s organizers note that “due to the lasting pandemic and following a review of its activity, RX France has decided to no longer organize the Midem events”.
Approximately 430 songs surpassed 1 billion video views as TikTok ‘sounds’ in 2021, which was three times more than in 2020, when over 175 songs reached the billion view mark. That’s according to the ByteDance-owned short-form video platform’s new ‘Year on TikTok 2021 Music Report’, which also reveals the top songs, genres, and artists on the platform over the year.
Source: 430 songs surpassed 1bn video views on TikTok in 2021 – 3 times more than in 2020