Europe’s music listeners have become huge fans of domestic artists, with local acts dominating their respective countries’ Top 10 lists. However, the continent is falling behind other parts of the world, both in terms of exporting music and in terms of recorded music revenue growth. So says the inaugural Music in the EU report, released Tuesday (September 10) by global recorded music industry group IFPI.
Source: Local artists absolutely dominate EU charts, but Europe falling behind on music exports: IFPI
U.S. antitrust enforcers are intervening early to examine whether a handful of big tech companies such as Nvidia are using their leverage to establish dominance over the burgeoning artificial-intelligence market. The Justice Department’s antitrust division has already contacted Nvidia, whose AI chip market share is estimated at over 80%, to ask questions about the terms of its contracts and partnerships, according to people familiar with the matter.
Google and the Department of Justice are facing off again, this time in a trial about whether Google has a monopoly in advertising technology markets. The trial kicks off on September 9th in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. The DOJ argues that Google has unfairly locked up the market for ad tech tools that publishers and advertisers rely on to monetize their websites and market their goods.
Given the labels’ dominance of the negotiating hierarchy, song rights revenue can never top 20% of the finite streaming revenue pot. Subscriber rate hikes mean the pot gets bigger (which Spotify and the labels love), but the song share of the pot doesn’t change. Against that reality, direct licensing of mechanicals won’t fix anything. It runs contrary to all principles of copyright law.
Up until now,