Six of the top 50 news websites in the UK are asking people to “consent or pay” if they don’t want to hand over their data for advertising. The “consent or pay” model arrived in the UK this summer after first being introduced by European news titles including Bild and Der Spiegel in Germany. Among UK publishers The Times has put the highest price on opting out of sharing data, at £6.99 per month, ahead of News UK stablemate The Sun’s “Pay to Reject” offering on £4.99.
Source: ‘Consent or pay’: Why UK news websites are getting tough with readers over data
San Francisco-based blockchain-powered music platform Audius, which says it has 6 million monthly users, has signed a global licensing deal with music publisher Kobalt. The deal gives Kobalt-signed songwriters access to Audius’ decentralized marketplace, providing them with a potential new revenue stream, the companies said in a statement on Tuesday. Audius’ blockchain-powered marketplace offers music fans a way to engage with their favorite artists and support them via US dollar payments and its own crypto token, $AUDIO.
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.