Marketplace

Speaking on a writers strike panel at the Banff World Media Festival on Monday, writer Kara Brown said: “There are other things that are more fundamental today in impacting a writer’s ability to do their job. And AI feels like something that people outside the industry can understand, and people are talking about, but to me at least, I don’t think it’s close to our biggest issue.”

Source: AI Debate Is ‘Not Our Biggest Issue — I Would Like Residuals’: Writers Strike Takes Spotlight at BANFF

International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) has published its latest annual report, which provides an overview of its work with its 227 member CMOs across the world. Elsewhere in the report, CISAC details its progress with its tracking system for musical works. CISAC upgraded the ISWC system in 2020 and said it would improve the speed, accuracy and efficiency of its member organizations’ work in tracking creators’ works and ensuring royalties are properly paid.

Source: CISAC reports ‘sharp’ rise in collections in Greece and global music identifier system progress in annual report

Amid a rise in generative AI tools and a growing digital music distribution landscape, more recorded audio is being made and released than at any point in human history. This vast supply of content, some of which is literally just white noise, competes for a share of listening time with music released by artists signed, discovered, and developed by the record business establishment.

Source: There are now 120,000 new tracks hitting music streaming services each day

Warner Music Group‘s Chief Financial Officer Eric Levin says the proof is in that streaming music services can hike prices without harming growth – and he’d like to see DSPs move to recurring price hikes. During a Q&A session at JPMorgan’s Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference on Monday (May 22), Levin said the market “has proven it can bear rate increases,” and WMG is encouraging its streaming partners “to look very, very, very, very seriously” at raising rates.

Source: Warner CFO Eric Levin: music streaming business is ready for recurring price increases

Sony Music Group chairman Rob Stringer said on Tuesday (May 23) that the company is focused on the fight against low-quality content — which he called ”the lowest common denominator” — flooding top streaming platforms. “We have to look after the premium quality artists at the top of our business,” Stringer said during a company-wide presentation to investors. “We think that’s what draws people to [digital service providers].”

Source: Sony Music Chairman Urges Streamers to Regulate ‘Poor Quality Content,’ Strikes Positive Note on AI

2021 was the publishing industry’s best year since 2004, according to data from US print-book-sales tracker Circana BookScan (formerly NPD BookScan), which began tracking sales that year. Sales have since dipped slightly, but are still up compared to 2019. Last year, authors associated with #BookTook sold 60% more copies than the year before, Circana said.

Source: How the BookTok trend has influenced nearly every aspect of publishing, from signing a book deal to pushing authors to act like marketers: ‘It changed my entire life, it changed my career’

Has the war between streaming and theatrical reached détente? After years defined by no quarter battling over releases, exclusive windows and global rights for the most in-demand independent films — battles fought most fiercely in Cannes — theatrical distributors and online platforms have put down their arms and started to work together.

Source: Cannes: Streamers and Theatrical – Better Together?

TikTok’s Commercial Music Library has unveiled its Artist Impact Program, bringing even more music from global artists onto the platform and providing more significant opportunities for artists and brands to work together. The program enables artists to monetize their music on TikTok by allowing businesses to use it in their content, further their opportunities to be discovered and re-discovered in markets worldwide.

Source: TikTok Officially Announces the ‘Artist Impact Program’

At a time when publishers are moving past seeing social media platforms as traffic drivers, and even a major publication like BuzzFeed News shut down because of a sharp decrease in Facebook referral traffic, LinkedIn is giving publishers a reason to smile. According to AOP’s latest survey, Digital Publishing: Outlook and Priorities for 2023, LinkedIn is currently the leading choice for publishers to drive content discovery.

Source: How LinkedIn is increasingly driving content discovery for publishers

More is not always more: even before AI, issues of time available to audiences, cut-through possible for creators, and revenue gains for commissioners have been exacerbated by the sheer amount of content available and the number of places to access it. These challenges remain, and they are not going away anytime soon.

Source: The new need for scarcity, and why the next big leap in entertainment has not happened yet