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As consumers have less money to spend on discretionary items, Hollywood will surely have to adjust, especially given the recent direct-to-consumer building boom. There are indications that cord cutting could accelerate and consumers will ditch some streaming service subscriptions as they feel the pinch in their wallets.

Source: How Bad Would a Recession Be for Hollywood?

Despite maintaining its lead in the global music streaming market, Spotify says it will consider raising its prices in the US, following recent moves by Apple Music and YouTube. “When our competitors are increasing their prices, that’s really good for us because, again, with our deep engagement that we have and the lowest churn of any competitor, we will likely fare better,” Ek told analysts after Spotify released its third-quarter earnings report.

Source: Spotify mulls price hike in US following Apple, YouTube’s lead

According to an Oct. 12 report from Wall Street firm MoffettNathanson, streaming’s penetration in America has hit the saturation point for “nearly every individual service” with the exception of Peacock and Paramount+. If platforms are going to find new customers, they are going to have to come from outside the States.

Source: Global Streaming Is Still Growing, But Starting to Get Squeezed

Over the past month, Apple, the App Store’s gatekeeper, has rejected Spotify’s app three times, saying that its new audiobooks offering broke Apple’s rules governing how developers can communicate with customers about online purchases. The rejections are the latest skirmish in a long-running battle between Spotify and Apple.

Source: Spotify Wants to Get Into Audiobooks but Says Apple Is in the Way

Building on the success of his previous Bookouture, Oliver Rhodes is back with a new publishing startup titled Storm Publishing, which will launch next May.  In place of book advances, Storm will offer authors 50% of net royalties on audiobook and e-book sales paid quarterly—“double the industry standard,” said Rhodes. And for authors with significant digital sales, this model can “make a massive difference to their earnings,” he added.

Source: Bookouture Founder Launches New ‘Digital-First’ Publishing Startup

Easy Song has been making it easy for music professionals to obtain rights and permissions for years. Now the company has upgraded its Referral Program to help users generate a passive income stream. Easy Song now pays 15% of fees generated from all of its services instead of cover songs only. This includes Cover Song Licensing, Seal of Authenticity, Custom Licensing, Copyrighting, Publishing, Backing Tracks, and more.

Source: Easy Song Referral Program Pays 15% of Fees For All Services

In the US, starting from Monday (October 24), an individual Apple Music subscription will go up by $1, from the current $9.99 price point to $10.99 per month. In the UK, the Individual plan price is increasing to £10.99 per month. In a statement, Apple said that the change in its Apple Music pricing “is due to an increase in licensing costs” and that, “in turn, artists and songwriters will earn more for the streaming of their music.”

Source: Apple Music just raised its subscription price to $10.99 in the US. Will Spotify be next?

In the report, Galaxy Digital researchers found that NFT creators’ royalty rates on OpenSea—the top overall marketplace by trading volume—have doubled over the past year on average, jumping from a 3% cut of sales to 6%. The researchers also discovered a concentration of royalties among just 10 entities, data that suggests the NFT economy may be more centralized than some might have thought.

Source: NFT Creators Have Earned $1.8 Billion in Royalties to Date: Galaxy Digital – Decrypt

Disney collaborated with its Accelerator participant Obsess, an e-commerce platform known for creating interactive virtual storefronts, to release a new web3 experience for its Disney Music Emporium online store. The 3D 360 virtual experience lets fans discover soundtracks and songs from popular Disney films and TV shows by clicking on various vinyl records and CDs throughout the virtual space.

Source: Disney launches web3 experience to celebrate 100 years of Disney music

The live music business has been the victim of far too many cruel circumstances. A furious succession of body blows, each more forceful than the one before. But there are many other reasons why live music is broken, and these are down, directly or indirectly, to the live music business itself.

Source: Live music is falling apart.