Marketplace

This week, Audiomack rolled out its new ‘Premiere Access‘ feature, which enables artists to reward their biggest fans with early access to not-yet-officially-released music. Those artists can trigger ‘Premiere Access’ on their unreleased track/album by selecting the feature when they upload their work to Audiomack, while also choosing the duration of the pre-release access window they’d like to grant their biggest fans.

Source: Fans can now pay to access their favorite artist’s music before it’s officially released on Audiomack

According to data from Luminate’s Podcast 360 report YouTube is the most-used platform for podcasts, with 78 percent of US podcast listeners 13 and older saying they have used the streamer for their shows. That puts it ahead of heavyweights like Spotify and Apple Podcasts. The findings reflect the same trend reported by Cumulus in May, which reported YouTube snagging the number one spot from Spotify.

Source: YouTube is the most-used podcasting platform

YouTube Podcasts have officially launched with a dedicated YouTube landing page that features popular programs, playlists, and genres. The video-sharing platform’s latest podcasting push just recently came to light in a report from 9to5Google, which pointed to a dedicated landing page for the project.

Source: YouTube Podcasts Project Launches With Dedicated Landing Page

The resumption of live performance after the long pandemic shutdown brought plenty to cheer about over the past year. But far fewer people are showing up to join those cheers than presenters had hoped. Around New York, and across the country, audiences remain well below pre-pandemic levels. From regional theaters to Broadway, and from local orchestras to grand opera houses, performing arts organizations are reporting persistent — and worrisome — drops in attendance.

Source: Live Performance Is Back. But Audiences Have Been Slow to Return.

More than 350,000 households ditched subscriptions to the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ last quarter, according to regulator Ofcom’s annual Media Nations UK report, which showed a record year for British high-end TV production. While still high at 19.2M, the proportion of UK households subscribing to an SVoD fell by 1pp to 67% across the quarter.

Source: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Subscriptions Fell By 350,000 Last Quarter In UK After Record Year For High-End TV Production – Ofcom Report

The largest NFT marketplaces—including OpenSea, Magic Eden, and LooksRare—honor the royalty amounts set by creators. But some rival upstarts are gaining traction by appealing to NFT collectors that want to flip JPEGs with the lowest possible fees, regardless of the creator’s intent or the social stigma around evading royalties. It’s only a debate because royalties aren’t currently enforceable on-chain with current, widely-used NFT standards.

Source: Why NFT Creators and Collectors Can’t Stop Talking About Artist Royalties – Decrypt

Even with the rise of premium subscription video and audio services, content with ads still holds nearly 60% share of the total time U.S. audiences spend consuming entertainment, according to a new study. Looking at total entertainment time, U.S. consumers spend 74% on visual entertainment (i.e., movies, TV shows and video games) and 26% on audio options. Americans spend 88% of their entertainment dollars on visual content, versus 12% on audio.

Source: Almost 60% of Americans’ Entertainment Time Is on Ad-Supported Platforms, Luminate Report Finds

It’s guaranteed that music subscription prices will rise – something more significant than the small increases seen recently – eventually. But when? Many analysts believe the SVOD market has run out of subscriber growth and expect companies to expand revenues through price increases. Music has a different timeline, however. Subscription companies could wait to raise prices until they get higher penetration rates in both developed and emerging markets.

Source: The Ledger: When Should Subscription Services Raise Prices?

YouTube is planning to launch an online store for streaming video services and has renewed talks with entertainment companies about participating in the platform, according to people close to the recent discussions. The company hopes the new platform, which it is referring to internally as a “channel store” and which has been in the works for at least 18 months, could be available as early as this fall, some of the people said.

Source: WSJ News Exclusive | YouTube Advances Plans for Streaming Video Marketplace

Currently seven of the fifteen books on the New York Times bestseller list owe their audience to TikTok; four of these are by author Colleen Hoover, a hitherto little known TikTok phenomenon. Observers have celebrated that this surge of spontaneous book promoting gives voice to the average reader, resuscitates the “backlist” of previously published books, compensates to some extent for the disappearance of book criticism, and appears to foster new readers.

Source: TikTok Has Changed Everything, Especially Book Publishing