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Disney said it will forgo a planned French theatrical release of “Strange World.” A statement from Disney reads: “‘Strange World’ will be available to all Disney+ subscribers in France, forgoing a French cinematic release. While we support French cinema – and have for decades – the new, cumbersome media chronology is anti-consumer, ignoring how behaviour has evolved over the last several years and putting us at increased risk for piracy.

Source: Disney Skips French Theatrical Release for ‘Strange World’ Due to Windowing Rules, Sparking Outcry By French Exhibitors

Believe-owned DIY music distributor TuneCore has overhauled its pricing structure for independent artists – in what it says is its “biggest change since opening for business 16 years ago.” TuneCore is – for the first time in history – enabling artists and labels to distribute an uncapped amount of music to services like Spotify and Apple Music each year for a single annual price.

Source: TuneCore overhauls pricing to offer unlimited music distribution for a single annual fee – laying down gauntlet to rivals like DistroKid

If you have a collection of a limited-edition or unopened VHS tapes, you could be in ownership of a small fortune. “Most VHS tapes aren’t worth that much money and will sell for only a few dollars,” Baruch Labunski, the CEO at Rank Secure, a Toronto-based digital analytics firm, told FOX Business. “Rarity and nostalgia are what makes some VHS tapes valuable,” Labunski continued.

Source: ‘Rarity and nostalgia’: Old VHS tapes could be worth a small fortune

The labels think they have found their savior. Artists will get famous on TikTok, and label execs can just sit back and watch the cash pour into their bank accounts. I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but it won’t turn out that way. In fact, labels will end up  like so many addicts, destroyed by the very thing they crave.

Source: Record Labels Dig Their Own Grave. And the Shovel is Called TikTok.

The recent protests by music artists about the pressures of keeping up a constant presence on social media are disconcerting in an age when many artists are struggling with mental health issues and wellbeing. In recent weeks, Halsey, Self Esteem and others have made public statements about their concerns over the prominent role that TikTok plays in getting their music to audiences.

Source: Burning out and fading away: the exhausting job of marketing new music

An Australian court found Alphabet Inc.’s Google liable for defamatory videos posted on its YouTube platform that targeted a senior politician, a reminder that social-media companies could be held responsible in some jurisdictions for what users put online.

Source: Google Is Liable for Defamatory Videos Targeting Lawmaker, Court Rules

OpenSea’s troubles are piling up just as demand for NFTs cools amid a crash in cryptocurrency prices. NFT sales have dropped about 90 percent since September, according to the industry data tracker NonFungible. OpenSea is also contending with competition from newer marketplaces built by established crypto companies like Coinbase.

Source: Thefts, Fraud and Lawsuits at the World’s Biggest NFT Marketplace

BandLab’s Series B round was revealed in April to have closed at $65 million, with a post-money valuation of $315 million, and comes at a buoyant time for the music creator sector. Today brings further evidence of this, as music production marketplace and distributor BeatStars reveals that it has paid out $200 million to date, to creators worldwide who license and sell beats and sounds via its platform.

Source: Music marketplace BeatStars has paid out $200m to creators to date

On the ‘In Focus’ site, artists can choose from 21 ‘focus’ areas across five career categories defined by Spotify, including “create, promote, connect, earn, and learn”. For each of these five categories, Spotify says that In Focus will “recommend the tools, resources, and educational materials to help them accomplish their goals and make the most out of every stage of their career”.

Source: Spotify launches music career advice platform it says is ‘like an artist manager in your pocket’

With Verizon set to launch its Plus Play bundle of digital subscriptions later this year, Barclay’s Group media analyst Kannan Venkateshwar believes the growing trend of bundling streaming services to attract new subscribers could serve as a gateway to the industry’s true direction: an aggregation model similar to what Google did with search, Netflix did with TV networks and Spotify did with recorded music only a few years ago.

Source: Bundles Are Nice, But Aggregation’s Where It’s at for Streamers, Analyst Says