China’s Tencent Music Entertainment Group says it has signed a deal to distribute its artists worldwide through Apple Music, though details are sparse. Apple Music’s reported 90 million track catalog may be about to expand greatly with the addition more Chinese music. As of November 2021, artists who are with a specific Tencent Music Entertainment Group’s TME Music Cloud will be able to distribute their music via Apple’s service.
Source: Apple Music adding ‘hundreds of thousands of Chinese musicians in new deal
When it comes to legal enemies, Netflix has made more than a few. The mega-streamer is facing more defamation complaints than any major news outlet, stemming from projects like ‘Making a Murderer’ and ‘When They See Us’ — but is it a distributor, a publisher or something else entirely?
The EU legislation, which must be adopted by all member states, requires platforms such as Google, Facebook and others to share revenue with publishers but it also removes the collective fee and allows them to reach individual or group agreements with publishers. Google said it wanted to bring its news services back to Spain but would closely analyze the law before making any firm commitment.
During the Covid crisis, many authors and performers adapted to new digital distribution formats. While this allowed them to reach audiences, it also exposed them to unfair practices by dominant streaming platforms. Imposed “buy-out clauses” deprive authors of royalties by purchasing full copyright from them in exchange for a one-off payment.
After more than a decade of operations, France’s Hadopi agency will now complete its merger with the Higher Audiovisual Council to create a new and powerful regulator. Following the French parliament’s adoption of a new law last month, the Arcom body will launch in January 2022, tackling everything from illegal streaming and site blocking to the disruption of unlicensed sports broadcasts.
The DMCA has created a landscape that not only makes it exceedingly difficult for anyone in music to track and monitor their copyrights, but also all the legal, licensed music you see on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook — artist advocates and industry figures claim these companies have been able to leverage their copyright liability protections to set outrageously low payouts to the rights holders of all that music.
Universal Music Group has become the first corporate Sponsor of WIPO for Creators, an initiative that aims to ensure that creators around the world are recognized and fairly rewarded for their work. The initiative aims to achieve this by increasing knowledge and awareness of creators’ intellectual property (IP) rights.