Rights

DIY distribution platform TuneCore and its Paris-based parent company Believe have partnered with YouTube to provide music for its TikTok rival, Shorts. YouTube expanded the beta of the Shorts platform into the US in March, following an initial early  launch in September in India (where TikTok is banned).

Source: TuneCore and Believe partner with YouTube to provide music for TikTok rival Shorts

Hollywood has been left reeling after a year of paused theatrical releases and production, an influx in streaming options, and expanding distribution models. These disruptions have prompted concern over how literary intellectual property will be optioned in the future. Though books will never go out of style, it’s worth considering how literary adaptations will find new growth in the years to come.

Source: U.S. Book Show: Is Literary IP as Valuable in a Post-Pandemic Hollywood?

A group of songwriter organizations have urged the Copyright Royalty Board to ensure they have the chance to publicly comment on a mechanical royalty rate settlement for CDs, vinyl, downloads and ringtones that was agreed upon by the three majors, the National Music Publishers’ Assn., and the Nashville Songwriters Assn. International.

Source: Songwriter Groups Want Their Voices Heard on CRB Royalty Rate ASAP

The German Parliament has adopted new legislation that will implement the EU Copyright Directive into local law. This includes the controversial Article 17 that, according to some, would lead to overbroad upload filters. To deal with these concerns, the German law prevents ‘minor’ and limited use of copyrighted content from being blocked automatically.

Source: German ‘Upload Filter’ Law Sets Standards to Prevent Overblocking * TorrentFreak

Already a fast-growing sector pre-pandemic, the virtual health and fitness business has soared during quarantine, with Wellness app installs reaching 1.2 billion in 2020 alone. The growth of this space has also created a significant opportunity for music rightsholders, with music’s role in the remote fitness business becoming so central that instructors are now being compared with the likes of “influencers and DJs”.

Source: How Tuned Global is helping fitness brands integrate licensed music into their virtual classes

The deal represents a major step forward for the digital library market. Not only is Amazon Publishing finally making its digital content available to libraries, the deal also gives libraries a range of models through which it can license the content, offering libraries the kind of flexibility librarians have long asked for from the major publishers.

Source: Amazon Publishing, DPLA Ink Deal to Lend E-books in Libraries

Axel Springer and Facebook said on Monday that they had agreed on a global cooperation deal under which content from the German publisher will be featured on the social network and its Facebook News product. The agreement reels in the last big holdout in Germany after Facebook signed up a string of publishers in March to provide content for its local news product.

Source: Facebook, German publisher Axel Springer strike global cooperation deal

Physical video game soundtracks have existed since the ’80s, but music streaming is kicking of fresh demand. Digital service providers (DSP) like Spotify and Apple Music have some game soundtracks, but it’s barely a fraction of the game music that exists. That’s because game developers don’t handle metadata well, which is integral for music distribution on DSPs.

Source: Video Game Music Streaming Is Still the Wild-West, Say Composers

New research published by the European Union Intellectual Property Office shows that social media networks are regularly used by pirates. An analysis of millions of conversations estimates that 35% of all digital content discussions “could be possibly related to piracy.” Interestingly, not all content niches prefer the same social media platforms.

Source: EU Study: Movie Pirates Chat on Reddit and Music Pirates Prefer Twitter * TorrentFreak