Red Hot Chili Peppers and Kid Creole and the Coconuts have become the latest artists to cash in on their catalogue of hits, selling the rights to songs including Californication and Annie I’m Not Your Daddy to London-listed music royalties investment firms. The Chili Peppers are poised to sell their publishing rights to London-listed music investment firm Hipgnosis, reportedly for more than $140m (£101m).
Source: Red Hot Chili Peppers sell rights to catalogue of hits to Hipgnosis
SAMR’s investigation partly focuses on Tencent Music Entertainment Group which was spun off and listed in the United States in late 2018, two of the people and an additional two sources close to the business said. The regulator has informed Tencent that it should expect a fine, give up exclusive music rights, and may even be forced to sell the acquired Kuwo and Kugou music apps, said the people.
Source: EXCLUSIVE China readies Tencent penalty in antitrust crackdown- sources
BMG says that it is speeding up payments to more than 20,000 US and UK songwriters on old contracts. The company says the move is “part of [our] program to ensure established clients are not left behind by changes in the industry”. It will see songwriters paid within 60 days of the close of a royalty period rather than the 90 days specified in their contracts.
Source: BMG is speeding up payments for over 20,000 songwriters (which is also good news for KKR)
Mega-platforms like Spotify and Amazon Music tend to dominate music industry headlines. But Tuned Global is quietly helping the fitness industry deliver customized streaming music experiences for classes — while avoiding the potential pitfalls of today’s complex licensing landscape.
Source: Tuned Global Is Helping the $26B Fitness App Industry Figure Out Music
Half a dozen professional writers’ organizations have joined with the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in forming a joint task to press the Walt Disney Company to ensure it pays all royalties owed to authors. The task force, #DisneyMust Pay, contends that Disney is putting the onus on authors to prove they are owed money, rather than working with authors and author groups to proactively pay authors royalties that are due.
The old internet of free sharing is dying even if a whole slue of passionate and vocal old-timers – ironically aligned with multi-billion dollar companies – claim it shouldn’t. And for a good reason. Free content is not sustainable. A business should not expect to have access to free raw material and labor forever. It’s call slavery. Without compensation, creators are forced to find other sources of income to live.
Source: The licensable web – Kaptur
Sega, the video game giant behind Sonic the Hedgehog, is making a move into the NFT industry. According to a Twitter post by Sega, the Tokyo-based developer is partnering with blockchain startup double jump.tokyo to create NFTs based around Sega’s IP.
Source: Sonic the Hedgehog Creator Sega Is Launching its Own NFTs – Decrypt
WarnerMedia gained rights to show live NHL games on its two big cable networks, TBS and TNT, as well as its new streaming hub, HBO Max, in a seven-year pact valued at least at $200 million that expands the company’s sports-rights portfolio for the first time in years.
Source: NHL, WarnerMedia Strike 7-Year Deal That Puts Live Games on HBO Max
The team behind the app sees a future where artists use the platform as an autosave for their intellectual property during the creative process, enabling them to scribble down notes or upload a quick demo and save those moments on the blockchain, a step that they hope can eliminate or expedite rights disputes for creators that can point to a clearly time-stamped breadcrumbs trail.
Source: Blockchain startup S!NG wants creators to lean on NFTs to protect their intellectual property
Denouncing ‘systemic exploitation of creators’ and publishers,’ Access Copyright cites more than C$150 million lost in unpaid royalties. “Since the changes made to the Copyright Act in 2012– including adding education as an allowable purpose under the ‘fair-dealing’ exception, Canadian authors, visual artists, and publishers haven’t been compensated for the copying of their works by educational institutions,” the statement reads.
Source: World Book Day: Publishers Call for Canada’s Copyright Law To Be Fixed