For years, Twitch has been the Wild West for streaming music, but in recent months it has attracted attention from record labels as its viewership has jumped during the pandemic. In July, Twitch had 1.4 billion hours watched, up 67% compared to the same period last year, with 17.6 million watched in the music category, according to StreamElements, a publisher of industry reports.
Source: Music is big on Twitch. Now record labels want it to pay up
A number of different tiers will be available, starting with a basic combo of Apple Music and Apple TV+, while more expensive bundles will add Apple Arcade, then Apple News+ at the next tier, then extra iCloud storage for the tier above that. Higher-end bundles will also reportedly include an as-yet unseen fitness subscription service from Apple. This will offer virtual classes and workouts accessible via an iOS app and on Apple TV, similar to services from Nike and Peloton.
Source: Apple reportedly launching subscription bundles with new iPhones this October
The Australian government has announced it will make reforms to the nation’s copyright laws in a bid to better support the needs of Australians in an increasingly digital environment. The decision comes after two years of industry consultation and is the government’s response to copyright recommendations made by the Productivity Commission four years ago.
Source: Australia to reform copyright laws in face of digital and COVID-19 world | ZDNet
Music is a major American export – you hear American music everywhere you go, in cabs and bars and restaurants around the world. And yet, because of technicalities and loopholes, many other countries refuse to grant American recordings and artists the same protection they provide their own citizens.
Williams, whose track record has made him one of the most in-demand collaborators of the past two decades, had painstakingly negotiated with Sony’s recorded and publishing arms for control of his intellectual property. It was an acknowledgment of equity that questioned the very makeup of an industry built on a shameful history of exploitation: namely, on the backs of Black talent from whom all modern genres derive.
Source: The Big Payback: How Pharrell Williams Is Breaking the Chains of the Music Industry’s Troubled Past
Fast-growing social video app Triller has signed a new contract with business-to-business digital music and radio services platform 7digital, marking the latest in a string of announcements from Triller as it seeks to overtake rival TikTok in the U.S.
Source: Triller Signs Contract With 7digital, Adding 80 Million-Song Catalog For Users to Soundtrack Clips
The US Court of Appeals decision ticks off the Copyright Royalty Board’s three judges for failing “to give adequate notice or to sufficiently explain critical aspects of its decision making.” Specifically, it says the CRB “failed to provide adequate notice of the rate structure it adopted, failed to explain its rejection of a past settlement agreement as a benchmark for rates going forward, and never identified the source of its asserted authority to substantively redefine a material term”.
Google may have been caught “redhanded,” but a federal judge rules that Genius hasn’t alleged any viable claims not preempted by copyright law. “Plaintiff’s claim is preempted by the Copyright Act because, at its core, it is a claim that Defendants created an unauthorized reproduction of Plaintiff’s derivative work, which is itself conduct that violates an exclusive right of the copyright owner under federal copyright law.”
Jukin Media, which licenses user-generated viral videos, is opening its trove of more than 65,000 clips to the public at large. Today, the company is officially launching a self-service program tailored to individual creators, digital publishers, and influencers who are creating content remotely amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Under the agreement announced on Monday between Sweden-based Music Right Awareness and WIPO, a United Nations agency, the partners will form a “WIPO for Creators” consortium that will organize activities that raise awareness of intellectual property rights.
Source: Music Rights Awareness Foundation and WIPO Join Forces to Raise Awareness of IP Rights For Creators