Rights

One of the common assumptions around the boom in music-catalogue sales is that it’s all about big investment funds piling in. That’s certainly happened, but it’s not the whole story. In fact, what may be more interesting in the future are the partnerships formed between Big Investors and Big Music. Universal Music Group’s announcement yesterday that it is acquiring a minority stake in Chord Music Partners being a case in point.

Source: UMG tunes its catalogue-buying strategy with $240m Chord stake – Music Ally

The UK’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) published a report on ‘the potential impact of equitable remuneration on performers and the music market in the UK’. In short, the report will make labels much happier than activists. “The one key conclusion that can be drawn is that ER does not offer a simple solution to the streaming conundrum,” was its verdict. The report also gives the same warnings that labels have about ER potentially weakening their negotiating position with DSPs.

Source: UK government rules out broadcast-style equitable remuneration for music – Music Ally

Reddit has signed a contract allowing an Artificial Intelligence (AI) company to train its models on the social media platform’s content, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Reddit, which is eyeing an initial public offering (IPO) launch, has told prospective investors that it signed the deal, worth $60 million on an annualized basis, earlier this year, the report said.

Source: Reddit signs content licensing deal with AI company ahead of IPO

Legendary rock singer Rod Stewart has sold his song catalog to Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists for nearly $100 million in a deal that comprises interests in his publishing catalog and recorded music, as well as some name and likeness rights. The deal comes as Iconic announced that it has raised more than $1 billion in new capital for future catalog investments, primarily from the investment firm HPS Investment Partners.

Source: Rod Stewart Sells Song Catalog to Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group for Nearly $100 Million

In the roughly 18 months since it was founded by Lior Tibon, former COO of Tidal and now Duetti’s CEO, and Christopher Nolte, a former Business Development executive at Apple Music, the company has partnered with more than 250 indie artists, including Olivia O’Brien, Sevyn Streeter and Łaszewo. Now Duetti announced it has raised USD $90 million in new funding, including $15 million in new equity and a $75 million credit facility.

Source: Duetti raises $90 million in new funding to acquire indie artists’ catalogs

Publishers and CEOs across the industry agree AI is an existential threat to the future of journalism, and their businesses have spent the past year wrestling with a conundrum: Ink a deal with the AI players or fight it out in court. Do the CEOs and publishers of these trusted news brands prefer paying journalists’ salaries or attorney fees?

Source: Take the Cash or Fight? Media Moguls Split on AI Deals

Inspired by Universal Music Group‘s ‘artist-centric’ streaming strategy, Spotify’s new rules see ‘premium’ artists and ‘premium’ content financially prioritized over so-called low-quality tracks and creator accounts with low engagement. Amongst those rules are that tracks on Spotify must have reached at least 1,000 streams in the previous 12 months in order to generate royalties on the platform.

Source: Only 19% of artists on Spotify had over 1,000 monthly listeners in 2023