Music

From YouTube to the blockchain: how music and tech are colliding in 2016 

The annual Midem conference, which turned 50 this year, used to be a glamorous affair where more than 10,000 music execs gathered to strike deals and flaunt their (large) expenses budgets in the hotel bars of Cannes.

In 2016, Midem is much smaller – “4,400 or so” delegates according to its organiser – and with many fewer high-rollers in the bars, but a lot more discussion on conference stages about the digital present and future for music.

Source: From YouTube to the blockchain: how music and tech are colliding in 2016 | Technology | The Guardian

Irving Azoff Calls on Music Industry to ‘Work Together’ in NMPA Keynote 

In a keynote address at the National Music Publishers’ Assn. legendary music industry executive Irving Azoff called upon the music industry to work together.

“The music industry has never been more powerful and popular and we as an industry have never done a shittier job of rallying together as one industry,” Azoff said. “We should work together to solve the root of the problem” — fair compensation. “I had one artist who was making $450,000 a year between all of his royalties,” Azoff said. Now after the digital revolution, he is down to making “$40,000 a year.”

Source: Irving Azoff Calls on Music Industry to ‘Work Together’ in National Music Publishers’ Assn. Keynote | Billboard

Digital Music Era Ushers In New Rights for Veteran Studio Musicians 

harmonicaPaul Harrington, a leading session player on harmonica based in Rockwall, Texas, today announced that after a lengthy quest he has received digital session royalties for the Pitbull track, “Timber,” featuring Ke$ha.

Mr. Harrington was hired in 2013 to record the song’s signature harmonica riff, which kicks off the song and weaves through the entire tune. While he was compensated a meager amount for his time, Mr. Harrington, as with many session players, did not realize that there was money left on the table – a little known royalty owed to session musicians for digital airplay.

Source: Digital Music Era Ushers In New Rights for Veteran Studio Musicians | Business Wire

Pandora looks to avoid Spotify’s royalty lawsuits with Music Reports deal 

Pandora, under new CEO Tim Westergren, has announced a new partnership with Music Reports, which it calls “the world’s most advanced rights administration platform”, to manage the mechanical licensing and royalty administration for its upcoming on-demand streaming service.

Spotify was hit by two $150m+ class action lawsuits last year over missing or inaccurate mechanical royalty payments to songwriters – since combined, and ongoing – and later offered a settlement to writers via the NMPA.

Source: Pandora looks to avoid Spotify’s royalty lawsuits with Music Reports deal – Music Business Worldwide

How Spotify Will Battle Taylor Swift 

When the pop superstar decided to pull her entire catalog from Spotify in 2014, citing issues with how the company compensates artists, it looked like a massive blow for the world’s largest paid music streaming service.

More than a year later, Swift’s music is still nowhere to be seen on Spotify. But the streaming service experienced its biggest growth year ever in 2015, adding 29 million active users. There’s no specific star or revolutionary business plan behind this success: In large part, its growth is thanks to the Echo Nest, a music data start-up that Spotify acquired just months before Swift’s exodus. Echo Nest alums have conceived and shepherded virtually every major product update Spotify has rolled out over the last year, from Discover Weekly to its Running mixes. These features, centered on personalization, are part of Spotify’s big bet that crafting killer, user-friendly playlists will keep its followers loyal.

Source: How Spotify Will Battle Taylor Swift — The Ringer

Google’s computers are creating songs. Making music may never be the same.

Google has launched a project to use artificial intelligence to create compelling art and music, offering a reminder of how technology is rapidly changing what it means to be a musician, and what makes us distinctly human.

Google’s Project Magenta, announced Wednesday, aims to push the state of the art in machine intelligence that’s used to generate music and art.

Source: Google’s computers are creating songs. Making music may never be the same. – The Washington Post

Google wanted to buy Michael Jackson’s $750m stake in Sony/ATV 

For many in the music business, the repercussions of Google being allowed to get near a 50% stake Sony/ATV would be deeply worrying. Sony/ATV manages 4m music copyrights written by the likes of The Beatles, Taylor Swift, Michael Jackson, Ed Sheeran, James Brown, Elvis Presley, Lauryn Hill, Oasis and Eminem.

Remember that those 4m copyrights are spread through countless recordings and, therefore, master rights deals with labels. That would have been the first headache for the likes of Universal Music Group.

Source: Google wanted to buy Michael Jackson’s $750m stake in Sony/ATV – Music Business Worldwide

How can blockchain change the music industry?

The potential impact of the blockchain is a well-trodden path at industry events in recent months, but a panel at the Midem conference today aimed to find some new aspects to discuss.

On the panel: Joe Conyers III, VP of technology for Downtown Music Publishing; Vinay Gupta, release coordinator and general strategist for Ethereum; musician Imogen Heap, who has been exploring the blockchain’s potential with her Mycelia project; and Revelator CEO Bruno Guez. The moderator was Allen Bargfrede of Rethink Music at the Berklee College of Music.

Source: How can blockchain change the music industry?

Midia Research: ‘The role of curated playlists has accelerated’

The Today’s Top Hits stats come from a presentation at Midem today by industry consultant Mark Mulligan, based on data supplied by Spotify for the latest report by his company Midia Research.

After kicking off his session by pointing out that 26% of streaming subscribers have stopped buying more than an album a month, while 32% are listening to less radio, Mulligan drew the audience’s attention to the growing role of in-house playlists on Spotify and Apple Music.

“The role of curated playlists has accelerated just in the last three months,” said Mulligan. “People are having to work out on the fly how they respond to the changes to cash-flow, to breaking discovering artists.”

Source: Mark Mulligan: ‘The role of curated playlists has accelerated’

WMG buys X5 Music as major labels double down on playlists

Yesterday’s news that Warner Music Group has bought X5 Music – with reports in Sweden suggesting the price may have been $25m – is the latest sign of major labels doubling down in their efforts to do more with playlists and streaming curation.

WMG, remember, already bought British startup Playlists.net in October 2014, and has adopted its Topsify brand as the imprint for the label group’s own playlists on Spotify.

Source: WMG buys X5 Music as major labels double down on playlists

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