Streaming

Independent publishers fight against market concentration – and for more streaming cash 

WPierre Mossiathen IMPF was setup, it primarily had one item on its agenda: the Global Repertoire Database. Yet the GRD project, which would have created a single worldwide repository for all music publishing rights information, infamously collapsed in late 2014, by which time costs had hit £8m – a bill certain PROs were not willing to foot.

“The idea has not gone away since then,” comments Pierre Mossiat, CEO at founding member Strictly Confidential. “We still need global data for a global business. The GRD probably was probably too fast and probably too expensive for CMOs. But the next step, of regional hubs [bundling together collection across numerous territories’] is very possible, before something bigger in the future.”

Source: Independent publishers fight against market concentration – and for more streaming cash – Music Business Worldwide

Evolution Of A Digital Broadcasting Giant: Pandora 

Pandora_appSince the CRB has raised the per-stream rate, it has made it harder for Pandora to survive.  Scaling for Pandora was anyway a double-edged sword, always requiring higher payments to rights holders. Initially, those right holders had agreed on easier rates to allow growth and, back then, the establishment of Pandora. But Internet radio is now well developed, and the majors are not as easy going. The collective licensing agreement with SoundExchange is practical for Pandora though unpalatable, and unless Pandora can offer other services for a discount, such as the promotion of new releases, little will change.

It is in this context that Pandora has revamped its Artist Marketing Platform to support a direct-to-fan business.11 Its AMPcast feature now allows artists to target their Pandora fans by sending them audio messages about local concert dates, album releases, and other ‘behind the scenes’ content. AMPcast also provides links for the purchase of both albums and concert tickets. This new tool could be a market changer, for it would make the online radio provider not just a distributor of recorded music but an active player in the live music space.

Source: Evolution Of A Digital Broadcasting Giant: Pandora – hypebot

Kobalt’s AMRA increases YouTube publishing payouts by 34% in EU 

During the first three months of administering Kobalt’s digital catalogue in Europe – in Q3 2015 and compared to the previous quarter – AMRA delivered a 26% increase in earnings from Spotify and a 34% increase in earnings from YouTube for Kobalt Music Publishing clients.

Combined, AMRA collected 28% more money from Spotify and YouTube in Europe during the period.

Source: Kobalt’s AMRA increases YouTube publishing payouts by 34% in EU – Music Business Worldwide

Ticket to Stream

One of the business challenges that has held back the direct-to-consumer streaming of ticketed events — whether live concerts, Broadway shows, or first-run movies — has been the lack of an effective ticketing mechanism for over-the-top video. As there was no way to know how many people might be gathered around a particular screen rights owners and event producers had little choice but to charge an arbitrary price for the stream, usually high enough to account for the possibility of multiple viewers but at the cost of turning off people viewing alone or perhaps with only one other person.

Sean Parker’s Screening Room, for instance, plans to charge a flat $50 per movie for in-home access to first-run films, which research shows could limit the market for the service.

In-home ticketing may be poised to have its moment, however, due to some recent technological advances.

Source: Ticket to Stream | Concurrent Media

How To Integrate Blockchain Into Existing Businesses

The Emer platform claims to offer Digital proof-of-ownership to merchants who are looking for both scalably and to transparently store records of both digital and physical assets on the blockchain.

From a resolution of land title disputes between law offices to licensing associated with anything from streaming video services to anti-virus software subscription, the Emer platform claims the ability to manage these processes. In addition, the verification of these records is much simpler to access and complete using the Emer platform as all records are kept securely and accurately on the blockchain. This can lower costs and the time spent both from a customer perspective and from a lawyer’s perspective, removing the need to deal with physical documents to complete routine transactions.

Source: How To Integrate Blockchain Into Existing Businesses

A Surprisingly Interesting Dive Into Classical Music Metadata 

musical scoreDigital service providers (DSPs) have copped a lot of flack for a perceived lack of support for classical music. Some of the criticism has been leveled at the methodologies used to ingest and display classical, which can vary widely from store to store. A universal standard amongst stores for organising classical music would be ideal. However, this is half the problem; for DSPs to ever display classical metadata correctly, they’ll always be reliant on a supply of consistently good metadata.

One solution is to supply classical content in a way that’s homogenous with the way the same content is managed by the digital services that invest the most in it. iTunes, in particular, has an established methodology for classical metadata, which encompasses many millions of albums and tracks. Their conventions therefore heavily influence how we should supply our metadata. Or to put it another way, do as the store demands consistently, or don’t see it on store.

Source: A Surprisingly Interesting Dive Into Classical Music Metadata – hypebot

WWE Hit With Class Action Over Streaming Royalties

As World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) transitions from a time when it earned a good chunk of its revenue from pay-per-view telecasts to one where streaming platforms dominate, one of its former professional wrestlers is now asking a federal court to interpret an old contract that spoke of “technology not yet created.”

On Wednesday, Rene Goguen (known in the ring as “Rene Dupree” as part of the group “La Resistance”) brought a putative class-action lawsuit alleging he and others haven’t seen money from the much-ballyhooed over-the-top channel, WWE Network, as well as videos put on Netflix.

According to the complaint filed in Connecticut federal court, Goguen signed a “booking contract” in 2003 where WWE took ownership over a wide swath of intellectual property including his nickname, personality, character, costumes, props, gimmicks, gestures, routines and themes.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

TuneCore Expands To Germany

Digital music distribution and publishing administration provider TuneCore launched its latest international edition on Wednesday (Apr. 6) with TuneCore Germany. The site will allow German-based artists to collect songwriter royalties, revenue from streaming services, digital download stores and sync licensing opportunities in their own currency and language.

German users will also have access to TuneCore’s customer support and its suite of artist support services including the YouTube Sound Recording Revenue collection service, LANDR and TuneCore Fan Reviews. “With the ever-changing nature of the music industry, we believe that transparency and durability are essential values for growing our company and enhancing our artist services,” said TuneCore CEO Scott Ackerman in a statement.

Source: Billboard

David Lowery Talks Lawsuits, Licensing and Free Streaming

David Lowery is feeling positive, three months after he flung the cat into the music-streaming pigeons with his role as the example plaintiff in a proposed class-action lawsuit against Spotify over its publishing licensing.

The $150m lawsuit over the mechanicals element of songwriter royalties was soon joined by a second – a $200m lawsuit – from fellow artist Melissa Ferrick. More followed for other streaming services from musician John Emanuele and his publisher Yesh Music. Meanwhile, Spotify has announced a settlement with the US National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) to license songs and pay songwriters their missing royalties; and journalists have been hastily brushing up on their knowledge of the ins and outs of US copyright law.

Source: MusicAlly

SoundCloud’s Next Move Will Change the Streaming Game (Again)

While the label control over the paid tier is a play to rights-holders, perhaps more crucially, the user-generated remixes help preserve SoundCloud’s status as a music community. “The ­audience that is buying electronic albums and festival tickets is hanging out on SoundCloud,” says James Collinson, head of Ninja Tune North America. “It’s an artist tool and an artist community.”

Still, the question remains: “Does the world need another streaming service?” as Russ Crupnick, managing partner of the MusicWatch consultancy, puts it. “It’s going to be hard.”

And despite SoundCloud’s enviable reach, how much of its generally young and tech-savvy audience will pay for music they mostly have been ­enjoying for free? “Looking at conversion rates, it’s likely they’ll end up with low single digits,” says Mark Mulligan, an analyst at Midia Research, based on comparisons with other free services. But even a 5 ­percent ­conversion rate from SoundCloud’s 175 million users — 8.7 ­million — would make it a serious player.

Source: Billboard

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