Article 13 is moving forward to full adoption after France and Germany signed on to a revised version. The on again off again controversial EU copyright directive legislation is set up-end the Safe Harbor protections on which YouTube and other popular user-generated platforms were created. Google, YouTube and others have…
Author archives: Bruce Houghton
Spotify (SPOT) Stock Continues To Fall
Spotify (SPOT) stock fell 2.83% Wednesday after the streamer’s Q2 earnings report and news of two major acquisitions. The stock was trading down another 2.21% at $132.46 in pre-market trading Thursday. Strong user growth and its first ever profitable quarter were offset by lower than anticipated earnings and the acquisition…
WMG Names Eliah Seton As President of Independent Music and Creator Services
Warner Music Group has named Eliah Seton has been named its first President of Independent Music & Creator Services. Seton is bing promoted from his post as President of ADA Worldwide as of WMG’s effort grow its footprint in independent music. Seton’s portfolio will include WMG owned indie distributor ADA…
Copyright Royalty Board Ups Songwriter Royalties 44%, Coalition Bids To Oversea Mechanical Licensing
The US Copyright Royalty Board published the final rates and terms for mechanical royalties for songwriters to the Federal Register on Tuesday, making them official more than a year after they were first announced. The rates cover the period from 2018 to 2022 includes a significant increase in the overall…
Marshmello Fortnite Bump: 40M YouTube Views In 2 Days
In addition to the 10 million plus fans who watched Marshmello’s two 10 minute DJ sets on Fornite this weekend were hundreds of thousands of fans tuning into dozens of YouTube livestreams. That all led a massive spike on his YouTube channel, with daily views skyrocketing to 40 million over…
Musicians File Class Action Suit Against UMG And Sony To Reclaim Copyrights
Five musicians filed class action lawsuits against Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group earlier this week in an attempt to recapture ownership to the copyrights of their hit songs and recordings. The class actions filed in Manhattan federal court claim that U.S. copyright law ‘permits recording artists to terminate…
This Infographic Tells Story Of Spotify’s Strong Q4
Even as news was breaking that Spotify had acquired major podcasters Gimlet Media and Anchor to further its mission as an "audio-first" company, the streamer also reported a solid Q4 2018 with both strong user growth and its first ever quarterly operating profit. Just in case you’re no interested in…
Spotify Reports 207M Users, 97M Paid, Strong Q4 Financials
[UPDATE 2] Spotify announced that it now had 207 million active monthly users, as part of a quarterly financial report released on Wednesday morning. Spotify outperformed analysts financial expectations, notching its first every quarterly operating profit. User growth came primarily as a result of improved retention relative to forecast. Latin…
Spotify Acquires Podcasters Gimlet, Anchor To Create ‘Audio-First’ Streaming Service
Spotify has acquired two giants in podcasting, Gimlet Media and Anchor. "Gimlet and Anchor will position us to become the leading platform for podcast creators around the world and the leading producer of podcasts," Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said in a statement. Gimlet is a major podcast content creator whose…
WED. BRIEF: Spotify Acquires Podcasters, Reports Strong Q4 • UMG, Sony Face Class Action Suit • Raised In Space • More
WEDNESDAY 2.6.19
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