A contentious relationship from the beginning, the streaming industry and the rest of the music business have been increasingly at odds of late. Even as recorded revenues continue to rise, artists and publishers have grown increasingly frustrated with streamers like Spotify and Apple, creating a rift that shows no signs…
Category archives: Major Labels
Death Of The Album [Alex Heiche]
It seems the music format of generations is finally on its deathbed. Whether in the form of 8-tracks, cassettes, or vinyl, the album has seen its share of changes, but none more disruptive or deadly than the rise of streaming and playlist culture. _________________________ Guest post by Alex Heiche, CEO…
Full Screen Direct Shutters As D2F Takes Another Hit
Fullccreen Direct is shutting down all operations The direct-to-consumer platform which served 75 major music clients including Metallica, Kid Rock, Justin Timberlake and Keith Urban was the backbone of their direct to fan eCommerce and online fan clubs. Formerly known as StageBloc, Fullscreen Direct and its parent Fullscreen Media were…
Rolling Stone To Challenge Billboard With Music Charts
Rolling Stone Magazine is launching multiple music charts in a direct challenge to Billboard. Data for the charts will come from BuzzAngle Music. Rollling Stone owners PMC made a strategic investment in the music data firm last year. Rolling Stone has increased its music industry coverage in recent months, including…
Warner Music Group Reports Solid Q2, Digital Up 21%
Warner Music Group Corp. today announced solid second quarter financial results for the period ending March 31, 2019. Total revenue grew 13.2% and digital revenue was up 20.8%. “Our second-quarter results were strong,” said Steve Cooper, Warner Music Group’s CEO. “Our sustained investment in our artists and songwriters, our artist…
Garth Brooks Just Pre-Sold 1 Million $130 Vinyl Box Sets
Garth Brooks has pre-sold a record one million vinyl albums of his $130 box set “Legacy Collection.” In March, Brooks sold over 420,000 in just 18 hours. There was initially a 24 hour window to sell the allotted number of boxed sets, but they were gone in just over 12…
Songwriter Rate Appeal To Be ‘Long Drawn Out Process’ says Spotify Exec
Spotify and other streamers (sans Apple) have appealed new songwriter royalty rates set by the US Copyright Royalty Board, effectively ensuring that the increase is unlikely to flow to songwriters and music publishers any time soon. "That will be a long drawn-out process," Spotify Chief Financial Officer Barry McCarthy said…
It’s Easier For New Artists To Gain Traction On Spotify says CEO Daniel Ek
Artist and music discovery on Spotify were among the topics covered during Monday’s earnings call. With CEO Daniel Ek sharing some stats that show that the despite the fact that 40,000 new tracks are uploaded daily, more artists than ever are being discovered on the platform than ever before. 3.9…
Spotify Adds 40,000 New Tracks Every Day [That’s Not A Typo]
During an earnings call Monday, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek shared that the streamer now offers 60 million tracks. The catalog continues to grow by a whopping 40,000 tracks every day, according to Ek. Podcasts Additionally, more than 50,000 podcasts have been submitted to Spotify through Spotify for Podcasters, enabling listeners…
Creator Support: A New Way To Pay Artists For Streaming [Mark Mulligan]
How to fairly compensate creators as consumption becomes dominated by streaming is the subject of vigorous debate. But a new model dubbed ‘creator support’ is gaining traction because it will pay many artists more with minimal impact on the wider royalty pool, says MIDiA’s Mark Mulligan. ___________________________________ By Mark Mulligan…