Article 13 Moves Forward As France, Germany Sign On

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…

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…

Orchard Co-Founder Issues Warning To Music Industry: ‘You’re Probably Going To Be Replaced’

In this article, Oisin Lunny shares a dire warning from Scott Cohen, the enigmatic music tech pioneer affiliated with company’s like, Spotify, The Orchard, and the British Phonographic Industry. In a recent keynote presentation, Cohen warned a massive industry sea change would likely soon reshape the music business entirely. _________________________________…

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…

Fair Pay, Fair Fight: For Musician Radio Royalties, Will The Circle Be Unbroken?

After the struggle of getting the Music Modernization Act passed and allegedly gave pre-1972 artists the royalties they finally deserved, a new merger between Sirius and Pandora by their hold-tightening parent company Liberty Media, has artists and advocates gearing up for an ongoing fight against tech companies and their lobbyists….

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…

Why Musicians Should Think More B2B, Less About B2C

In this piece, Bobby Owsinski explains why, in the new music economy, artists need to think more about Business to Business transactions instead of just focusing on Business to Consumer transactions. _________________________ Guest post by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0 You might be wondering about the title and that’s because…

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…