The
Music
Modernization Act
calls for the
creation of a
Mechanical
Licensing
Collective to
oversee the
blanket mechanical
licenses that the
new law
established. So
far, two groups
ave applied to the
Copyright Royalty
Board, who will
chose the new
collective in
July.
It’s
a maneuver that
has successfully
sidelined efforts
to pass a
performance
royalty on
broadcast radio
during the past
decade as bills
have been
introduced to do
away with the
AM/FM exemption.
The Local Radio
Freedom Act has
now been
reintroduced in
Congress, where
more than half of
House members have
already come down
on the side of
radio.
For
many artists,
touring is one of
the primary ways in
which they maintain
a living as a
musician, making it
that much more
troubling to learn
that many artists
who do live shows
aren't walking away
with all the
performance
royalties to which
they are entitled.
Here Ari Herstand
explains what
artists must do
claim this
additional revenue.
The
law firm
representing
musician and artist
advocate David
Lowery and other
songwriters has
filed a motion for
preliminary approval
of a settlement that
will see
self-published
songwriters paid as
much as $10 million
by Rhapsody and it's
Napster music
streaming service.
The
new chairman of the
Senate Judiciary
Committee is sending
a clear signal to
the Dept. of Justice
not to throw the
music marketplace
into chaos with
proposed changes to
the consent decrees
governing ASCAP and
BMI. Makan Delrahim,
who heads the
Antitrust Division,
has backed a
“smooth
transition” toward
a “market-based”
framework. That
could have
implications for how
much radio
ultimately pays to
songwriters for
music use.
The
plastic and
packaging that comes
with CDs and vinyl
makes them seem
worse for the
environment, but the
popularity of music
streaming services
may be polluting in
other ways.
Friday’s
announced sale by Cox
Enterprises of its
entire TV group and
one of its radio
clusters by an
investor group led by
Apollo Global
Management has
reignited speculation
about the company’s
plans for the rest of
its radio group.
Brokers say they
expect Cox to sell
more of its radio
clusters in the months
ahead. “You will see
some additional sales
as things move through
this year,” one
dealmaker told Inside
Radio.
SoundCloud
has added free digital
distribution to its
SoundCloud Premier
monetization toolset.
With the new feature,
creators monetizing
music on SoundCloud can
distribute to Amazon
Music, Apple Music,
Instagram, Spotify,
Tencent, YouTube Music
and other music services
directly from their
SoundCloud account.
Familiar
battle lines, with some
new players, are being
drawn in Washington in
the decades-old battle
over whether radio
stations should pay a
performance royalty for
on-air music use. The
effort comes just months
after Congress passed a
sweeping copyright
reform bill that gave
the music industry much
of what it had sought,
raising questions of how
intent lawmakers will be
on covering similar
ground in the new
session.
Nothing
is free, particularly in
the music industry, and
putting together a
fantastic tour or
festival requires money.
One of the best ways to
secure funding for these
sorts of events is
through sponsorships -
but doing so requires
careful planning.
While
talent and ability are
certainly important
factors when it comes be
becoming a successful
artist, more important
still is
differentiation. Here we
look at what it means to
separate yourself from
the back like this, and
what really matters when
it comes to
differentiation.
Music
piracy has existed as
long the music industry
itself, but like every
thing else in the biz,
it's constantly changing
and adapting. The most
recent trend appears be
impersonation, and has
digital buccaneers
pinging labels and
publicists, claiming to
be an artist or manager
in order to access their
music.
Once
you've gone to the
trouble of recording and
producing music, you're
likely going to want to
release it to the public
- this can be a daunting
process however, so here
we look at a
presentation that covers
all the details of how
to release to music.
The
World Health
Organization and the
International
Telecommunications Union
on Tuesday presented new
standards, or voluntary
guidelines, for the
manufacture and use of
personal audio devices.
When
broadcasters convene in
Nashville for the 50th
annual Country Radio
Seminar running
Wednesday to Friday this
week, they will find
their industry in a much
different position than
it occupied during the
first convention in
1970.
This
data set is isolated to
the calendar year 2018 and
represents a mid-sized
indie label with an
approximately 250+ album
catalog now generating
almost 1b streams
annually. 2018 is the year
we saw streaming truly
mature as the dominant
source of recorded music
revenues. The Spotify per
stream rate drops again
from .00397 to .00331 a
decrease of 16%. Apple
Music gains almost 3% for
an total global market share
of about just under 25% of
all revenue. Apple’s per
stream rate drops from
.00783 to .00495 a
decrease of 36%.
The
NMPA and its member music
publishers are reminding
songwriters and other
publishers that Spotify
and other digital music
streamers thus far
"won’t say" if
they plan to appeal the
44% increase over five
year in mechanical
royalties to songwriters
made official by the US
Copyright Royalty Board
this week.
If
you've gone to the trouble
of cultivating a specific
logo or brand for your
music, there are a number
of benefits to
"making it
official" by getting
it trademarked. Besides
just establishing a
potential source of
revenue, a trademark can
provide you with certain
legal protections down the
road.
Amazon
Echo continues to make
itself at home. A new
report reveals that as of
Dec. 31, 2018, the
installed base of smart
speaker devices is 66
million units, up from 53
million units in the
September 2018 quarter and
36 million units as of
December 2017. Amazon has
a dominant 70% of the
marketplace, according to
Consumer Intelligence
Research Partners.
The
three largest trade groups
representing the nation's
music publishers and
songwriters on
Monday unveiled their
proposal to operate a
powerful new licensing
organization created by
the landmark passage of
the Music Modernization
Act last year. The
National Music Publishers
Association, the Nashville
Songwriters Association
International and the
Songwriters of North
America announced their
bid in joint press
releases. In
addition to announcing the
board members who would
steer the new collective,
the publishers and
songwriters announced
broad support from
virtually every major
music industry company and
trade association.
SoundExchange
paid out $952.8
million to artists
and labels last
year, the most it
has ever
distributed since
the organization
began. That
represented a $300
million, or 46.1
percent increase
over the prior
year when it paid
out $652 million.
Paid
music streaming looks set
to overtake free services
for the first time later
this year, as more people
opt to pay for the likes
of Spotify and Apple
Music. Experts believe
that streaming has made it
fashionable to pay for
music again, with the
latest numbers from
November 2018 showing
20.6% opting to pay, up
from 18.3% the year
before. At the same time,
free streaming – either
through services that use
adverts, as part of a free
trial or with a family
license paid for by
someone else – is
gradually decreasing,
currently standing at
21.5%, down from 21.7%
previously.
In
this edition of Building
Your Dream Team, AWAL breaks
down the who, what, when,
where, and why of music
managers and the music
management companies behind
them so you don't have to,
so you can make an informed
decision about where
managers fit into your music
career.
A
recent study from the BBC
revealed a number of fake
artists accumulating plays
from very much real accounts
- something which has
recently been revealed to be
the result of account
hacking.
A
career in music can fill
your life with
excitement and passion, but
while incredibly rewarding,
life in the music business
carries with it a number of
inherent risks as well,
including financial and
personal instability and
risk of addiction.
New
information suggests that
indie music publicists have
been struggling with a media
landscape that's getting
smaller and smaller, making
it that much harder get
coverage from an ever
shrinking pool. Still, as
Chris Robley here suggests,
as the power of the press
decreases, it's one less
gate keeper for musicians,
who can instead invest their
resources elsewhere.
New
Nielsen ratings analyzed by
AdAge present a bleak
picture of network TV’s
declining audience. Face
with heated competition for
viewers from streaming video
service, broadcast C3
ratings plummeted 11% year
over year during fourth
quarter 2018.Tracking the
trend back to 2016 shows the
latest numbers are no fluke.
ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox
combined have seen more than
one quarter (27%) of their
advertiser-coveted viewers
disappear.
Pandora
stockholders have approved
the sale of the company to
SiriusXM Radio, moving the
$3.5 billion purchase one
step closer to completion.
Roger Lynch, the Sling TV
founder who joined the
webcaster as CEO 16 months
ago, will exit the company
upon closing, making way
for SiriusXM CEO Jim Meyer
to lead Pandora and Sirius
XM as a combined company
While
there is a lot of
nostalgia surrounding the
CDs and CD buying culture,
the manufacturing costs
and associated
complexities of creating
them leave a lot of more
contemporary artists
wondering if, in the
digital age, CDs are
really worth it at all.
Are
you a musician? Do you
need to protect your band
name or logo from
counterfeit sellers on
ecommerce platforms? In
order to obtain nationwide
protection, you should
register your band name,
phrase or logo with the
United States Patent and
Trademark Office. The
registration process is
relatively straight
forward but can be time
consuming. Generally, it
takes approximately six
months to a year before
the trademark is
registered.
Another
fake music on Spotify
scandal. But is this one
really a fake music on
Spotify scandal? Or is it
a fake fake music on
Spotify scandal? It could
be a fake fake fake music
on Spotify scandal, but I
don’t yet have
sufficient qualifications
to work out what that
might be.
Remember
the days where the Nord
keyboards ran the world
when it come to touring
musicians? Boy has that
changed and changed pretty
quickly. I started touring
in a synth heavy band
about 4 years ago and it
has been a fun journey
watching the keyboard
world slowly change. I
want to talk about the
main reasons why we’re
seeing less classic
keyboards in touring
musicians arsenals as well
as touch on the new
bluetooth MIDI
controllers.
While
large social platforms such as
Facebook and Twitter remain
part of the daily media diet
of many Americans, a new study
found that 74% of respondents
agree or strongly agree that
the integrity of social media
sites has diminished.
“Americans are so
disillusioned by social media,
that many are turning to other
forums for trustworthy
information,” Tapatalk
found.
In
a saturated marketplace like
the music industry, writing a
press release that anyone will
give a second glance is an
uphill battle. That said, by
including all the key elements
and a nice personal touch, you
might just be able to get a
music journalist to actually
read it.
Spotify’s
hateful conduct policy having
backfired so dramatically last
year, the streaming service
has now introduced a new
feature allowing individual
users to wipe specific artists
from their playlists. Which
means it can pass the buck on
to its customers over whether
or not artists accused of
hateful conduct should be
banished from its playlists.
This
is the second volume in a
multi-part series by Cheryl
B. Engelhardt,
singer/songwriter, composer,
and the owner of the music
career consultation site In
The Key of Success. Cheryl
will be breaking down the key
S.T.A.G.E.S. of email
marketing for independent
artists – we invite you to
follow along over the next few
weeks, as we’re sure
you’ll be walking away with
some hugely helpful tips for
your email marketing strategy!
With
a brand new year comes a whole
host of new opportunities for
collaborating with your
industry peers. Here we look
at five such collaborative
options you won't want to miss
out on.
In
this piece nineteen different
experts in fields ranging from
musician to author to podcast
host, weigh in with their
marketing predications for the
music industry in 2019, and
what artists can do to prepare
for the year.
Nashville
Songwriters' Hall of Fame
songwriter Whitey Shafer,
responsible for some of
country's most beloved classics
such as "All My Ex's Live
in Texas" and "Does
Fort Worth Ever Cross Your
Mind" died Saturday (Jan.
12) at the age of 84. Shafer,
who was inducted into the Hall
of Fame in 1989, was born Sanger
D. Shafer and grew up in Texas
in a gospel music-loving family.
His own musical interests
trended toward Bob Wills, Ernest
Tubb and Lefty Frizzell.
Although a music fan, he didn't
pursue songwriting until well
into adulthood, writing his
first song at age 30. Prior to
this, he spent time in the Army
and at a variety of odd jobs.
What
we consume as the final product
of an artist's creative effort
typically fails to communicate
the process and often struggle
that goes into it. Here we
explore the value of sharing the
creative process, and how it
helps fans gain greater
understanding of not just the
music, but the artist behind it.
It
should come as no surprise that
Spotify ended 2018 with 200
million monthly active users (MAUs).
Spotify took nearly eight years
to grow to 100 million users (in
June 2016) then just two and a
half more to double that figure.
The company also increased its
conversion rate – the
percentage of those listeners
who were paid subscribers –
from around 30% in mid-2016 to
nearly 46% at the end of
September 2018. But that
conversion rate is now one of
the factors in the latest
tension between Spotify and
major labels. Or, at least, the
average revenue that those paid
subscribers are generating for
the company, and thus the
rightsholders it licenses from.
Mark
your calendars, folks-the lineup
has just been announced and
tickets are now on sale for Red
River Songwriters’ Festival
2019! At the Red River
Songwriters’ Festival,
attendees can look forward to a
variety of solo shows, duo
shows, and collaborations
between artists as well as a
grand finale performance
featuring the founding members.
Additionally, the festival also
features late-night informal
jams, early afternoon ski runs
“and who knows what else“!
As
publications fold and coverage
narrows, once tried-and-true
approaches to the job no longer
yield the same results.
Much
has been written about the
struggles of music journalists
in an ever-shrinking media
landscape. A recent Longreads
article called "Where Have
All the Music Magazines
Gone?" offered a typically
grim roll call of national
publications that have either
discontinued their print edition
or shuttered entirely. At
the local level, the outlook is
even bleaker, with major
alt-weeklies closing up shop and
others gutting their staffs,
budgets and page counts. And the
ranks of music blogs, once major
voices in new music coverage,
have thinned since their
mid-2000s peak.
Liberty
Media, which owns a controlling
stake in SiriusXM Radio and a
35% piece of Live Nation, is
reportedly in talks to make an
investment in high-powered
talent agency Creative Artists
Agency. First reported by the
Financial Times, the deal would
give the media giant greater
access to a wide gamut of big
name talent across
entertainment, music and sports.
The
average price that a Spotify
subscriber pays in dropping, and
that has artists and record
labels worried. Despite a stated
price of $9.99 USD / €9.99 EU
, the actual average price paid
global is just $5.50 per month
and falling.
Nielsen
Music has released it 2018
Year-End Highlights. The survey
shows a year of significant
overall industry growth, with
total album equivalent audio
consumption up 23% over 2017,
driven by a 49% increase in
on-demand audio song streams
compared to 2017.
“Historic”
was the adjective of choice for
artists, songwriters and
politicians alike when Congress
passed the Music Modernization Act
last year. The overdue bundle
of reform — intended to update
copyright rules for the streaming
age and help music-makers take
home more money — was an
industry-wide effort, years in the
making.
Squabbling
between the US radio industry and
Irving Azoff’s boutique
collecting society Global Music
Rights continues. Though this
squabbling relates to an entirely
different squabble between the US
radio industry and big collecting
society BMI. Fun times.
CD
Baby revealed today that it paid
artists more than $100 million in
2018. That impressive number
includes income from digital
distribution (streaming and
downloads) along with YouTube,
music on Facebook and Instagram,
music publishing, sync and direct
CD sales.
On-demand
audio streams set a record high of
534.6 billion in the US in 2018,
up 42% over the previous year,
according to the BuzzAngle Music
Industry Year End Report.
But the best news for artists and
labels came thanks to 50% growth
in streams by paid subscribers.
Those 157.4 billion higher paying
subscription streams now account
for 85% of all on-demand audio,
according to the respected music
data monitoring service.
With
the music business in a constant
state of tumultuous evolution,
2019 is shaping up to be a wild
year for the industry. Here we
look at five major developments
we're likely to see unfolding in
the coming months.
“Alexa,
please wake me at 7am.” That is
often the call for smart speakers.
A survey from Adobe Analytics
reveals that the technology is
increasingly finding presence in
the bedroom and the living
room—as opposed to its previous
de facto location in the kitchen.
Some 63% have a smart speaker in
the living room, 42% in the
bedroom and 37% in the kitchen.
As
another year turns over, the music
business has become unrecognizable
from how it was almost 20 years ago,
where the value of music journalists
and their role in the industry has
been called into question. Here we
look at how music writers can best
navigate this rocky new landscape
moving into 2019.
As
with so many industries, the music
business has undergone a massive
transformation over the past few
years, meaning the rules for success
have changed as well. Here we look
broadly at ten basic concepts for
advancing in the contemporary music
business.
Comparing
streaming music data with the most
played songs on radio this year
shows radio “missed or
underplayed” 40% of the most
streamed songs of the year,
according to Bridge Ratings Media
Research. Country radio performed
the best out of the top four music
formats that were the focus of the
study.
