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Assessing the streaming opportunity: You’re doing it wrong

Buoyed by lockdown, streaming enjoyed another strong year in 2020, up 17.1% on 2019 according to MIDiA’s recorded music market shares report. But the revenue slowdown will come in 2021, driven by the maturation of the big music markets (e.g. US, UK, Australia) and the growth of emerging markets. Identifying emerging markets growth as a slowdown factor might sound oxymoronic but the lower ARPU in these markets means that subscriber growth and revenue growth are becoming uncoupled. Look no further than Spotify’s earnings: subscribers were up 25% in 2020 but premium revenue was up just 17%, driven by a premium ARPU decline of -9%. Despite the dampening effect of emerging markets, they will be crucial to future growth – yet much of their potential may go untapped. The reason is all to do with how the music industry measures the opportunity, and that approach needs to change.

 

5 reasons NFTs don’t matter for indie musicians (YET)

There’s been a great deal of buzz lately about how NFTs could be the long awaited savior that rejuvenates the music industry, but if you’re a DIY artist, you might want to hold off on going all-in for NFTS, at least for the moment.

 

YouTube Checks will now warn of copyright problems before you post

Those familiar with uploading content on YouTube have likely received copyright warnings due to some graphic or piece of music in their video. Unfortunately, these warnings only came after the video had already, something YouTube’s new ‘Checks’ service aims to rectify.  If you post on YouTube a lot you’ve probably run into a copyright problem before. Maybe you’ve used a piece of a song by someone else, or a piece of video, or even a graphic. Maybe you’ve received a copyright warning over your own music, which is the ultimate insult. The problem is that these strikes pop up after you post – sometimes way past the time it was posted. It’s always a surprise. YouTube is trying to make this easier though, and has instituted a new system called YouTube Checks that will actually warn you of a copyright problem even before you post.

 

Why you should set a date for your music release (and make it a Friday)

There’s a reason why you should set your music release for a Friday. It’s not just a random day — there’s method behind the madness.  Did you know that every record label launches their new music releases on a Friday? It’s true, and it’s not just a random day they pulled out of a hat. It’s because Billboard tallies its charts for the week starting on a Friday. So, from Friday to Thursday, Billboard counts all the streams, all the plays, and all the sales of downloads and physical product, and that becomes the basis for their top-seller/most-played charts for the week. When you launch on a Friday, you get to use that full week worth of sales and streams.

 

The Relationship Between Songwriter and Publisher

This month, we’re continuing BMI Speaker Sessions, our online series that gives insight into the unique professions of songwriting, producing, performing, and other fields within the music industry. In our latest session, we're excited to present a conversation between BMI's Executive Director, Jessa Gelt, Senior Vice President, Creative for Sony Music Publishing, Amanda Hill, and Wrabel, a BMI Award-winning songwriter, artist, and record label owner. Here, the three discuss everything from signing a publishing deal, to the daily working relationship between writer and publisher, and the thrill of a “yes” in a string of “no”s.

 

What happened to all the chords?

Here, Ben Morss explores in detail why songs featuring multiple chord progressions have become such a rarity in today’s Top 40 songs, with single-progression tracks now largely ruling the roost .  These days, a typical Top 40 song is built on a single chord progression. By this, I mean that the same pattern of chords repeats from the beginning of the song until its end. For convenience, let’s call songs like this “single-progression.” Songs in which the chord progression changes significantly, we’ll call “multi-progression.” The point is, multi-progression songs have become rare — and I miss them. When did multi-progression songs fade away?

 

RIAA: Twitter Must License Music & Fight Piracy Without Charge

The RIAA and NMPA are putting Twitter under pressure to do something about the platform's piracy problem. Slamming the company for allowing pre-release music to be distributed to the public, the industry groups say that Twitter is failing to meet its legal obligations when responding to takedown notices. Licensing is the answer, they suggest, but that is just the tip of the iceberg.  Over the years, a number of music industry players have taken on some of the largest content distribution platforms on the Internet over alleged copyright infringement, with varying success.

 

Music streaming: listening to playlists drives down the revenue of smaller artists

When music fans listen to their favorite album, there’s a certain satisfaction derived from knowing that they paid for the music they love — they’re giving back to the artists who made it.  That’s not the case on music streaming platforms, where artists aren’t paid a fixed fee when you stream their songs or albums. Instead, your subscription fee enters a big pot which is then split between every artist on the platform based on their share of overall streams. You can think of the payment pot as a pie chart: the size of an artist’s slice of revenue is determined by how many streams they get compared with their fellow artists.

 

Why Are Musicians Still Leaving Royalties on the Table? It Usually Boils Down to These 3 Mistakes

Minor mistakes and oversights frequently have a material impact on artists’ careers, particularly when it comes to royalties. But creators can quickly remedy the underlying issues – and bolster their earnings – when equipped with the right information.  Between recording new music, maintaining a digital presence, spearheading promotional efforts, and performing live, there are more professional obligations for artists today than at any other point in music history. Consequently, it’s difficult for creators to find time for each career consideration – and easy for them to neglect certain tasks while dedicating attention to other matters.

 

6 Bad Habits in Songwriting, and How to Break Them

Being a good songwriter takes a lot of time and practice. While you are practicing writing songs, you will develop your routine and your habits over time. On this journey, it is possible to develop bad habits along with the good ones as well. If the bad habits are not fixed, they might start affecting your workflow.  So I’d like to talk about six common bad habits in songwriting that I see happening all around me, and I will share how to break those habits. Let’s get started.

 

What the $424M MLC royalty ‘black box’ means for musicians

In this article, Christ Castle breaks down the legal and financial implications of the MLC’s $424 million black box it recently received from digital service providers.  The Circular Awards Ceremony has begun anew and the corporate media wants someone to adore, dang it! Cue “It’s a Pleasure Being Sad.”  The MLC received $424 million of “inception to date black box” as required by the statute enacted October 18, 2019. It didn’t just happen by accident that most DSPs paid the money around February 15, 2021–this was the statutory deadline the lobbyists wrote into the bill, or who Senate staff called “the parties.” You, you see, were not a party and you, you see, had no say in how your money was divided up. So the MLC has known about this deadline for years.

 

The Cardinal Rules for Safely Getting Added to Spotify Playlists — A Guide for Artists and Labels

The potential career benefits of securing placements on coveted Spotify playlists are greater than ever – but so are the pitfalls associated with consulting unreliable third parties to obtain quick streams. With that in mind, we teamed up with Playlist Streams to help artists and indie labels figure out how to safely add their work to Spotify playlists.

Just days into 2021, thousands of indie artists received an unwelcome surprise when their music was removed from Spotify due to alleged artificial stream violations. The swift, unexpected purge affected hundreds of thousands of tracks, and more than a few creators publicly lamented losing access to the platform’s more than 345 million users. 

 

What Are the Most Popular Music Streaming Services In 2021?

The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has definitely changed streaming habits. What are the most popular music streaming services of 2021? The answer may surprise you.  A new global study conducted by YouGov highlights how streaming habits have changed over the last year. People in the United States and Great Britain did more active listening (music listening and podcasting), while passive listening (radio) decreased. That’s largely attributed to people spending more time at home than in their cars.  A breakdown of demographics showcases how popular music streaming services are by age group. Let’s take a look.

 

How Much Personal Data Do Music Apps Collect? Here’s the Latest Privacy Report

How much app privacy do you have with music streaming apps? Apple’s new privacy policy helps us find out.

Apple’s new privacy policy forces app developers to disclose how much data they collect. It also must tell users what data is potentially shared with third-parties. By using the new privacy labels in the App Store, you can get a pretty good idea of which apps collect the most data.  Any information that you agree can be gathered can also be shared. Accepting an apps’ terms and conditions means you agree to this process. These apps look at everything from your browsing history to your location and contacts. A study conducted among the 50 most popular apps on the App Store found that 52% of them shared data with third-parties.

  

 

 

 

                   

 

 

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