Month: October 2020

Business continues to boom for YouTube during the pandemic, Google revealed during its third quarter earnings call Thursday.

The video platform’s virtual pay TV service, YouTube TV, has surpassed the 3 million paid subscriber mark. This revelation comes just seven months after Google announced the passing of the 2 million mark for the vMVPD service. That’s an indicator of accelerated growth, as that Feb. 2 million announcement came a full two years after the platform launched.

Read More: https://www.nexttv.com/news/youtube-tv-surpasses-3-million-paid-subscribers

According to two separate sources, Google’s secret attack plan against Europe’s planned Digital Services Act has leaked. According to French publication Le Point (“How Google Wants to Bend Brussels“):

Read More: https://musictechpolicy.com/2020/10/29/its-a-leak-googles-double-super-secret-european-lobbying-order-of-battle-against-a-level-playing-field/

Many musicians benefit from YouTube royalties. Sometimes, however, it can be difficult to navigate. Do you know where your royalties are coming from? We’re here to break it down, so you know exactly what works and what doesn’t. — Here are 5 things you should know about earning royalties on YouTube…

Read More: https://blog.symphonicdistribution.com/2020/10/things-you-should-know-about-youtube-royalties/

One of the many U.S.-centric shortcomings of Title I of the Music Modernization Act (that created the Mechanical Licensing Collective, the safe harbor giveaway and the blanket license) is that it pretty much ignores the entire complex system of content management organizations outside the U.S. As they describe themselves, “CISAC and BIEM are international organisations representing Collective Management Organisations (“CMOs”) worldwide that are entrusted with the management of creators’ rights and, as such, have a direct interest in the Regulations governing the functioning of the Database and the transparency of MLC’s operations. CISAC and BIEM would like to thank the Office for highlighting the existence and particularity of entities such as CMOs that are not referred to in the MMA.”

Read More: https://musictech.solutions/2020/10/28/the-world-is-not-flat-cisacnews-and-biem-focus-on-vendor-lock-in-at-the-mlc/

Paris – 28 October 2020 – Worldwide royalty collections for creators of music, audiovisual works, visual arts, drama and literature are likely to decline this year by up to 35% – or €3.5 billion in lost income – according to the latest annual Global Collections Report published by CISAC (International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers).

Read More: https://www.cisac.org/Newsroom/News-Releases/Global-creators-royalties-expected-to-decline-by-up-to-3.5-billion-in-2020

More than 9,000 artists have signed a Union of Musicians and Allied Workers petition demanding that Spotify pay at least one cent per stream.

Dubbed “Justice at Spotify,” the petition had garnered slightly more than 9,000 backers at the time of publishing, with the figure having grown by several hundred during the last hour alone. Moreover, the signers’ calls for one cent per stream – which would represent a substantial boost from Spotify’s current per-stream rate – is the first of multiple demands outlined in the detailed campaign.

Read More: https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2020/10/27/spotify-royalties-petition/

[Songwriters outside the United States should pay close attention to the disconnect between their CMOs and the MLC. It’s becoming increasingly apparent that The MLC is very US-centric and at that very Anglo-American centric in its myopia. We haven’t done a point by point comparison, but we have posted CISAC and BIEM’s comments in the past and we can’t help noticing that their current comment has a few references to prior comments that seem to have been largely ignored. They are very polite about it (maybe too polite about it) but the consequences of ignoring the CMOs is that any ex-US songwriter whose songs are exploited in the US and who relies on their CMO to collect their US earnings may find their streaming mechanicals reduced to zero after 1/1/21 if the HFA database that The MLC is using is not properly mapped.

Read More: https://thetrichordist.com/2020/10/24/cisac-and-biems-copyright-office-comments-on-the-mlc/

[The Songwriters Guild of America and the Society of Composers & Lyricists filed a joint comment with the Copyright Office on proposed rules implementing the public database that The MLC, Inc. is charged with stewarding. They raise a host of issues, but also focus on the ownership issue raised by the Alliance of Recorded Music and the songwriter credit issue raised by Kerry Muzzey.]

Read More: https://thetrichordist.com/2020/10/21/songwriters-guild-and-society-of-composers-lyricists-copyright-office-comments-on-database-ownership-and-songwriter-credit-in-public-database/

A group of more than 500 prominent European producers and directors, including Pedro Almodóvar, Agnieszka Holland and Pawel Pawlikowski, has signed an open letter demanding that new rules of engagement with global streamers like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are set into law across all EU territories.

Read More: https://variety.com/2020/digital/global/european-auteurs-clamor-for-new-rules-of-engagement-with-streamers-1234818589/

Universal Music Group just stormed Q3.

According to numbers from UMG parent Vivendi, the music company turned over €992m ($1.14bn) in recorded music streaming revenues in the three months to end of September.

This $1bn-plus figure was up by 22.6% in organic terms on the prior year quarter (Q3 2019), and represented only the second time in UMG history that the firm’s recorded music streaming revenues have surpassed a billion dollars in a single quarter.

Read More: https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/universal-music-group-just-generated-over-a-billion-dollars-from-streaming-in-a-single-quarter-during-a-global-pandemic/

Sen. Thom Tillis will release draft legislation to amend the Digital Millennium Copyright Act on Dec. 18, a Senate Republican aide said Monday.

The law was established to allow online platforms like social media sites to grow without assuming copyright liability for all of a user’s activity.

Read More: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/tillis-said-to-unveil-draft-digital-copyright-bill-in-december

Warner Music Group executives shared an incentive plan jackpot worth $593m in stock following the firm’s IPO on the Nasdaq in June, MBW can reveal.

The figure was the ultimate result of a years-long compensation plan that saw some of the firm’s leading executives participate in the upside of a successful public flotation.

Read More: https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/warner-ipo-saw-some-senior-execs-share-593m-result-from-long-term-incentive-scheme/

Spotify has invented “a whole new kind of show”. Get this, right: There’s music, but as well as music, there’s also talking. Or maybe it’s the other way around. There’s talking, but as well as talking, there’s also music. Either way, it gets really exciting when you combine the two. And that’s what’s now going to happen, creating something you’ve never experienced before. Except when you did.

MPs are to launch an inquiry into the streaming music market, looking at whether musicians are paid fairly by services like Spotify and Apple Music.

Streaming is now the major source of income for the record industry, generating just over £1bn last year.

Read More: https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-54551342

If you have received foreign streaming royalties from Sony Music Entertainment that were not calculated “at source,” you could get compensation from a class action settlement.

A settlement has been reached in a class action lawsuit over how Sony Music Entertainment (together with its unincorporated divisions and business units, its U.S. subsidiaries, affiliates, and joint ventures for which Sony Music Entertainment renders royalty accountings, and their respective predecessors, “SME”) calculated royalties for Class Members on the foreign streaming of sound recordings subject to agreements with those Class Members. The settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing by SME.

Read More: https://www.foreignstreamsettlement.com/?utm_medium=E1E-Newsletter&utm_source=MusicConnection&utm_campaign=Sony20&utm_source=musicconnection&utm_medium=email

All ticket sales for Broadway performances in New York City will be suspended through May 30, 2021, the Broadway League announced on Friday.

All 41 Broadway theaters have been closed since March 12 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Show suspensions have repeatedly been extended since then by the league, the national industry association.

Read More: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/09/entertainment/broadway-new-york-shows-may-2021/index.html

Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins has said that movie-going is facing a real threat of extinction.

Her new superhero movie has been delayed three times during the coronavirus pandemic.

She is among dozens of top Hollywood directors appealing to the US government to provide a financial lifeline to cinemas.

Read More: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54446889

The Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) previously announced that its headquarters will be located in Nashville, Tennessee — now we know the exact location.

The Mechanical Licensing Collective, or MLC, officially unveiled their location within Music City this morning. The MLC will occupy a 17,800-square-foot space on the second floor of a five-story building called Three Thirty Three (or 333, its address on 11th Ave S). Four of the structure’s five levels will welcome professionals, with the 11,000-square-foot bottom floor reserved for retail tenants.

Read More: https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2020/10/07/mechanical-licensing-collective-headquarters/

Universal Music and Sony Music are continuing to fight the big two termination right cases that have been filed with the US courts, both accusing the artists pursuing said lawsuits of bad conduct.

Read More: https://completemusicupdate.com/article/universal-and-sony-hit-back-at-artists-leading-termination-right-test-cases/

SAG-AFTRA announced today that it has made one million direct-deposit payments to its members.

SAG-AFTRA officials revealed the milestone this morning in an email to Digital Music News. Since introducing direct deposit in May of 2019, the 160,000-member union has distributed more than one million non-check payments, totaling approximately $200 million, to professionals including session musicians, background vocalists, and DJs.

Read More: https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2020/10/06/sag-aftra-direct-deposit-payments/

Universal Music and Sony Music are continuing to fight the big two termination right cases that have been filed with the US courts, both accusing the artists pursuing said lawsuits of bad conduct.

Read More: https://completemusicupdate.com/article/universal-and-sony-hit-back-at-artists-leading-termination-right-test-cases/

YouTube has apologised and deleted a tweet from its official Twitter account in which it mocked content creators for making videos that were too long.

Under its own rules, adverts can be placed in the middle of videos at least eight minutes long only – shortened in July 2020 from a 10-minute minimum.

Read More: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-54419304

The final possible legal challenge to Led Zeppelin’s ownership of Stairway To Heaven has been defeated.

The band were sued for copyright in 2014 over claims they had stolen the song’s opening riff from Taurus, by a US band called Spirit.

Read More: https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-54423922

Yoko Ono has accused a former aide of her late husband John Lennon of breaking a 20-year-old court order preventing him from profiting off the family.

Read More: https://www.worldipreview.com/news/yoko-ono-accuses-john-lennon-s-aide-of-copyright-infringement-20250

Amazon has inked fresh partnerships with Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group to remaster thousands of songs and albums to Ultra HD streaming audio quality – and make them exclusively available on its Amazon Music HD service.

Read More: https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/amazon-music-partners-with-universal-warner-to-exclusively-offer-streaming-albums-in-better-than-cd-quality-ultra-hd/

SAG-AFTRA presentation reviews new industry protocols on a safer return to work.

The SAG-AFTRA President’s Task Force on Education, Outreach & Engagement held a presentation titled A Return to Work: Putting Protocols into Practice on Sept. 25. The livestream, presented by Chief Operating Officer & General Counsel Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, came days after the union announced that it had reached an agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on a plan for a safer reopening of the industry.

Read More: https://www.sagaftra.org/mitigating-set-risks-during-covid

In February this year, Spotify launched a beta ‘Songwriter Pages’ feature offering more visibility for songwriters on its service, including their own profile pages and playlists of recordings of their works.

Read More: https://musically.com/2020/10/01/spotify-adds-video-for-written-by-songwriter-playlists/