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5 Biggest Myths About Music Streaming

How Facebook Is Trying to Avoid a Public Relations Disaster with Songwriters

In recent years, major artists have clashed with streaming services Spotify Ltd. and Apple Music over royalties paid, or not paid, for the use of their music. The same goes for Pandora Media Inc. as well as Alphabet Inc.'s YouTube, which accounts for 40% of music listening but just 4% of music revenue, according to a October 2016 study by Goldman, Sachs & Co.  For Facebook, the public relations stakes may be even higher. Alone among social media platforms, Facebook's brand is particularly tied to notions of community and fair play. For that reason, Zuckerberg has taken a variety of steps to police the site for fake news and hate speech, often with mixed results.

 

IFPI looks at global music consumption, concludes that YouTube is evil

If we could get through just one week this month without someone publishing research into modern music consumption, that would be great. Having had studies looking at the listening habits of both UK and US music fans, record industry trade group IFPI is now here with a global view.

 

23 Top Music Organizations Sign Letter On NAFTA Talks Demanding Protections For All Creators

President Trump has forced the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico; and included in that negotiation are important copyright and intellectual property provisions.

 

Stream Ripping Piracy Goes From Bad to Worse, Music Industry Reports

New data not only reveals that stream ripping remains the music industry's main piracy threat, but it's growing too. IFPI's latest music consumer insight report shows that more than a third of all Internet subscribers use stream rippers to access unlicensed music. Free music is easy to find nowadays. Just head over to YouTube and you can find millions of tracks including many of the most recent releases.

 

IFPI study: 45% of global population streams audio

The IFPI has released a new report focused on the consumer music industry, and the analysis finds continued traction for streaming as a listening format worldwide. The results showed that 45% of listeners are engaged in licensed audio streaming, up from 37% last year. Free streaming is a music source for 39% of the respondents, compared with 27% for paid sources.

 

Spotify is Beating Apple Music and Here Is Why

Of the two major front-runners in the steaming war,  Spotify and Apple Music, the former appears to be beating out its competition on several fronts. Here we look at some of main reasons for Spotify's growing success over Apple, including its 'bundling' with Hulu.

 

Overcoming The 'Nashville No'

A noted bastion of the music industry, Nashville has become infamous for its 'Nashville no,' a way of allegedly letting down artists more gently when their services are, for whatever reason, not desired.

 

Finding Time For Music When You Have A Day Job

Time management is an important and difficult skill for musicians to master, and becomes even more important and challenging when they have another full time job. Here we look at how artists can successfully juggle finding time for music with finding working full time either in or outside the house.

 

How To Book Yourself A Gig... And Get Asked Back

Cultivating and growing a fanbase is by no means an easy task, and doing requires an ample amount of blood, sweat, and tears. Here we look at how to successfully book your first gig, and better yet get invited back to play again.

 

Spotify Adds iOS Integration with Google's Waze App

Spotify has added integration with the iOS version of popular Google owned navigation and crowdsourced traffic app Waze.  Waze users can begin navigation from inside the Spotify app.  The integration also allows access to Spotify playlists from the Waze app. Users can skip tracks, play, pause and more. Spotify launched integration with Waze's Android app in March.

 

Judge Denies Spotify Motion That Would Have Upended Songwriter, Music Publisher Payments

In an important ruling that would have changed payments to songwriters and music publishers, a judge has denied a motion from Spotify that claimed that it didn't need to license tracks from publishers because they are more like online radio streams than downloads.

 

Spotify Faces Continued Mechanical License Legal Battle.

As streaming music provider Spotify explores a U.S. public stock offering, the Swedish company is embroiled in a legal battle with music publishers and songwriters who claim Spotify has not properly paid mechanical licenses for song compositions. It is facing several class action suits regarding mechanical licenses, which provide the rights to reproduce and distribute copyrighted musical compositions.

 

Royalty Compromise Coming?

The radio and recording industries have been at odds for decades over AM/FM’s exemption from paying a performance royalty. The prickly issue has been in “A” rotation since none other than Frank Sinatra made his case on Capitol Hill. Now, talks on a potential compromise are “more constructive” than they’ve been since Gordon Smith joined the National Association of Broadcasters in 2009.

 

Building An Online Presence – 7 Key Tips For Musicians

In 2017, having a professional looking website and an active presence on social media has become a key component of any band's success. That said, there are a variety of 'right' ways to go about about building an online presence. Here we look at seven tips for doing so successfully.

 

New Vinyl Pressing Plant Coming to Austin

Further evidence that the return of vinyl is as strong as ever, the city of Austin will soon see a new vinyl pressing plant known as Gold Rush Vinyl - this is good news for indie acts who often have lengthy waits when ordering their music on vinyl.

 

Don Williams, Country Music’s ‘Gentle Giant,’ Dead At 78

Don Williams, the Country Music Hall of Fame member whose imposing height and warm, reassuring voice earned him the nickname "Gentle Giant," died Friday, September 8th, after a short illness. An internationally popular country star, Williams recorded dozens of hit songs, including "Tulsa Time," "Lord, I Hope This Day Is Good" and "It Must Be Love." He was 78.

 

4 Ways The Right Social Media Tools Can Save You Time, Money

Having a robust social media presence has become essential for any independent DIY artist, but trying to be on all of them can be a taxing drain on already precious time and energy. Here we look at how to to use social media strategically in order to see the maximum return on investment.

 

Music Industry Asks Google Why It Doesn't Do More To Stop YouTube Stream Ripping

Last week, when an RIAA lawsuit forced YouTube-MP3 offline, we asked why Google has not worked to shut it down sooner. With other stream ripping sites still live, others in the music industry are now asking Google and YouTube the same question.

 

BMI Battles Rates As Revenue Grows 7% in 2017 To a New Record.

While BMI remains locked in a fight with the radio industry about how much stations should pay to songwriters for songs in its repertoire, the performance rights organization is reporting record revenue. BMI revenue jumped 7% to $1.13 billion for its fiscal year ended June 30 including more money collected from AM/FM radio

 

Facebook Offers Hundreds of Millions of Dollars for Music Rights

Facebook Inc. is offering major record labels and music publishers hundreds of millions of dollars so the users of its social network can legally include songs in videos they upload, according to people familiar with the matter. Music owners have been negotiating with Facebook for months in search of a solution, and Facebook has promised to build a system to identify and tag music that infringes copyrights. 

 

5 Bad Habits That Songwriters With Home Studios Need To Quit

If you’re reading this, you’re probably a songwriter, musician or producer with a home studio. But let me guess, you don’t seem to have enough hours in the day to get everything done and, as a result, your songwriting has suffered. Right? Being aware of our bad habits can bring about change and get us back on track.

 

7 Tips For Publishing Engaging Facebook Video Content

As a result of the popular social media platform's fiery competition with YouTube for video supremacy, Facebook is pushing its native video content more than normal posts, presenting a useful marketing opportunity for artists. Here we look at how to most effectively capitalize on said opportunity.

 

The Reasons Why CD Artwork Is Important to Your Band

If you manage a band and you’re looking to take it to new heights, it’s important you market correctly. Your band may well have the talent to be the next Linkin Park or Foo Fighters, but if you don’t get your band name out there, music fanatics from around the world aren’t going to know you exist.

 

Nielsen: Radio Usage Increases As Teens Enter Young Adulthood.

Despite growing up as digital natives, today’s 18-24 year-olds are spending more time with radio than they did as teenagers, according to new data released by Nielsen. In other words, as teens grow up and enter the workforce, their time spent with the medium rises.

 

Music Industry Solicits Artists’ Support For Royalty Battle.

The music industry is stepping up efforts to recruit more artists in the battle over intellectual property rights, including the fight to secure a performance right for broadcast radio airplay. The MusicFirst Coalition is launching a national digital ad campaign targeting music creators with the goal of recruiting them to the advocacy effort.

 

Hurricane Harvey Hits Sour Note For Texas

While Hurricane Harvey has been downgraded to a tropical storm, the Gulf Coast of Texas is still grappling with the aftermath of heavy flooding that has affected the region. CelebrityAccess has compiled a list of venues and events that have affected by this historic storm.

 

Music Industry Will Hit $41 Billion By 2030 According to New Goldman Sachs Report

An analyst forecasted that streaming will account for $34 billion of the total revenues. The Goldman Sachs analyst further predicts that streaming will account for $34 billion of that, of which $28 billion will come from paid subscription while $6 billion will come from ad-supported streaming services. She predicts that another $4 billon will come from performance rights, synchronization will be $500 million, physical and downloads $700 million and other come in at $1.2 billion.

 

Apple to Hold iPhone Launch Event on Sept. 12: Reports

Apple is set to announce a new lineup of iPhones, plus other tech updates, including a new watch and further details on its forthcoming HomePod speaker, at a special event scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 12, according to reports.

 

Neighboring Rights: An Updated Look

Here we dive back in to look further at 'neighboring rights', a form of rights holding which entitles allows monies to be distributed to artists and sound recording holders when one of their works is either broadcast publicly or streamed.

 

Snail Mail Makes A Comeback To Contact Fans

Trends, even antiquated ones, seem to have a way of coming back around, and marketing to fans appears to be no exception based on a recent re-emergence of snail mail, with an increasing number of artists falling back on the postal service to contact fans via physical mailings.

 

Streaming Takes Aim at Its Biggest Consumer Target Yet

In 2016, streaming accounted for over half of U.S. music sales. By the end of 2017, with download sales continuing to fall, it could be close to two-thirds. But what this biz’s future looks like -- and whether it will be shaped by music-centric companies like Pandora and iHeartRadio or digital giants like Apple and Amazon -- depends on what happens in the next few months.

 

Country Music Struggles to Keep Up With Streaming Era

Though country music accounts for 11.5 percent of all albums and track equivalent albums sold in the United States for the first half of 2017, the genre comprises only 5.6 percent of all streams, according to Nielsen Music. On Nielsen's top streaming artist tally for 2016, which combined on-demand audio and video streaming, the highest ranking country artist was Luke Bryan at No. 35 with 894 million streams, compared with Drake, who topped the chart with 6.8 billion streams.

 

Prevent Failure by Managing Your Expectations [MusicBiz Weekly]

Expectations, do have them? Do have realistic expectations? Do you consider if your expectations can be met? This week on the Music Biz Weekly Podcast, Michael Brandvold and Jay Gilbert discuss making sure your expectations are realistic when approaching your next project or release.

 

ASCAP Joins BMI in Dept. of Justice Licensing Smackdown

As the U.S. Department of Justice continues its effort to upend the licensing terms governing songwriters, it now faces a unified front of resistance, with ASCAP throwing its lot in with BMI, filing an amicus brief in support of what is normally a competing performing rights organization. It is accepted industry practice for license fees to be priced, and music creators’ royalties paid, on the basis of fractional shares. Music users typically obtain licenses from all PROs and do not rely on a single PRO license for a full-work grant. The switch to a single-license system could impact songwriters’ already ailing bottom-lines.

   

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