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.
