Can Music Keep Up in the Attention Economy?

Music streaming services have continued to add U.S. subscribers this year, according to MIDiA Research, growing by 11 million paying users from January to September, to 117.9 million. But in a potentially troubling sign for the recorded music business, the number of total streams has remained the same.

Jay-Z Returns To Spotify Music

Rap icon Jay-Z brought his music discography back to the world’s largest streaming platform Spotify, leaving Tidal subscribers scratching their heads. The service he bought for $56 million in 2014 has struggled to gain any real market share against major players like Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music.

Apple Sued Over Unpaid Royalties

The main sale and attraction of streaming services is that they pride themselves in how much they pay for artist royalties. However, Apple has recently received a new lawsuit over unpaid royalties for independent artists. The lawsuit contradicts the value that they promise to artists.

Streaming Music Has Sold More Than CDs

I have not heard a soul in this world that say they dislike +Spotify. Even artist can +Get Your Music On Spotify now and days. The music industry is changing, with music streaming earning more money than the sale of CDs for the first time ever in 2014. According to the RIAA, music streaming earned a total of $1.87 billion in 2014, while CDs generated $1.85 billion, with the entire industry earning $6.97 billion overall, which was slightly down from their numbers in 2013.

Though these numbers are close, it’s clear that streaming is on the upswing while CDs are becoming a thing of the past, especially with Spotify records already getting shattered by Kendrick Lamar and Drake just three months into the year. Now all music streaming services needs is for Taylor Swift to get on board, and it’s a wrap.

(Click Here) To Go To Spotify.com

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Jay Z Talks Tidal, Jimmy Iovine, And Rewriting The Music Rulebook

Jay Z doesn’t give many interviews. In conversation, he often pauses mid-sentence, considers, rewinds, slices and reshapes his answer, choosing a more appropriate word or analogy that draws a finer point before revealing it to the interviewer. What’s commonly assumed is a mistrust of the press may just be that unlike his work in the studio or onstage, Jay Z doesn’t ultimately control the final result of an interview, and therefore treads more carefully while giving one.

Apple Buys Musicmetric

Apple has acquired a London music startup. The tech giant has bought the company behind music analytics service Musicmetric, Musically reports. 

Musicmetric owner Semetric changed its registered address to 100 New Bridge Street in London, home of Apple Europe Ltd. On the same day, it also filed documents to detail the appointment of a new director. He’s called Gene Daniel Levoff and up until now has been based at Apple’s global HQ.

Apple told Musically that it “buys smaller technology companies from time to time,” adding that it doesn’t “generally discuss our purpose or plan”. Semetric also declined to comment.

It’s speculated that Apple’s latest purchase could pave the way for the company to expand its music services. Apple wants to better tune its music arms: iTunes will likely be overhauled. But it’s Beats Music that stands to benefit most. Apple is going to relaunch the platform this year and there’s talk it could come pre-installed on iPhones and iPads.

Musicmetric launched in 2008 and allows music industry clients to track social and sales analytics through a dashboard, Musically writes — it also offers data streaming. In Jan. 2013 it received $4.8 million in funding.

Musicmetric says it’s about “turning big data into big opportunities”, and continues: “Whether you’re planning your first album launch or a global tour, on the lookout for new talent or after some killer intelligence to help pick your next brand ambassador, the Musicmetric dashboard will quickly and simply tell you all you need to know.”

How Apple chooses to use and develop Musicmetric remains to be seen, but one certainty is the implications the acquisition has for other streaming companies such as Spotify and Next Big Sound.

Here’s what Musically says:

Spotify has a partnership with Musicmetric to pipe in streaming data for labels to access via the latter’s dashboard.

Just as rival streaming services ended their partnerships with music/tech firm The Echo Nest firm when Spotify bought it last year, so Spotify is unlikely to be too keen on providing a firehose of its data to an Apple subsidiary.

KingPen Slim (@kingpenslim) & Lambo Anlo (@LamboAnlo) - "Ain't Nothin" (Freestyle)

Lambo Anlo and KingPen Slim play Snoop and Dre for a day in the remake of their classic video/song "Nuthin But A G Thang". Off Slim's upcoming freestyle tape entitled “TBT”. Lambo Anlo's debut EP powered by Rostrum Records is available on all streaming services now. Slim’s tape "Trapper’s Delight" is available on all streaming services now as well.

Universal Music Group Shuts Down Apple Music Exclusives

(The Wrap-Up Magazine) Apple’s iTunes, Lucian Grainge, CEO of Universal Music Group and widely regarded as the most powerful executive in the music industry, has reportedly ordered the company’s labels to stop the practice of making “exclusive” distribution deals with streaming services.

According to Bob Lefsetz, author of an influential music industry newsletter, Grainge sent out a company-wide email on Monday. UMG, which boasted seven of 2015’s 10 best-selling albums and 38.5% of the year’s recorded-music sales, will be the first major label to ban the practice, which many feel has begun to diminish rather than enhance the way music is distributed and consumed.

The directive will affect dozens of bands under the UMG umbrella, including all five of this year’s album of the year Grammy nominees: Kendrick Lamar, Taylor Swift, the Weeknd, Chris Stapleton and Alabama Shakes.

The practice of artists offering exclusives to competing streaming and download services, including Apple and Tidal, has been gaining traction this year. Both Beyoncé and Rihanna launched their recent albums through Tidal, the streaming service part-owned by Beyoncé’s husband, Jay Z.

What Is The Streaming War All About?

 

Media companies have launched direct-to-consumer video services to compete with Netflix. All of them have been following category leader Netflix with global expansion and investing billions of dollars in content.

US Senate Passes New Music Act

The Senate has passed legislation that aims to strengthen music copyright and improve royalty rates for artists in the streaming era. The upper chamber voted unanimously in favor of the bill, titled the Music Modernization Act.

Among the proposed changes, the legislation codifies producers and engineers as copyright holders, meaning both would receive digital royalties when songs are played on streaming services. Currently, producers are not included in copyright law and must negotiate their own payment deals.

For hip-hop producers, especially, the current setup often results in a flat-rate purchase fee, leaving the producer without any claim to future streaming revenue. When producers do negotiate royalty deals, they're typically taking a cut from the performer's own royalties.

The Music Modernization Act also creates a new music licensing organization, run by publishers and songwriters, that will identify a song's copyright holders and manage royalty payouts. That work is currently handled by digital platforms themselves, who have frequently been sued over unpaid royalties. The bill also extends copyright protections for pre-1972 recordings.

Stream Your Music In Kuack Media Group

Learn about distributing your music to Kuack Media Group - the new streaming service offered to mobile providers in the Caribbeans. By adding your music to Kuack, you can get your music heard on millions of mobile devices across Latin America and the Caribbean.

Kuack powers the streaming services set up by some of the biggest mobile carriers and other big brands in Latin America and the Caribbean, including Digicel, Kolbi Costa Rica, Viva Bolivia, and Virgin Mobile Colombia, Peru and Dominican Republic.

They offer Premium and “Top Chart” subscription tiers, both with access to unlimited streaming, playlists, conditional downloads, and social networks. They also offer curated content with an emphasis on featuring independent and local artists.

(CLICK HERE) TO JOIN AND SUBMIT YOUR MUSIC

#Stream "Swang" On All Digital Services

Just in time for Christmas and the New Year, Nieman Marcus the rapper new track "Swang" has hit all streaming services and is now available for your playlist preference.

"Swang" is one dance song you may not want to miss out on. This banger is just the right song to put you in a clubbing mood. You can now stream the song on all digital services.

Listen in to the track below or click any of the links below that fits your music needs.

Swang now on Deezer

Stream on Spotify

Purchase on Itunes

Kobalt Collects $75M In Artist Royalties

Kobalt, the European startup that has built technology and a platform to collect music royalties by tracking when even a sample of a song is played across multiple platforms, has raised another $75 million in funding.

#NowPlaying Sean-Toure’- Garveyite @SeanToure

On Juneteenth 2020 Baltimore Music Producer/Emcee Sean-Toure’s new song "Garveyite" made its debut on all music streaming platforms. The energetic song laced with incredible music production and powerful lyrics promotes Black pride, self-love, and unity.

The track about empowerment and resilience centers on the recent protests, uprisings, and gentrification taking place in America. The powerful lyrics, elaborately produced soulful-beat, and awesomely catchy hook make this song one of the best Hip Hop singles of 2020.

Best Buy Shut Down Music Department

As of July 1st, Best Buy officially ceased sales of physical CDs at all stores nationwide. The electronics retail giant will no longer offer compact discs due to a major decrease in sales. According to ABC, sales decreased by 18.5% in 2017, which is a perfect example of the growing power of streaming services such as Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, among others, at work.

While CDs have begun to become a thing of the past throughout the last several years, vinyl copies of songs and albums will still remain on Best Buy shelves for at least a couple more years, as they continue to quench the nostalgia of music lovers. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), vinyl sales were up 3% in 2016. The RIAA has also reported that in 2016, streaming alone generated more revenue in the United States music business than all other formats combined for the first time ever. Target is expected to be the second retail giant to begin selling fewer amounts of CDs in upcoming months.

Investors Put $2.4 Billion Into Music

In the 57 investment deals totaling over $2.4 billion tracked by Billboard, nearly 9 in 10 dollars invested went to a traditional music company, an EDM concert promoter or a company that streams music. Most of the investments were made in small, digital startups. Some are trying to improve how people discover concerts. A handful of them are changing how people create music.

A similar company hoping to disrupt the recorded music market is Beats Music, a subscription service that launched Jan. 21. An offshoot of Beats Electronics, the maker of the popular Beats By Dr. Dre headphones, Beats Music raised $60 million from Access Industries, the owner of Warner Music Group. (A year earlier, Access placed $130 million in Deezer, a competitor of Spotify and Beats Music.)

Warner Music Group’s acquisition of Parlophone Label Group was the biggest single investment in music in 2013. The $765 million deal, representing nearly a third of the year’s music investments, gave Warner not only Parlophone and Chrysalis but EMI’s operations in a handful of European countries. Also in this category was the acquisition of Nettwerk Music Group for $10.3 million in April.

Investors in streaming music were attracted to scale, potential and momentum rather than profitability. Services that provide on-demand streaming either audio or video raised $406.5 million. The largest deal was a $250 million investment in Spotify, an unprofitable company that’s a category leader and has 24 million active users — not all of them paying customers — across 55 countries.

SFX Entertainment accounted for the next-largest bucket, concert promotion, worth $480 million. The EDM-focused company’s initial public stock offering in October raised $260 million. It also acquired three EDM promoters: ID&T for $130 million, i-Motion for $21 million and Totem OneLove Group for $69.1 million.

In spite of a reputation for difficult business models and costly licensing fees, services that use licensed music attracted $838.8 million, or 49% of all investments. Four deals landed by Internet radio companies raised $443.3 million. Following Pandora’s $393.3-million secondary stock offering were smaller venture capital rounds by TuneIn ($25 million), DeliRadio ($9.4 million) and Songza ($4.7 million). There is a catch: TuneIn is merely an aggregator of Internet radio streams and doesn’t itself pay any royalties.

Investors backed numerous companies that help consumers find music they like. The smallest investment was $100,000 in Bop.fm, an online tool that aggregates songs from various digital music services. Two other startups that offer aggregation tools, Songdrop and MFiveLabs, received funding. Investors also backed numerous companies that help people discovery music or concerts. Most such deals were small, but music identification app Shazam received a $40-million investment from the world’s richest man, Carlos Slim.

Related articles

• Last.fm tests free Internet radio service powered by YouTube
• 2013 Saw $2.4 Billion Go To Investing In Music
• Warner Music Buys Parlophone [Cold Play, Pink Floyd, David Guetta] For $765 Million
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Bean City Now Playing

The Gansta Marcus produced track "Bean City" is now playing on Spotify and other streaming services. This track streams off the 419 To The 662 Album!

Drake Disses Kendrick Lamar on "Push Ups"

 

Drake has finally released the CDQ version of his response to Kendrick Lamar and others on streaming services.

In the days leading up to the formal release, Drake has been trying to get Kendrick to respond by making numerous shady posts about him and his team. The pgLang co-founder has yet to acknowledge the diss track.

#Stream Da Real EKG - Jiggle like Jello @kingofthadot

New Jersey rapper Da Real EKG releases his previous track Jiggle like Jello on all available digital streaming services.

Hailing from Dothan, Alabama by way of Newark, New Jersey, EKG is a driven, passionate and charismatic artist with a unique approach to his blend of hip-hop. His sound bridges the gaps between old school grit and modern punch, connecting with listeners through high-energy release, uplifting melodies, and a thought-provoking lyrical flow.

Video Game Sales Soared In 2018

It seems as if everyone in America is playing video games these days. Overall, consumers spent $43.4 billion last year, according to The NPD Group, which tracks retail sales of video game hardware and software. That’s an 18% increase over 2017.

The big winner for 2018, though, was Nintendo. While the company didn’t have the year’s best selling game (though Super Smash Bros. Ultimate came in at number five), strong catalog sales of existing titles along with new titles helped it become the highest software revenue generating publisher of the year. That’s the first time it’s held that title since 2009.

“2018 was another record setting year for the U.S. video game industry.” “Console, PC, and mobile platforms all saw significant growth, while developing portions of the market like subscription and streaming services gave us a peek into a future full of possibilities for the industry and gamers.”

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