Four Tet launches legal action against Domino Recordings over streaming royalties
Kieran Hebden, aka Four Tet, has launched legal proceedings against record label Domino over a dispute about royalties.
Streaming model needs “total reset”, damning UK govt report concludes
The UK governments report into the Economy of Streaming – which began in October 2020 – has concluded that the streaming model needs a ‘total reset’. Claiming musicians and songwriters receive ‘pitiful returns’ from the current streaming model, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) report concluded a number of fundamental and radical changes are required in order for artists to be fairly compensated and to prevent the UK’s music landscape from being transformed “within a decade”.
How Patreon is helping electronic music survive during the pandemic
Spotify granted patent involving monitoring of users' speech for music recommendations
Spotify has been granted patent to utilise listeners speech for music recommendations.
Swedish streaming giant Spotify, which reached a $50 billion market valuation in 2020, has been granted a patent with technology to use speech recognition as a tool to determine a user's "emotional state, gender, age, or accent" to recommend content, Music Business Worldwide reports.
Streaming accounted for 80% of UK music consumption in 2020, report shows
A report has shown that online streaming accounted for just over 80% of the UK's music consumption last year.
Coming days after stocks in Spotify hit a new all-time high on the New York Stock Exchange, official figures released by record labels’ association the BPI, revealed that streaming now accounts for four-fifths (80.6%) of the UK's music consumption. The figures are based on Official Charts Company data.
2020: a year in dance music
Nile Rodgers: major labels are “perpetrating” unfair streaming royalty distribution
Chic guitarist Nile Rodgers argued that major labels are to blame for low artist income from streaming platforms, appearing before MPs yesterday as part of an inquiry into the financial impact of services like Spotify and Apple Music.
82% of artists earn less than £200 a year from streaming
82% of musicians earned less than £200 from streaming in 2019, according to a new poll by the UK’s independent body for music creators, The Ivors Academy and the Musicians’ Union.
SoundCloud reports first ever profitable quarter
SoundCloud has reported its first ever profitable quarter.
In January this year, streaming giant SoundCloud reported that in 2019 it had turned over more than $200m for the first time. Now, it has announced the first-ever profitable quarter for the site, with a 37% increase year-on-year in 2019.
Music managers call for urgent changes to streaming and financial imbalances
Music managers have called for urgent changes to streaming and financial imbalances in a four-step plan.
