business
Spotify Suspends Premium Accounts in Russia
Spotify has suspended its premium accounts in Russia after the country’s invasion of Ukraine, a company executive said on Wednesday (March 9). Paul Vogel, the streaming platform’s CFO, said the shutdown would result in a loss of about 1.5 million paying customers in the first quarter of 2022, Variety reported. That is not expected to be material for the company: Russia represents less than 1% of Spotify’s total revenue of 9.67 billion euros ($10.93 billion) in 2021, up 22.7% from 2020. In the wake of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, Spotify said last Wednesday that it was closing its office in Russia and removing content from state-sponsored broadcasters RT and Sputnik. The platform has been unable to add new premium accounts or to run advertising in Russia since credit card companies Visa, Mas...
The future of work: Companies open offices in the metaverse
There’s been a sharp decline in interest for the “metaverse” keyword in Google search. However, while the hype may be waning, it seems that companies are still very keen on dipping their toes into the virtual world. In March alone, companies have either launched or revealed plans to build metaverse offices that would be used for online meetings with international clients, internal innovation hubs and enhancing social communication with users. While we may be witnessing its earlier versions, metaverse offices seem like a sneak peek into the future of work. With this, let’s take a look at some companies that have recently entered the metaverse. Events firm Atom sets up a metaverse office Atom, an events firm based in Mumbai, has recently set up its metaverse office. The firm purchased digita...
Downtown Launches $200M Fund to Support Indie Artists & Entrepreneurs
Downtown Music Holdings has established a fund to invest over $200 million in support of independent artists and entrepreneurs, the company announced Wednesday (March 9). The fund, which is supported by a new credit facility with Bank of America, will be spread across Downtown’s distribution, publishing administration and artist and label services operations. In a statement, Downtown Music Holdings CEO Andrew Bergman said the financing from Bank of America “enables us to expand our music services business by giving creators and business owners the ability to finance projects in an environment where the options are often unpalatable.” Downtown chief investment officer Alan Goodstadt added, “We are immensely gratified that Bank of America shares our vision of building financial solutions for...
Music Earnings Q4 2021: Taking Stock of Spotify, WMG, SiriusXM & More Companies
Most public music companies continued hot streaks by turning in good or excellent numbers for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2021. For the majority of them, however, it would have been difficult not to impress in 2021 compared to 2020. COVID-19 shut down the touring business for three quarters of 2020, hampered brick-and-mortar retail for much of the year and hammered advertising spending, which affected radio broadcasters as well as streaming services. By the end of 2021, businesses’s main problems were rising costs and labor shortages, not unemployment and unpredictable consumer spending. Each component of the music ecosystem had encouraging results. The three majors — Universal Music Group, Sony’s music division and Warner Music Group — had combined revenues of about $25.4 billion, up 19.8%...
Sia Says She’s Behind Popular Snoop Dogg-Affiliated NFT Twitter Account
Sia has come out… as an avid NFT collector. On Tuesday (March 8), the singer-songwriter revealed that she’s behind the NFT Twitter handle @BiancaMedici69, which trades and discusses NFTs with over 13,000 followers. The account owner had been teasing their identity for several days, tweeting on Monday, “It’s been a joy quietly collecting NFTs this last year supporting other artists & causes. And oh what fun being a secret Medici. But I think it may bring more attention to these artists & causes if I went ‘public.’ So Tuesday at 2pm PT, I will dox & reveal my true identity.” Sia revealed her involvement with a tweet from her official account on Tuesday which read, “I am @BiancaMedici69.” Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news I am @BiancaMed...
Ed Sheeran Sings In London Court to Defend His Authorship of ‘Shape Of You’
LONDON — Ed Sheeran sang a brief burst of Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good” in London’s High Court on Tuesday (March 8), while giving evidence in a copyright trial over one of his biggest hits. Sheeran is in a legal dispute with songwriters Sami Chokri, who performs under the name Sami Switch, and Ross O’Donoghue over Sheeran’s 2017 hit single “Shape of You.” Chokri and O’Donoghue argue that the global hit lifts “particular lines and phrases” from their 2015 single “Oh Why” – allegations denied by Sheeran and “Shape of You” co-writers Steven McCutcheon, better known as Steve Mac, and John McDaid. Giving evidence for a second day in a trial expected to last up to three weeks, Sheeran sang parts of “Feeling Good” and his 2013 single “I See Fire,” as well as the “Oh I, Oh I, Oh I” chorus hook from...
‘Euphoria’ Synchs Drive Streaming Gains ‘Unlike Any Other TV Show’
Since its debut in 2018, HBO’s high school drama Euphoria has been a sensation, but when the show came back for its long awaited second season on Jan. 9, 2022, it reached new heights — and helped a handful of hits experience a second spike of popularity along the way. With a viewership doubling over the first three episodes, as Variety reported in February, Euphoria‘s new season quickly became an important vehicle for massive streaming bumps of older tracks. For the show’s music — which pivots from Thelonius Monk or Judy Garland to Lil Xan and 100 Gecs’ Laura Les within a single hour-long episode, all curated by music supervisor Jen Malone and featuring an original score by producer-artist Labrinth — there was a measurable spike in listenership after each episode aired for nearly every s...
Bain Capital launches a first crypto-dedicated fund worth $560 million
The BCV Fund I has already invested $100 million into some unnamed crypto projects The Fund aims for active participation in crypto start-ups The venture arm of Massachusetts-based investment firm Bain Capital, Bain Capital Ventures (BCV), has announced the launch of a first dedicated crypto-focused fund, called the BCV Fund I. With a $560 million ‘armoury,’ BCV will aim to advance its crypto endeavours even further, as it has been a player in the crypto scene for seven years now. Notably, it holds investments in some prominent names in the space, including Grayscale’s parent company, the Digital Currency Group, Compound, and BlockFi. Since the Fund closed last November, Bain Capital Crypto, which runs it, has already invested $100 million into a slew of yet unrevealed cr...
Supreme Court Won’t Review Decision That Freed Bill Cosby
The U.S. Supreme Court quietly announced Monday that it would not review Bill Cosby’s sexual assault case, leaving him a free man and ending a two-decade legal drama that shifted the cultural landscape, destroyed the groundbreaking Black actor’s reputation, and sent him to prison for several years late in life. The high court, without comment, declined to review a stunning decision out of Pennsylvania that released Cosby from prison in June over the word of a former prosecutor who said he had made a secret promise to Cosby’s lawyers that he would never be charged. A Cosby spokesperson expressed “sincere gratitude to the justices” on behalf of Cosby and his family for the announcement and said he was the victim of “a reprehensible bait and switch” by the district attorney and judge in the c...
Binance unveils Bifinity and reintroduces EUR & GBP bank transfers
Through Bifinity’s intuitive APIs, businesses will gain crypto-readiness. Binance has also fully brought back Euro and Pound bank transfers via SEPA and FTP. Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is increasingly smoothing the path towards crypto adoption by new users. The crypto exchange today announced the launch of its native fiat-to-crypto payments provider. Dubbed Bifinity, Binance said in a press release published today that the new tech pay firm would enable “mainstream and crypto merchants to scale their businesses” to become crypto ready. Bifinity would provide them with intuitive Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to enable them to accept payments in crypto easily. Binance added that Bifinity would provide support for crypto buy-sell ...
Geffen Records Names Tom March U.S. President
Tom March has been named the new president of Geffen Records in the United States, the company announced today (March 7). March, who spent the past six years as co-president of Polydor in the U.K., will take up his new post in July and report to Interscope Geffen A&M chairman/CEO John Janick. March joins at a period when Geffen is on an upswing it hasn’t experienced in some time, with Olivia Rodrigo having broken out into superstar status in the past year with her album SOUR and nominations in each of the Big Four categories coming up at the Grammys in April. Geffen, in addition to INgrooves and Universal Music Group, will also be the distribution home for BTS when they make their UMG debut after leaving Columbia Records last fall, while another signing, the rapper Yeat, saw his latest...
FTX exchange looking to start operations in the European market
The crypto exchange has disclosed it has established a European division The exchange’s founder Sam Bankman-Fried has previously talked about expansion and acquisition plans Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX has today announced a major milestone in its venture to explore new markets. The cryptocurrency exchange revealed today it has set up a Switzerland unit befittingly named FTX Europe that will be focused on serving users from Europe and the Middle East. The new unit has an additional base in Cyprus where it is licensed by the local watchdog CySEC according to the exchange’s press release. An FTX.US equivalent operating in Europe FTX previously set up a unit, FTX.US, that solely operates in the United States – a market that is widely considered stricter. The Switzerland-based unit, which comes two...
