business
Netease Cloud Village Stock Slips 2.5% Following Hong Kong IPO
Chinese music streaming company Cloud Village finally had its initial public stock offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Thursday (Dec. 2) after postponing its plans in August amid a Chinese regulatory crackdown. Investors’ initial reaction was underwhelming as Cloud Village’s share price closed at 199.90 Hong Kong dollars ($25.66), about 2.5% below the 205.00 Hong Kong dollars ($26.31) IPO price. Tech giant Netease spun off the company, which runs NetEase Cloud Music, in an offering of 16 million shares — 7.7% of the outstanding shares — that raised 41.5 billion Hong Kong dollars ($421 million). NetEase gained approval for the spin-off on Aug. 2 but delayed the listing indefinitely about a week later after Beijing’s tightening regulations brought attention to publicly traded Chinese...
John Mulaney, Mike Birbiglia & More Comedians Pulled Off Spotify Over Licensing Dispute
Spotify hosts a large offering of spoken word content on its platform these days, including comedy, podcasts, and poetry along with the music the platform has always been known for. Last week, however, on Nov. 24, the day before Thanksgiving, the streaming service quietly took down a broad swath of its spoken comedy recordings, including some of major comedy stars like Mike Birbiglia, John Mulaney and Jeff Foxworthy. Sparking confusion and outrage among these affected comedians and their fans, as of Wednesday (Dec. 1), a full week later, the Spotify takedowns remain in place. So why did this happen in the first place? Like music, there are two copyrights for a spoken-word comedy routine. First, the copyright for sound recording itself — for which many comedians collect royalties via SoundE...
Investigator Details How Jussie Smollett Took Brothers On ‘Dry Run’ Before Hoax Attack
Prosecutors’ case against Jussie Smollett has focused on how Chicago police say they determined that what they initially believed was a horrific hate crime was actually a fake assault staged by the ex-Empire actor with help from two brothers. Testimony will continue Wednesday (Dec. 1) in the trial, which is expected to last about a week. A lead investigator in the case, Michael Theis, said Tuesday that the brothers — who worked with Smollett on the Chicago set of Empire — detailed for police how the actor orchestrated the hoax. They said Smollett told them via text message to meet him “on the low,” paid for supplies including a clothesline later fashioned into a noose and took them for a “dry run” prior to the January 2019 alleged attack. Theis, who now is assistant director for ...
Las Vegas Police Investigating Trey Songz Over Sexual Assault Allegation
Police said Tuesday (Nov. 30) they’re investigating sexual assault allegations involving R&B artist Trey Songz at a Las Vegas Strip hotel. In a statement, Las Vegas police said sex crimes detectives received a complaint about a Sunday incident involving the singer and actor whose name is Tremaine Aldon Neverson. Sunday was his 37th birthday. Explore See latest videos, charts and news Neverson was cooperating with the investigation and no arrests have been made, said Officer Misael Parra, a Las Vegas police spokesman. Parra declined to name the hotel. A representative for Neverson didn’t immediately respond to messages. Neverson has had several legal issues in the past. He was arrested in January at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, but criminal charges were not filed after he...
Josh Groban’s ‘You Raise Me Up’ Didn’t Violate Copyrights, Court Says
A federal appeals court ruled Monday that Josh Groban’s 2003 song “You Raise Me Up” didn’t infringe the copyright to a little-known 1977 song, ruling that both songs were actually derived from the century-old folk song “Danny Boy.” Ending a three-year legal battle over Groban’s first big hit, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a lower judge’s decision last year: That any similarities between the two songs originated in the famous folk ballad, for which any copyright has long since expired. The ruling came in a lawsuit filed in 2018 by a company called Johannsongs-Publishing Ltd., which owns the rights to a 1977 song entitled “Söknuður.” The case claimed that “You Raise Me Up,” written by Irish-Norwegian band Secret Garden but popularized by Groban’s version, was “97% si...
ASM Global Taps Jason Oberlander as Chief Commercial Officer
Venue management company ASM Global is expanding its partnership division with Jason Oberlander, who has been hired as chief commercial officer. Oberlander will be tasked with expanding ASM’s naming rights and marketing partnerships for the company’s arenas, stadiums, theaters and convention centers. “We have the scale, consumer touchpoints and ability to integrate brands in—to music, sports, business, tech and more—that will drive value for the brands, content providers, venue partners and guests,” said ASM President and CEO Ron Bension in a release. “Jason’s extensive experience, particularly with IMG in forging new national partnerships with Fortune 1000 brands, will provide far and away the most diverse and enriching opportunities the industry has ever seen.” Oberlande...
UK Watchdog Orders Meta/Facebook to Sell GIF Platform Giphy
The United Kingdom’s antitrust watchdog has blocked Facebook’s acquisition of Giphy and ordered the social network to sell off the GIF-sharing platform, saying the deal hurts social media users and advertisers by stifling competition for animated images. The Competition and Markets Authority said Tuesday that the deal would let Facebook “increase its already significant market power” by denying or limiting other platforms’ access to Giphy GIFs and driving traffic to Facebook-owned sites. It has noted previously that there’s only one other big provider of GIFs, Google’s Tenor. The regulator also was concerned that the deal removed potential competition from the U.K.’s 7 billion pound ($9.3 billion) display advertising market, of which Facebook controls half. It’s the first time the watchdog...
Canadians Are Now Hitting 2 Billion Weekly Audio Streams
Canadian consumers are now streaming more than two billion on-demand audio streams per week — a new benchmark for the country’s music industry. For the third consecutive week, Canada hit the two billion-streams mark in the week ending Nov. 25, according to MRC Data. The total 2.047 billion streams were up 15.9% from the same period last year. Two billion on-demand streams in Canada are worth about 777,500 Canadian dollars ($610,000), according to an estimate by performing rights organization SOCAN provided to Billboard based on a quarterly average earnings of 0.000389 Canadian dollars ($0.000305) per stream. (“Keep in mind this is an average that considers many platforms each with their own variables,” a SOCAN representative stated. “This n...
What the Metaverse Means for Music Creators (Guest Column)
There is a lot of buzz around the concept of a “Metaverse.” The company formerly known as Facebook recently announced its ambition to create a futuristic, immersive social experience, and to achieve this, it will become a new hub for listening to, discovering and interacting with music and music creators. Undoubtedly, music will be as important to the metaverse as it is to the real world. As Mark Zuckerberg recently told The Vergecast, “You might be able to jump into an experience, like a 3D concert or something, from your phone, so you can get elements that are 2D or elements that are 3D. … I think that this is going to be a really big part of the next chapter for the technology industry, and it’s something that we’re very excited about.” Merging social media, gaming, consumerism and othe...
Rosalie Trombley, Canadian Broadcast Legend and Bob Seger Muse, Dies at 82
Canadian broadcast legend Rosalie Trombley, a trailblazer for women in the music industry who was immortalized by Bob Seger in his 1973 single “Rosalie” as “everybody’s favorite little record girl,” died on Nov. 23. She was 82. Seger sang, “she knows music…she’s got the power” in his 1973 song about Trombley, who for nearly two decades served as music director of the influential top 40 station CKLW-AM/The Big 8, situated in the Canadian border city of Windsor across from Detroit. Explore Explore Bob Seger See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “Rosalie was an icon, a trailblazer, and our friend,” Seger posted on Facebook upon learning of her passing. “Through her hard work and incredible instincts, she achieved a rare level of influence and power in music. Wh...
Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey Announces He Is Stepping Down as CEO
Twitter CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey will step down as the tech company’s chief executive. Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s CTO, will succeed Dorsey as the company’s new CEO, effective immediately. Twitter announced the news Monday, with the company’s board unanimously approving of Agrawal as Dorsey’s replacement. Dorsey will remain on Twitter’s board of directors through his current term, which runs into 2022. Once his term ends, Dorsey told staff in an email (with the subject line “Fly”) that he will leave the company entirely. Current board member Bret Taylor will become the company’s chairman. “I’ve decided to leave Twitter because I believe the company is ready to move on from its founders. My trust in Parag as Twitter’s CEO is deep. His work over the past 10 years ...
Live Nation Among Stocks Down Amid Fears Over New COVID-19 Variant
Stock prices around the globe fell on Friday (Nov. 26) after the World Health Organization warned of a new, fast-spreading COVID-19 variant discovered in South Africa. One of the stocks affected most was Live Nation, which dropped 8.06% on Friday in a shortened day of trading. After rising from $67 a share a year ago to a 52-week high of $127.75 a share in early November, the stock closed at $112.66 Monday, then fell to $103.52 today. The Dow Industrial Average fell 905 points, or 2.5%, marking its largest one-day percentage drop since October 2020. The World Health Organization said on Friday that the new variant — called Omicron — “has a large number of mutations, some of which are concerning.” The organization added, “Preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of reinfection w...
