business
PRS for Music Warns of Hard Times Ahead as Revenues Drop 20%
The collecting society, which represents more than 10 million musical works and has 155,000 members, says that a projected rise in online royalty income won’t be enough to offset the loss of public performance distributions, which PRS expects to fall by at least 10% in 2021. Much of the £699 million PRS distributed in 2020 — an increase of 2% over 2019 — came from royalties collected pre-pandemic, meaning the dramatic fall in income will be felt hardest by its members in 2021 and beyond, PRS for Music CEO Andrea Czapary Martin tells Billboard. “It has been a tough time and it will be a tough time again this year,” says Martin. “Our revenues will go up this year, but not back to the levels of 2019.” Globally, performance rights revenues fell by 10.1% to $2.3 billion in 2020 as a...
Spotify Begins Raising Prices With Family Plans in US, UK
Meanwhile, in the U.K., Student, Duo and Family Plan subscriptions will also see a price hike, up one pound apiece for Student and Duo plans to £5.99/month and £13.99/month, respectively, with Family Plan subscriptions rising £2 to £16.99/month. The raises were first reported by The Verge, which also reported that some other countries in Europe will see Student and Duo plans rise by one euro/month and Family Plans by three euros/month, with increases in Asia and South America as well. “With more than 70 million tracks and 2.2 million podcasts, Spotify continues to innovate and invest in providing our listeners with greater value than ever before, including the best audio content and user experience,” a spokesperson told Billboard in a statement. “We offer a variety of subs...
UK Primed to Resume Live Shows While Rest of Europe Struggles
While the United Kingdom appears poised to resume full-capacity outdoor shows this summer, many other European markets will be forced to wait until at least the fall. Greek doesn’t expect indoor shows to resume in continental Europe before the end of the year, but he does expect them in the United Kingdom by September. And with most U.S. artists choosing not to tour Europe due to a paucity of tour dates and the possibility of new virus restrictions, local U.K. and European acts will take center stage as headliners. Dieter Semmelman, CEO of Berlin-based Semmel Concerts, sees “no chance” of a return to live music events in Germany this summer and, instead, is focused on saving about 300 concerts scheduled for October through December. “It’s not a good feeling” that other markets are ahead of...
Zimbabwe street vendors reel under virus curbs
For years, Zimbabwean single mother Spiwe Tembo would sell buns on the streets of central Harare, earning enough to feed her three children. But her fortunes have dived. Since authorities banned street hawkers a year ago as part of a raft of measures to limit the spread of Covid-19, she plays cat-and-mouse with the police who comb the streets to rid them of vendors. “Things are tough,” the 34-year-old said, waving a packet of large buns to potential customers on a busy street in a part of Harare that locals call “Third World” because it is always teeming. She said: “We get arrested by municipal and national police. Almost daily I pay bribes to police officers to avoid getting arrested.” On the days she doesn’t have any cash, the inevitable happens and she is arrested and her wares seized. ...
H.E.R., Jon Batiste and All the Record-Setters From the 2021 Oscars
The Oscar win for H.E.R., D’Mile and Thomas comes just six weeks after they won a Grammy for song of the year for “I Can’t Breathe.” This is the first time in 35 years that a songwriter or songwriting team has won an Oscar in the same awards season that they won a Grammy for song of the year for a different song. Lionel Richie won both awards in 1986. He and Michael Jackson shared the Grammy for song of the year on Feb. 25, 1986 for “We Are The World.” On March 24 of that year, he won the Oscar for “Say You, Say Me” from White Nights. With the win for “Fight For You,” fellow nominee Diane Warren’s Oscar track record stands at 0-12. She is one of just seven people in Oscar history – across all categories – to amass as many as 12 nominations without a win. (Let’s hope nomination No. 13 will ...
FSG rejects £3 billion offer to sell Liverpool
Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group has rejected a £3bn offer from the Middle East to sell. The offer was made to FSG prior to the announcement on Sunday night that principal owner John W. Henry had been involved in talks to take Liverpool into the ill-fated European Super League, reports the Mirror. Following anger aimed at FSG in the wake of the failed Super League plot there are other potential bidders waiting in the wings to see if the stance of Henry and Liverpool chairman Tom Werner changes as a result of the enormous criticism they face. FSG took charge of Liverpool in 2010, buying the club for around £300m to end the reign of the deeply unpopular Tom Hicks and George Gillett at Anfield, the American duo having left the Reds on a financial cliff edge by the time their exit arrived....
PANDEF seeks South-south security outfit
The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) has paid a consultative visit to former President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja to discuss the current security situation of the country and South south matters particularly the need for a regional security arrangement for the South-South as being done by other zones in the country. The PANDEF delegation led by the National Chairman, Senator Emmanuel Ibok Essien, said they visited the former President because he was a key voice in the country, and the political leader of the Niger Delta Region, and that his vast knowledge and understanding of the complexities and intricacies of the country, and the region, would be of immense benefit to PANDEF, and other groups in the country in the efforts to resolving the challenges we are confronted with. The group in a s...
Lil Nas X’s ‘Montero’ Climbs to Australian Chart Summit
There’s a new leader on the ARIA Albums Chart as London Grammar’s Californian Soil (Dew Process/Universal) debuts in the top spot. It’s their first No. 1 in three tries. California Soil is the followup to Truth Is A Beautiful Thing, which hit No. 3 in June 2017, while their debut If You Wait reached No. 2 in September 2013. The British trio will tour these parts in February 2022. The Offspring narrowly miss out on a third crown with Let The Bad Times Roll (Concord/Universal), the U.S. punk veterans’ first LP in nine years. Bad Times rolls in at No. 2 for their eighth Top Ten in Australia. The Offspring previously ruled the ARIA Albums Chart with Smash (February 1995) and Americana (January 1999). Finally, international artists Alex Henry Foster and AJ Tracey make their ARIA Chart debu...
How Billie Holiday’s Estate Has Led ‘An Afterlife of Tragedy’
“It’s not right that someone who was as awful to Billie Holiday as Louis McKay was would then have control of her likeness and her money,” says Danyel Smith, a former Billboard editor whose Shine Bright: A Personal History of Black Women In Pop is due early next year. “And it’s insane, at the end of the day, control of her money and likeness is in the hands of people who didn’t know her or have a relationship with her.” The last year has been unusually active for Holiday’s estate. She’s the subject of two movies: The United States vs. Billie Holiday, plus the Billie documentary that started streaming on-demand in December. Her haunting recording of the civil rights classic “Strange Fruit” took off during last su...
Lagos: Police arrest protesting Uber, Bolt drivers
The police in Lagos have arrested some members of the Professional E-hailing Drivers and Private Owners Association (PEDPA), the umbrella body of e-hailing ride companies including Uber and Bolt, who had embarked on an industrial action over the services rendered by the platforms. Five drivers, including the president of PEDPA, Idris Shonuga, were arrested on Tuesday. Speaking on the arrest, Kolawole Aina, the Regional Vice President PEDPA, South-west, said the drivers were picked up by the police at the National Stadium in Surulere while they were gathering for a peaceful march to Alausa. Newsmen reported that Bolt and Uber drivers commenced strike on Monday to express their displeasure over the “unfavourable pricing” of the companies and its impact on their business. Shonuga, who listed ...
How Porter Robinson Found ‘The Confidence I Used To Have’ To Finish His Long-Awaited Second Album
The album’s punchy, soaring lead single, “Get Your Wish,” arrived in early 2020, with a second, “Something Comforting,” following on March 10, just as much of the world went into lockdown. Originally intended for a September 2020 release date, Nurture was pushed back due to the pandemic, giving Robinson additional time to more or less remake the project. He wrote new songs, replaced existing music and expanded the album from 11 to 14 tracks. Writing on a piano, he composed, recorded and sang every song himself, pitching up his vocals to often sound childlike and feminine — an effect he was relieved to find out can be recreated in real time when he sings during future live performances. Robinson performed his only set of 2020 during his livestream festival, Secret Sky, a 14-h...
How to Watch Today’s Senate Hearing on App Store Fairness
Apple and Google will take the hot seat at a Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee hearing examining the companies’ app stores today (April 21), where Spotify legal official Horacio Gutierrez will testify as a witness. The hearing will address the Silicon Valley tech giants’ power over the digital app market through their app stores. Developers must pay Apple and Google between 15 and 30 percent of their revenue to appear on the companies’ app stores, without a clear alternative to reach consumers. Gutierrez is head of global affairs and chief legal officer at Spotify, which filed an antitrust complaint in the EU in March 2019 alleging that Apple abused its control over which apps appear in its app store to limit competition with Apple Music. You Deserve to Make Mo...
