business
Shawn Gee Partners With Twitch to Launch BlackStream Live
The goal of BlackStream is to “unite some of the most influential, impactful, and inspiring voices of today to craft provocative and entertaining content as projected through the lens of the modern Black experience, yet meaningful to multiple generations,” a statement announcing BlackStream reads. Through strategic alliances with tastemakers and programmers, Twitch has made significant investments in the music space. In August, the Amazon-owned company announced a partnership with the Rolling Loud festival for live hip-hop events on the platform and a month later Twitch announced a partnership with Relix magazine and its owner Peter Shapiro from (who also owns Brooklyn Bowl, Capitol Theatre and Lock’N fest) to launch a channel focused on jam bands. Twitch also has streami...
This New Video Streaming Service Wants to Be Your Go-To for Filmed Music Content
Spinello and his founding team, which also includes John McDermott and Janie Hendrix of Experience Hendrix, Yoko Ono and the John Lennon estate and entertainment lawyer Jonas Herbsman, are now looking to shake up the old paradigm with an all-access subscription model that uses the power and reach of the Amazon distribution network to bring legacy video content in music — much of it rare and some it never before seen — to a larger audience than ever before. Launching today in the U.S. and slated to roll out to the rest of the world over the next year, Coda Collection has buy-in from most of the major players in music: Content partners at launch include all three major labels (Sony Music is an equity partner in the new venture), Rhino Entertainment, Concord Music, Mercury Studios...
Music Victoria Appoints Simone Schinkel as CEO
Additionally, she holds a Master of Arts and Cultural Management, a Bachelor of Fine Arts in technical production, is an alumni of the Australia Council’s Emerging Leaders Development Program and co-convenor of the Arts Industry Council of Victoria. Schinkel is based in Melbourne, which has a reputation as a world-class music city and is arguably the live heartbeat of Australia. That was pre-COVID. Melbourne has endured several setbacks during the pandemic and has only just emerged from a snap five-day lockdown, a so-called circuit-breaker intended to halt community transmissions of new, highly contagious variants of the coronavirus. “In Simone we have found the person to lead our organization and sector through its next critical stage,” comments Sally Howland, chair of Music Victoria. “CO...
Facebook Blocks News Viewing, Sharing In Australia
“It has left us facing a stark choice: attempt to comply with a law that ignores the realities of this relationship, or stop allowing news content on our services in Australia. With a heavy heart, we are choosing the latter,” Easton added. The company’s decision to take the nuclear option and block news access and sharing has already led to a storm of criticism from the emergency services in Australia who rely on the social media platform to relay vital information on wildfires, floods, extreme weather and COVID-19 among other local interest and public safety issues. The Australian government slammed Facebook for what is a landmark local ban on viewing and sharing news. “Facebook was wrong. Facebook’s actions were unnecessary, they were heavy-handed and they w...
Country Radio Was Already Adapting to Streaming. Then Came COVID-19
Indeed, it’s likely that most businesses — and maybe even CRS — will continue to use the internet for at least some conferences after offices reopen. Panelists across the summit’s spectrum referenced numerous ways in which the industry should anticipate post-pandemic change. Artists will continue to sign new recording deals after establishing audiences through online platforms, as did Andrew Jannakos, who contributed to a panel focused specifically on TikTok. In fact, songwriters are likely to receive publishing deals in greater numbers through the platform — and it’s already happening, said TikTok head of music partnerships and content operations Corey Sheridan on the same panel. Country radio will see some bounce back, though maybe not to its pre-pandemic listening leve...
WME’s Brett Murrihy Explores the State of Touring In Asia Pacific, ‘Electrifying’ India & More
In 2015, William Morris Endeavour acquired Artist Voice in a deal that saw Murrihy join the powerhouse U.S.-based talent and media agency, and take on duties for expanding and managing its presence in the music space throughout the region. Today, its clients include Dua Lipa, Lizzo, Nine Inch Nails and chart-leading newcomers Olivia Rodrigo, 24kGoldn and The Kid Laroi. To date, WME is the only global agency representing the Asia Pacific market. The pandemic has called a halt to pan-Asian touring, for the time being. Murrihy, however, anticipates the region’s touring circuit will open-up once vaccinations roll out, with Australia and New Zealand positioned to emerge earlier than its neighbors. Billboard caught up with Murrihy for a glimpse at the Pan...
It’s a Growth Story: What’s Behind UMG’s Accelerated IPO Plans?
Vivendi could earn about 9 billion euros ($10.9 billion) from the IPO, if it maintains majority ownership by unloading just just under 30% of UMG at the same 30 billion euros ($36.3 billion) valuation used last year when it sold a 20% stake to a consortium led by Chinese tech giant Tencent Corp. At that head-turning 36-times EBTIDA valuation, a multiple often seen in fast-growing tech companies, Tencent “made people take a step back and look at the valuations of music companies,” says Michael Poster, the head of Michelman & Robinson’s corporate and securities department. That’s not an unreasonable valuation: a rapidly-growing streaming market, believed by Goldman Sachs to reach 1.15 billion subscribers...
The Players Behind The Weeknd’s ‘Save Your Tears’: See the Full Credits
Artists:Main Artist – The Weeknd Songwriters:Composer Lyricist – Abel “The Weeknd” TesfayeComposer Lyricist – Ahmad BalsheComposer Lyricist – Jason “DaHeala” QuennevilleComposer Lyricist – Karl Martin SandbergComposer Lyricist – Oscar Holter Producers:Producer – Max MartinProducer – Oscar HolterProducer – The Weeknd Production Team:Programming – Max MartinProgramming – Oscar HolterProgramming – The Weeknd Engineers:Asst. Recording Engineer – Cory BiceAsst. Recording Engineer – Jeremy Lertola Engineer – Michael IlbertEngineer – Sam HollandEngineer – Shin Kamiyama Mastering Engineer – Dave KutchMastering Engineer – Kevin Peterson Mix Engineer ...
NMPA President: Unmatched Royalties Finally Turned Over to MLC Brings Insight and Progress (Guest Op-Ed)
How we got here is complicated. Separate from the effort to improve how much songwriters are paid from streaming is the challenge of even receiving the money at all. It’s been well known that streaming services were stockpiling unpaid royalties, and over the years that money continued to accrue with little recourse other than costly lawsuits that didn’t solve the underlying problem and threatened the growth we needed in a post Napster world. For over a decade experts have estimated, debated and debunked theories about how much was being held. Spotify, Apple, Amazon and others have long said they employed exhaustive searches for copyright owners. There have been congressional oversight hearings, studies done by the U.S. Copyright Office and industry experts, however the magni...
WTO: We need to build capacity for international competitiveness – LCCI
Lagos Chamber of Commerce & Industry The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has posited that for Nigeria to take advantage of opportunities offered by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) under the leadership of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, it was important to build capacity for international competitiveness of our products and services. The Chamber also emphasised the need to address trade facilitation issues, especially around port processes, ports infrastructures, international trade documentation, foreign exchange policies, trade policies and industrial policies. The Director General of the chamber, Muda Yusuf, made the disclosure following the appointment of Okonjo-Iweala as the DG of the WTO, saying her emergence comes at a time when the global trading system is faced with n...
Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings Targeted for Acquisition by Former TikTok CEO
Braun, the SB Ventures founder and manager to A-list artists including Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber, made headlines in June 2019 when Ithaca purchased Taylor Swift’s former record label Big Machine for a reported $300 million. That led Swift to speak out against the acquisition, claiming Braun had engaged in “incessant, manipulative bullying” of her over a period of several years. Last November, Ithaca sold Swift’s master recordings to Shamrock Holdings, again drawing the pop star’s ire. Swift has since begun the process of re-recording her first six albums, with the first of them, Fearless, set to drop Apr. 9. In addition to Big Machine, Ithaca’s music holdings include Schoolboy Records and the Universal Music Publishing Group co-venture Sheba Publishing. You Deserve to Mak...
Courtney Barnett, Midnight Oil & More Sign Open Letter Calling For Australian Government Support
The likes of Paul Kelly, Bernard Fanning, Courtney Barnett, Missy Higgins, Stella Donnelly, Lime Cordiale, The Presets and Midnight Oil have signed the document. In it, they say extending JobKeeper or providing direct industry support to thousands of vulnerable workers will keep the show on the road. “This doesn’t just make cultural sense, it makes economic sense,” the message continues. The numbers tell part of the story. The arts and entertainment sector contributes around A$15 billion ($11 billion) per year in GDP, employing close to 200,000 highly-skilled Australians, the open letter continues. Also, Australia Institute research has found that for every million dollars in revenue, arts and entertainment produce nine jobs while the construction industry only creates around one. Australi...
