Streaming
Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page Urges Streaming Companies to Pay Musicians Fairly
Jimmy Page is using his status as a rock icon and a knighted Order of the British Empire to urge streaming companies to fairly compensate musicians. The legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist penned an open letter on his Instagram account in response to a recent inquiry into streaming services by the UK’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee. Among the items the committee is reviewing is the business model employed by Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Google and other streaming services, especially when it comes to artist royalties. Page shared the following letter on his Instagram page: “Having recently viewed the Select Committee for Music Streaming on 24 November 2020 I feel compelled to write this letter. I fully appreciate the dilemma surrounding streaming royalties that should be ...
Proposed Law Could Make Streaming Copyrighted Material on Twitch Without Permission a Felony
In the latest omnibus spending bill making its way through Congress, a provision has been added that would effectively render the streaming of copyrighted music without permission a felony offense. The provision has been added to the bill by Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina. If passed, the provision would likely land streaming platforms—including Twitch—in more hot water, as the video giant has continued to butt heads with major labels and copyright representatives for much of 2020. This fall, Twitch introduced what they claimed was a fully licensed product called “Soundtrack by Twitch,” which purportedly allowed streamers to play music without fear of being issued a DMCA takedown. However, the Recording Academy and the RIAA, among other organizations, rebut...
Every Time I Die Share New Songs “A Colossal Wreck” and “Desperate Pleasures”: Stream
Every Time I Die have returned with the double single, “A Colossal Wreck” and “Desperate Pleasures”. They’ve also announced a livestream event for December 19th. The songs mark the first new music from the Buffalo, New York hardcore act since 2016. In the interim, the band’s lost none of their mathematic prowess and virtuosic precision. If the rest of Every Time I Die’s forthcoming ninth studio album lives up to these tracks, fans are in for another excellent slice of passionate metal. As the titles “A Colossal Wreck” and “Desperate Pleasures” imply, there’s more than a little of 2020 that’s seeped into the new material. Vocalist Keith Buckley stated in a press release that the songs are “two sides of the same reactionary coin.” “While ‘A Colossal Wreck’ looks around at the current state o...
The Year in Live Streams 2020: StageIt Helps Artists Connect and Monetize
StageIt was founded in 2009 as a livestream platform but has seen a, wait for it, unprecedented surge in activity since March. A leader in providing a platform for artists to host ticketed livestreams, they helped acts monetize live performances (both in ticket sales and tips during broadcasts) when the most lucrative piece of artists’ business was on pause. Perhaps the most successful artist on the platform was Blue October. The Texan rock band played a series of livestreams centered around different albums from their discography and collectively grossed more than $506,000 across 10 streams. This achievement is, in part, due to the group’s engagement with fans, walking a thin line between selling tickets on the platform in order to earn a living and respecting the delicate financial polit...
Deafheaven Release New Studio-Recorded Live Album 10 Years Gone: Stream
Deafheaven have released their new studio-recorded live album 10 Years Gone, commemorating the illustrious first decade of their career. Initially, Deafheaven were to go on a world tour called “10 Years Gone”, but the pandemic shut that down. Making the most of the situation, the band decided to properly record its planned setlist live in the studio, offering a vivid document of what fans would have witnessed had the tour happened. The only thing missing is the crowd noise as Deafheaven deconstruct arguably the strongest set of songs in their catalog. “Daedalus” and “Glint” were released as singles, teasing the immensity of this psuedo-live document. Tackling each song full bore, it’s Deafheaven at their most intense and direct. “Revisiting the songs in this studio sessions format with Jac...
Roddy Ricch Dominates Apple Music’s Year-End Charts
As the year’s top album on Apple Music, Ricch’s Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial additionally spawned three more tracks that earned placement on the service’s top songs of 2020 chart: “High Fashion”, “Start Wit Me” and “Bacc Seat.” Ricch was additionally featured on the fourth most-streamed song of 2020, DaBaby’s “ROCKSTAR.” The year’s second most-streamed song on Apple Music, “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd, had an even broader reach than “The Box” worldwide, charting in the top 5 on Apple Music’s Top 100 songs charts in 92 countries and reaching No. 1 in 62 of them. While “Blinding Lights” had fewer streams than “The Box,” it racked up the most listeners overall. One notable facet of Apple Music’s end-of-year charts this year is the inclusion of two new...
Spotify Shares Jump 16% to All-Time High
On a related note, information about podcasts could have reinforced some investors’ belief that non-music content can improve both growth and margins. Spotify’s run-down of most popular music and podcasts revealed The Joe Rogan Experience, exclusive to Spotify as of Tuesday, is its top podcast. Its popularity suggests the controversial podcast is going to be worth the $100 million Spotify is spending to license the show from Rogan. Owned and licensed podcasts give Spotify a chance to differentiate itself from its competitors. In the last two years, Spotify has purchased podcast producers The Ringer, Gimlet and Parcast and has landed exclusives with Michele Obama and Kim Kardashian West, among many others. It has also launched proprietary, music-focused franchises such as Sound Stories: Wom...
Hip-Hop Streaming Platform Spinrilla Found Liable for Users’ Copyright Infringement
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg granted summary judgment in favor of the RIAA on the issue of liability and rejected Spinrilla’s DMCA Safe Harbor defense. Totenberg notes that the 11th Circuit hasn’t yet considered whether direct copyright infringement must be willful, but finds “even if volitional conduct is required to prove direct infringement, the cases on which Plaintiffs rely have all held that the affirmative act of streaming constitutes direct infringement of the copyright holder’s exclusive right of performance regardless of the fact that the streaming occurs at the request of the user.” She continues, “Defendants have created an interactive internet player that streams copyrighted content directly from its website and mobile app. In doin...
Bad Religion Announce Four-Part “Decades” Streaming Performance Series
Bad Religion were hoping to tour in celebration of their 40th anniversary this year. Instead, the punk-rock veterans will mark the milestone with a four-part streaming performance series dubbed “Decades”. “Decades” will be divided into four episodes, one for each decade of the band’s existence: “The ’80s”, “The ’90s, “The ’00s”, “The ’10s”. Each episode will feature footage from a new set filmed at The Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles. In addition to the new performances of songs from each era, the episodes will include exclusive interviews, archival footage from each decade, and more. The band will also participate in a live chat as each episode premieres. “I can speak for the whole band when I say that we were so disappointed to not be able to tour this year,” said singer Greg Graffin in a pr...
What’s Streaming on Hulu in December 2020
Hulu is heading to Mordor in December. Fans of J.R.R. Tolkien who don’t already own The Lord of the Rings trilogy will find solace in revisiting The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. Hell, it wasn’t too long ago their theatrical releases were a holiday tradition. Beyond the Eye of Sauron are a handful of Hulu originals: The Hardy Boys are back for modern times, Amy Seimetz’s She Dies Tomorrow is now free to stream, and You Cannot Kill David Arquette is bringing the meta humor. It’s not much, but there’s a silver lining to the lean offerings. By the end of the month, the streaming service is losing a ton of films — from its Bond collection to The Bourne Identity films to all the Star Treks — which means you better get your binge on. Check out the full list ...
What’s Streaming on Disney+ in December 2020
Disney+ is bringing some much-needed Soul to Christmas. Yes, on December 25th, the Mouse House is rolling out its would-be Pixar blockbuster on their streaming service. Unlike this past September’s release of Mulan, however, Soul will be completely free to subscribers. Consider it a gift from Mickey. Of course, that’s not the only present to unwrap this month. There’s also Jillian Bell’s new comedy Godmothered, the exhaustively titled High School Musical: The Musical: The Holiday Special, and the remaining episodes of The Mandalorian Season 2. Editors’ Picks Elsewhere, nostalgics can enjoy watching Tom Hanks play Josh Baskin in Big, head to the clouds with Kurt Russell in Sky High, and pretend like they’re watching Max Keeble’s Big Move for the first time. Into the Woods is somewhere...
Many Billions: Bad Bunny Is Spotify’s Most-Streamed Artist of 2020
It’s difficult to overstate the importance of Bad Bunny’s achievement. Latin music is increasingly visible worldwide, high-profile collaborations between Latin and non-Latin acts have popped up throughout the year, and Latin names regularly top YouTube’s global charts. On Spotify, J Balvin has placed among the top 5 most-streamed artists on the service since 2018. But Bad Bunny’s accomplishment marks the first time an artist that has never sung in English tops the year-end list. On the global top albums list, Bad Bunny’s YHLQMDLG is followed by The Weeknd’s After Hours, Post Malone’s Hollywood’s Bleeding, Harry Styles’ Fine Line and Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia. As far as songs go, The Weeknd got some vindication after his Grammy shutout; his “Blinding Lights” is the most-streamed song of 2...
