HomeBusiness NewsFrom the 5 stats that can outline the music enterprise in 2023 to UMG being sued over its Spotify fairness possession… it’s MBW’s Weekly Spherical-Up
Welcome to Music Enterprise Worldwide’s weekly round-up – the place we be sure that you caught the 5 largest tales to hit our headlines over the previous seven days. MBW’s round-up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximise their earnings and cut back their touring prices.
We’re every week into the brand new yr, and the music enterprise is choosing up the tempo once more after some well-deserved Vacation OOO’s and ZZZ’s.
Within the M&An area, Downtown acquired London-headquartered music expertise firm Curve Royalty Methods.
In the meantime, Spherical Hill acquired a catalog of producer royalties and associated rights from legendary rock producer Steve Lillywhite.
Elsewhere, it was introduced that the again catalog of Grammy-winning hip-hop trio De La Soul is ready to roll out on digital streaming providers for the primary time on March 3, by a brand new partnership with Reservoir Media and Reservoir-owned Chrysalis Data.
We additionally realized this week that Hip-hop duo Black Sheep, finest identified for the 1991 album A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothes, are suing Common Music Group over its Spotify fairness possession in a category motion lawsuit.
TikTok rival Triller, in the meantime, which didn’t IPO in This autumn 2022, is reportedly being sued by Common over unpaid license charges.
Plus, MBW explored 5 stats that can set the scene for a few of the standout happenings, tensions, and hopes of the music enterprise in 2023.
Right here we go once more. The music enterprise is gently ushering itself again into motion following some much-needed Vacation respite.
However what does 2023 maintain in retailer for the business and its key gamers?
Nicely, to be utterly sincere with you, we don’t precisely know. How on earth might we?
(That’s one of many key flaws, isn’t it, about this glorious business? Amongst its many, many attributes: Too many individuals pretending they know what couldn’t probably be identified about the way forward for the music enterprise, when the way forward for the music enterprise has proven itself – time and time once more – to be one of many least predictable issues within the industrial universe.)
Anyway, right here’s what we do know. We do know that the next 5 stats actually set the scene for a few of the standout happenings, tensions, and hopes of the music biz in 2023.
And we do know that you just’re in all probability going to be higher armed for no matter this yr throws on the music rights business in case you perceive why every of them is so vital…
It’s not usually that Music Enterprise Worldwide is itself cited in a major lawsuit within the music enterprise, however that’s the case in the present day.
Earlier than we get into the weeds on how that occurred, right here’s the thin on the swimsuit: Hip-hop duo Black Sheep, finest identified the 1991 album A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothes, are suing Common Music Group in a category motion lawsuit, filed yesterday (January 4) in New York.
NYC-based Andres Titus and William McLean, through their attorneys, make three foremost claims:
(i) That Black Sheep and different artists signed to Common ought to have been paid 50% of royalties from Spotify since 2011 because of a clause of their contracts pertaining to “internet receipts”;
(ii) That UMG agreed to simply accept decrease royalty charges from Spotify in change for receiving fairness within the streaming service again in 2008; and
(iii) That Black Sheep and different artists must also have obtained 50% of UMG’s Spotify fairness (or the worth of it) as a result of, in response to the duo’s swimsuit, this could be “proportional” to their royalty contract.
Black Sheep argue that Common owes it and different artists roughly $750 million in unpaid royalties because of these three claims.
Common has referred to as Titus and McLean’s declare that it accepted decrease royalty charges in change for Spotify fairness “patently false and absurd”. UMG added in a press release that it has “a well-established monitor report of combating for artist compensation…”
The music rights area has been kicked into motion this week with the information that Spherical Hill Music has acquired a catalog of producer royalties and associated rights from legendary rock producer Steve Lillywhite.
The corporate says that Lillywhite’s manufacturing work consists of “a few of the most profitable songs and albums of all time” spanning artists from U2, The Killers and Morrissey, to The Speaking Heads and The Rolling Stones.
Spherical Hill introduced the deal this week, simply weeks after MBW reported that it had spent greater than $200 million throughout 40 acquisitions in 2022.
Spherical Hill didn’t disclose the scale of the take care of Lillywhite, though business sources estimate that, based mostly on the royalties’ annual earnings, the price-tag would doubtless have been within the area of $10 million…
Triller has been hit with a lawsuit from Common Music Group over unpaid licensing charges.
On Thursday (January 5), UMG filed a lawsuit in opposition to the US-based TikTok rival claiming that it has not paid licensing charges for the previous three quarters.
The swimsuit additionally claims that the corporate hasn’t supplied quarterly utilization experiences outlining the usage of the most important’s music on the Triller app.
This information was first reported by Selection, which experiences that UMG says in its grievance that it has additionally terminated its settlement with Triller.…
Downtown Music Holdings has acquired London-headquartered music expertise firm Curve Royalty Methods.
The latter firm was based in 2019 by Tom Allen, Richard Leach and Ray Bush, all veterans of music firms equivalent to Cooking Vinyl, Important Music and ADA.
Curve is the newest in a collection of strategic acquisitions made by Downtown in recent times.
Along with Curve, New York-based Downtown has acquired firms together with B2B music tech and providers platform FUGA and indie distributor CD Child. Downtown has additionally made investments within the likes of Beatbread and Vampr…
