This week, Spotify expanded its publishing licensing technique with a brand new multi-territory cope with amra, following its current direct licensing settlement with Kobalt within the US.
In the meantime, BMI secured its largest price enhance ever for radio royalties, with terrestrial US radio stations now paying practically 24% extra for music licenses.
Elsewhere, the FTC took main motion towards ticket scalpers beneath Trump’s administration, submitting a lawsuit towards a Maryland-based operation that allegedly made $64 million reselling Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen tickets.
Additionally this week, steel band Slipknot neared completion of a $120 million catalog sale to HarbourView Fairness Companions, whereas IFPI CEO Victoria Oakley urged motion to speed up India’s music streaming revenues amid subscription progress challenges.
Listed here are a number of the largest headlines from the previous few days…
1. SPOTIFY EXPANDS MUSIC PUBLISHING LICENSING PUSH WITH NEW AMRA DEAL
Spotify has inked a multi-territory, multi-year renewal cope with amra, the worldwide digital licensing assortment society, protecting digital mechanical and performing rights throughout amra’s world footprint together with Southeast Asia, India, Australia, Brazil, and Japan.
The settlement follows Spotify’s direct licensing cope with Kobalt final week, which lined solely US operations, as a part of the streaming big’s technique to avoid its controversial determination to reclassify Premium subscription tiers as “bundles” that pay decrease mechanical royalty charges to publishers and songwriters.
Alex Norström, Spotify’s Co-President & Chief Enterprise Officer, stated the deal “will increase our help of publishers and songwriters with new rights” and “expands the advantages of streaming for writers, artists and rightsholders….” (MBW)
2. CONFIRMED: BMI ROYALTY RATE FROM TERRESTRIAL US RADIO IS RISING BY NEARLY 24%
Efficiency rights group BMI has secured its largest price enhance ever for royalties paid on music performed on terrestrial US radio. In response to court docket paperwork, AM/FM radio stations pays a headline price of two.14% of their gross income for a blanket license to play BMI-represented songs for 2022 and 2023, rising progressively to 2.20% for 2026-2029. Provided that the earlier settlement set a blanket payment price of 1.78% for the 2017-2021 interval, this represents a 23.6% enhance within the price radio stations pay for taking part in BMI music.
The settlement applies to 8,895 business radio stations, with round 85% of the cash distributed to songwriters and music publishers who personal the publishing rights. The NMPA estimates that 8% of US music publishing’s $7.04 billion wholesale income in 2024 got here from radio… (MBW)
3. TRUMP TARGETS SCALPERS: FTC SUES FIRM OVER TAYLOR SWIFT TICKET RESALES
The US Federal Commerce Fee has filed a significant lawsuit towards Maryland-based Key Funding Group LLC and its community of affiliated corporations, alleging they used unlawful techniques to avoid ticket buy limits and resell lots of of 1000’s of tickets at inflated costs, together with for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and Bruce Springsteen exhibits. The operation allegedly generated roughly $64 million in secondary market gross sales income, buying a minimum of 379,776 tickets from Ticketmaster between November 2022 and December 2023 at a value of practically $57 million.
FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson emphasised the motion’s connection to Trump administration priorities, stating that “unscrupulous middlemen who hurt followers and jack up costs via anticompetitive strategies will hear from us.”
The subtle scheme allegedly employed 1000’s of faux accounts, digital bank cards, IP masking, and “SIM farms” to defeat Ticketmaster’s anti-scalping measures… (MBW)
4. SLIPKNOT NEARS $120M CATALOG SALE TO HARBOURVIEW EQUITY (REPORT)
Steel band Slipknot is near finishing a deal to promote their catalog to HarbourView Fairness Companions for about $120 million, in keeping with Billboard.
The transaction covers the band’s publishing rights and recorded masters royalties, although Warner Music Group controls the band’s masters via its 2007 acquisition of Roadrunner Data, leaving solely the band’s share of recorded music royalties obtainable for buy. The deal excludes future recordings and it stays unclear whether or not all band members are taking part within the sale.
Slipknot’s catalog has collected 14.6 million album consumption items within the US and 15.73 billion world streams throughout all platforms. The band’s grasp recording catalog averaged 740,000 album consumption items yearly within the US over the previous three years, producing about $15.5 million in recording income and a further $5.2 million in publishing royalties… (MBW)
5. IFPI CEO VICTORIA OAKLEY URGES ACTION TO ACCELERATE INDIA’S MUSIC STREAMING REVENUES – AMID SUBSCRIPTION GROWTH CHALLENGES
IFPI CEO Victoria Oakley warned that India’s music business should deal with vital challenges to safe its future, regardless of its “extraordinary potential” to drive world progress.
Talking on the All About Music convention in Mumbai on August 20, Oakley highlighted troubling market indicators, with simply 20 million of India’s 192 million present music streaming customers paying for subscriptions – barely above 10%. These 192 million customers signify simply 13% of India’s 1.45 billion inhabitants.
Oakley outlined three key priorities for India’s growth: (i) rising paid streaming by shifting away from ad-funded fashions towards subscription-led progress, (ii) strengthening collaboration to deal with streaming fraud and construct AI safeguards, and (iii) championing regional range to help native languages and types… (MBW)
Companion message: MBW’s Weekly Spherical-up is supported by BMI, the world chief in performing rights administration, devoted to supporting songwriters, composers and publishers and championing the worth of music. Discover out extra about BMI right here. Music Enterprise Worldwide
