State Champ Radio Business
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In 2021, collections began to rise again after their all-time low the year before due to COVID-19 and its restrictions on travel and live music, according to the International Confederation of Authors and Composers Societies (CISAC). Still, in its annual report for 2021, CISAC has found music collections for its worldwide membership are still down 5.1% from pre-pandemic levels as live and public performance income struggles to regain footing. For 2021, collections totaled €9.58 billion ($11.33 billion) compared to €9.32 billion ($10.64 billion) in 2020.
However, there is reason to be optimistic for future reports: CISAC has found that concerts and festivals appear to be faring well in 2022 so far, and the tourism industry is eyeing 2023-2024 as a target for a return to normal collections. Japan in particular has become a thought leader in pandemic recovery, offering its citizens discounts, coupons and subsidies for domestic travel to stimulate the economy. This, CISAC says, helped the return of large scale festivals like Fuji Rock and Summer Sonic. In South America, major festivals and tours like Rock in Rio and Lollapalooza are also expected to have a strong impact on 2022’s forthcoming numbers for live music in its region.
Though in-person events were reported as off to a slow start for 2021, streaming and digital music income is “exceeding expectations” with a 27.5% increase in collections from €2.40 billion ($2.74 billion) in 2020 to €3.06 billion ($3.62 billion) in 2021. This makes digital income an unprecedented high 36.1% share of the total music collections for 2021. Futuresource, the company which provides the data for CISAC’s report, anticipates further grow with double digit hikes in music subscriptions year over year and that there will be over 1 billion music subscribers by 2026.
Subscription numbers for streaming video on demand (SVOD) are expected to falter amid inflation, recession and what they call the “cost of living crisis,” but subscriptions for music are expected to be more impermeable because users only need to pay for one service to receive a rapidly growing catalog of songs rather than paying for multiple services, each with exclusive, smaller libraries.
As Marcelo Castello Branco, CISAC chair of the board and CEO of Brazilian collection management organization União Brasileira de Compositores, wrote in his foreword for his report, “subscription prices are already undervalued and need to be raised.” His comments come just after Apple Music announced that it was raising its subscription price, as did YouTube for the price of its family plan earlier this month. More price hikes for music streaming subscriptions are expected in the coming months with some eyeing Spotify’s long awaited hifi tier as a way to up its price.
When speaking to Billboard about the report, Branco said, “as streaming services move into a more mature phase, it is the right time to review pricing policies for the future…We also need to keep the share of revenue paid to the songwriter constantly under review. This is a fundamental concern.”
Another concern flagged by CISAC leadership: data management or “metadata.” As digital becomes a more and more pivotal piece of rights holders’ income for mechanical and performance royalties, CISAC president and ABBA member Björn Ulvaeus says he estimates “hundreds of millions of dollars… is left on the table” when the data needed to identify and remunerate creators is incomplete or missing.
This can stem from ignorance on the part of composers, honest mistakes and typos, or incomplete information for songs that are released before samples and interpolations are properly cleared. Issues with metadata are expected to continue to rise if left unchecked as more and more artists and songwriters hold out on signing deals with companies who can handle these headaches for them, opting for the DIY route. Not to mention the sheer volume of songs being released has risen significantly in the past decade.
This year, Universal Music Group (UMG) CEO Lucian Grainge told a crowd at Music Matters, a conference in Singapore, that 100,000 new songs are added to streaming platforms each day, most of which are likely from do-it-yourself newcomers. While Ulvaeus notes that work to upgrade ISWC, the identifier for musical works, and educational initiatives like “Credits Due” are helping alleviate this problem, there is still a long way to go.
Certain collection societies are independently working on solutions to this issue. The newfound Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC), which is not a member of CISAC, is attempting to match unclaimed mechanical royalties in the U.S. to their rightful owners. In Japan, rights society JASRAC has founded KENDRIX, a data exchange platform to protect authors from “impersonation and other abuses,” says its president Kazumasa Izawa.
Some countries, like South Korea, were greatly affected by systemic changes — some positive, some negative. KOMCA, the country’s collection society, proved to have a success story this year as changes in its digital collection rules led to increased promotion of music subscriptions by the major music platforms. However, in Bulgaria, authors are faced with continued “poor enforcement” of copyright ownership from its authorities, and in Argentina and Brazil, fluctuations in currency exchange rates left its composers and publishers negatively affected.
Brazil’s collection society found that half of the country’s musicians had lost all of their income due to lockdown restrictions over the last few years, and half of the musicians have been forced to find another professional activity.
Live income for 2021, CISAC found, grossed €1.49 billion ($1.76 billion), only up 0.1% from the €1.49 billion ($1.70 billion) made in 2020. Compared to 2019 levels, which Billboard reported as €$3.04 billion, the aftermath of a global pandemic remains stark.
Television and radio, also known as broadcast, income remains the highest revenue source for music publishing, bringing in €3.19 billion ($3.78 billion) for 2021, but its lead fell by 1.8% from 2020, giving way as users ditched their cable boxes and car radios in favor of on-demand listening and viewing options. This is the fifth successive year of steady decline for this category and weaker advertising rates in some markets have now translated into lower usage fees; still, it accounted for 38% of global collections. Digital only lags two percentage points behind it now.
Systemic shifts also led to two major bright spots in the steadily waning sector of broadcast income. Mexico’s broadcast collections rose by 47.8% after a judicial process concluded in the order for satellite broadcaster, SKY, to pay significant royalties in back payment to musicians. Spain’s broadcast income also rose 47.6% due to agreements signed with the main private TV networks in the country. Unlike many other regions, Spain’s advertising revenues were up in 2021 (though still well-below pre-pandemic levels).
CISAC President Björn Ulvaeus: “Digital royalties collected by CISAC societies are growing impressively, but the streaming world is still unfinished business when it comes to ensuring a fair environment to earn a living.” Read the Global Collections Reporthttps://t.co/rI6rB2PRFn pic.twitter.com/42hcnGcAeJ
— CISACNews (@CISACNews) October 27, 2022
CDs, video and vinyl experienced gains this year, up 3.1% from 2020’s €348 million ($397.21 million) to 2021’s €359 million ($424.66 million). Though it’s only 4.2% of total music collections, this small but gaining subset of the business is expected to grow as the vinyl boom continues. As Billboard recently reported, Nashville, Tennessee is ramping up production on new, higher capacity vinyl pressing plants to meet consumer demand after superstars like Adele and Taylor Swift sell massive swathes of vinyl to mostly American and European consumers.
CISAC also included a number of more minor forms of income for mechanical and performing royalties for the music business in its 2021 report as well:
Private Copying Assessment: this category rose an impressive 15.3% for 2021, from $283.0 million in 2020 to $338.31 million in 2021. This represents just 3.4% of the total CISAC society music collections for the year.
Sync: this is up 6.9% this year, from $30 million in 2020 to $33.12 million in 2021. This represents just 0.3% of the total CISAC society music collections for the year.
Rental and Public Lending: collections are down 16.4% this year, from $14 million in 2020 to $33.12 million in 2021. This represents just 0.1% of the total CISAC society music collections for the year.
Publication: collections are up 6.2% this year, from $6.45 million in 2020 to $7.10 million in 2021. This represents just 0.1% of the total CISAC society music collections for the year.
Repography: collections are up 38% this year, from $2.48 million in 2020 to $3.55 million in 2021. This represents less than 0.01% of the total CISAC society music collections for the year.
Looking at the largest countries by music collection size, the U.S. ranked No. 1 again for 2021 with a 23.6% market share, down from 2020’s 27% market share. It has grown collections by 3.5% and increased collections to €2.004 billion from €2.21 billion in 2020.
France, ranked No. 2 with a 11.2% market share, grew 5.4% to €951 million from €902 million in 2019
Japan, ranked No. 3 with a 9.6% market share, declined 2.8% to €818 million from €842 million in 2020.
The U.K., ranked No. 4 with a 9.6% market share, grew a whopping 33.1% to €813 million from €611 million in 2019
Germany, ranked No. 5 with a 9% market share, grew 4% to €766 million from €736 million in 2020
Italy, ranked No. 6 with a 3.6% market share went down -0.2% to €308 million from €310 million in 2020. That year the report showed Italy had fallen a precipitous 35.1% from €477.66 million in 2019
Canada, which switched with Australia to rise to No. 7 with a 3.2% market share, rose 14.0% to €268 from €242 million in 2020
Australia, which swapped with Canada to fall to No. 8 with a 3.1% market share, rose 9.1% to €264 million from €235 million in 2020
South Korea, which from No. 10 to No. 9 this year with a 2.4% market share, grew by 16% to €201 million up from €173 million in 2020
Spain, which rose to No. 10 with a 2.3% market share, rose 26.6% to €199 million from €184 million in 2020
A notable gain below the top ten countries is Scandinavia. Denmark, ranked No. 12, grew by 10.2%, Sweden, ranked No. 13, grew by 21.5%; Norway, ranked No. 18, grew by 33.5%; and Finland, ranked No. 19, grew by 9.4% for 2021. CISAC attributes this to the region’s high share of digital income compared to other countries which helped them weather the continued pandemic effects.
Below features a list of additional emerging markets that gained double digit growth in 2021. Though CISAC does not explain why each of these nations have experienced such success in the last year, the report does include that Indonesia, Thailand, and India’s growth can thank digital and streaming gains and that Mexico benefitted from the aforementioned settlement with broadcaster SKY.
Mexico, ranked no. 17, which gained 10% to achieve a 1.1% marketshare for 2021
China, ranked No. 22, rose a significant 12.3% to hold 0.6% marketshare for 2021
Czech Republic, ranked No. 24, grew 19.1% to achieve 0.5% marketshare for 2021
South Africa, ranked No. 26, grew 10.1% to hold 0.4% marketshare for 2021
India, ranked No. 28, grew a whopping 73.8% to hold 0.4% marketshare for 2021
Chile, ranked 32, grew 23.8% to hold 0.3% marketshare for 2021
Turkey, ranked No. 33, gained 37.1% to hold 0.3% marketshare for 2021
Malaysia, ranked No. 38, grew 31.3% to hold 0.2% marketshare for 2021
Thailand, ranked No. 39 grew 68.8% to hold 0.1% marketshare for 2021
Greece, ranked No. 43, grew 46% to hold 0.1% marketshare for 2021
Indonesia, ranked No. 46, grew 59.4% to also hold 0.1% marketshare for 2021
Visit cisac.org for more.
Britney Spears‘ father and his lawyers should be sanctioned and found in contempt of court for disclosing confidential medical information on his daughter that was under seal, the pop star’s lawyer said Wednesday (Oct. 26) at a hearing that ended with no decision on the issue.
“They’re trying to embarrass Britney Spears and bully Britney Spears, while trying to vindicate Jamie Spears,” said attorney Mathew Rosengart.
The sealed exhibits were included in a motion from Jamie Spears filed in July to compel the deposition of his daughter, which was denied. After the filing was submitted, Rosengart was forced to move to seal the motion to compel. Alex Weingarten, representing Jamie Spears, challenged the sealing.
“Why did he oppose the sealing motion?” Rosengart asked. He urged L.A. Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny to find Weingarten in contempt of court and to issue sanctions against him and Jamie Spears.
“None of this has anything to do with the matters before the court,” responded Weingarten. He said he’ll “refrain from commenting” on Rosengart’s “unnecessary speech.”
Penny agreed to seal the motion. She found that some of the exhibits in the filing were “already ordered sealed and are confidential,” explaining that it was “highly inappropriate for Jamie Spears to proffer these documents.”
In September, Jamie Spears moved for a state appeals court to overturn Penny’s ruling barring him from deposing his daughter over claims that he abused and surveilled her. Weingarten didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
During the hearing, the judge also denied a motion from Lynne Spears for her daughter to cover her $663,203 legal bill. In her motion for fees, she stressed that her daughter was subjected to treatment she “did not believe was warranted.” Spears opposed covering the bill because her mother was never a fiduciary.
The order denying fees was issued as Rosengart continues to probe management firm Tri Star’s involvement in establishing the conservatorship and the firm’s alleged surveillance of Spears. In a discovery order issued on Oct. 10, Penny granted parts of Tri Star’s motion to quash Spears’ subpoena while refusing its effort to get out of providing records and communications relating to allegations made by a former Spears security staffer in The New York Times documentary, Controlling Britney Spears, of electronic surveillance, cloning or monitoring of the pop star’s phone. She found that requests to depose Tri Star executives and produce documents on the issue are “relevant and discoverable.”
Tri Star executive Robin Greenhill, accused of helping Spears’ father spy on her private messages, denied any knowledge of surveillance in a declaration to the court and maintained that no one at the firm “ever suggested monitoring Ms. Spears’ electronic communications.” Lawyers for the firm called requests for information dating back 14 years “grossly overbroad,” stressing that Tri Star was not involved at the outset of the conservatorship.
In the same order, Penny limited the scope of discovery and depositions to the accounting period in 2019, which details money in and out of the estate that year. She also found that requests for information about the establishment of the conservatorship are off limits.
“Evidence of extrinsic fraud is not currently present,” reads the order from Penny, who concluded that “the scope of discovery in the present proceeding must necessarily relate to the pending petitions and filed objections to the petitions.”
In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Tri Star attorney Scott Edelman called the ruling a “complete victory” for his client.
“As we have said all along, and the Court correctly held in its ruling, there is no fraud in connection with any of the prior accountings filed as part of Ms. Spears’ conservatorship,” he said. “The Court also correctly held that there was no evidence of any fiduciary relationship between Tri Star, as business manager, and Ms. Spears, as conservatee.”
According to court documents, Jamie Spears owed at least $40,000 to Tri Star for a loan it gave him. Rosengart has stressed the conflict of interest when Jamie Spears hired the firm to manage the conservatorship. Tri Star has been paid more than $18 million from Spears’ estate.
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
A raft of equity analysts lowered their price targets for Spotify’s stock following the company’s third-quarter earnings report on Tuesday, helping send the music streaming company’s share price down 13.1% to $84.42 on Wednesday (Oct. 26).
KeyBanc dropped its price target from $135 to $125, Barclays lowered its target from $164 to $135 and Raymond James cut its target from $150 to $110. J.P. Morgan analysts, who dropped the price target from $130 to $115, wrote in an investor note they were “encouraged” by fourth-quarter guidance on monthly active users and subscribers — 479 million and 202 million, respectively — but believes investments and foreign exchange will pressure fourth-quarter profitability. Spotify expects this quarter’s 300 million-euros ($303 million) operating loss to include a 95 million-euros ($96 million) negative impact from foreign exchange.
For most of its four-plus years as a public company, Spotify prioritized growth over profit and attracting new users. This year’s emphasis is winning over investors with larger margins while maintaining momentum. In an interview on Spotify’s For the Record podcast released Wednesday, CEO Daniel Ek admitted gross margins were hurt by “advertising [being] a bit softer than we would have liked” but insisted the results were fundamentally on point with the company’s expectations. “We still feel really good about the underlying core trends in the business,” he said. “We feel really good about where we think we’re going to end up over the next one to three years.”
That long-term vision is part of the company’s transition from a music-focused company to one that embraces many forms of audio entertainment. The early results show promise: Spotify users spending more time with the service and its churn rate – the fraction of subscribers that leave in a month – is “the lowest across our competitive set,” said Ek during the earnings call. Podcasting advertising is growing faster than music advertising, and the number of monthly active users that listened to a podcast great “in the substantial double-digits” year-over-year, according to a letter to shareholders.
But investors aren’t showing a great deal of patience — and not just with Spotify’s stock. Numerous tech stocks have fallen this week on less-than-stellar results and guidance. Alphabet’s stock price fell 9.6% after the company’s third-quarter earnings on Tuesday showed that revenue growth slowed to 6% from 41% a year earlier. What’s more, ad revenue at Alphabet’s YouTube, which beat Netflix in U.S. streaming TV viewership in September, according to Nielsen, fell 1.9% year-over-year in the third quarter.
Another bellwether of online advertising, Meta, fell 14.9% in after-hours trading Wednesday. The social media giant’s third-quarter earnings missing expectations on both revenue and earnings per share, according to Bloomberg, and its third-quarter revenue declined 4% from the prior-year period. Three months ago, Meta posted the first year-over-year quarterly revenue decline since going public in 2012.
Since Spotify is primarily a subscription business, it doesn’t face the same threat from advertising weakness as Alphabet or Meta. “Any headwinds in the advertising business for us, it’s just a lot smaller than it is for platforms that solely rely on ads,” Ek said during Tuesday’s earnings call. But advertising is crucial to the company’s podcasting business, an increasingly vital part of its long-term strategy to boost profitability. So far this year, Spotify’s heavy spending on its podcasting business has been a drag on margins. That’s to be expected, however, Ek and chief financial officer Paul Vogel repeatedly said during the earnings call and on the For the Record podcast. Next year, they pledged, podcasting will start to contribute to the bottom line.
Round Room Live, one of the world’s top family entertainment producers, has announced that founders and co-presidents Stephen Shaw and Jonathan Linden have completed a management buyout of its lead investor eOne, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. The acquisition was backed by Manhattan West, a Los Angeles-based strategic investment firm.
“This deal is a significant milestone for Round Room, which has become one of the most dynamic live entertainment producers and promoters in the world,” said Shaw. “This new partnership with Manhattan West will fuel our ambitious growth plans to distribute exciting entertainment experiences on a global scale.”
Led by Shaw and Linden, Round Room Live specializes in transforming intellectual property into live events. Round Room Live’s current roster of touring shows and exhibitions include: Baby Shark Live!, Blippi The Musical, Peppa Pig Live, Blue’s Clues & You! Live On Stage, Jurassic World: The Exhibition, Mandela: The Official Exhibition, Tupac Shakur: Wake Me When I’m Free and Formula 1: The Exhibition, which will launch early in 2023.
“We are excited to continue to grow this exceptional business together with our new partners at Manhattan West,” added Linden. “eOne and Hasbro were a great home for Round Room starting in early 2018, and I want to thank [CEO] Darren Throop and the eOne and Hasbro teams for their support and partnership. We look forward to continuing to work with Hasbro on live tours for some of its most iconic brands.”
Matt Gibbons with Manhattan West added the “Round Room team has our full support as they continue to expand their global footprint.”
The share purchase deal closed on Friday, Oct. 21.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, reported $27.7 billion in second-quarter revenue, down 4 percent compared to the same quarter a year ago, continuing a trend of ad-supported tech companies feeling the pain of a tougher macroeconomic environment and renewed competition from competitors like TikTok.
However, the company beat Wall Street expectations for revenue. The company had previously forecast revenue of $26 billion–28.5 billion for the quarter, so it met its own guidance.
Going forward, however, things look tough. The company forecast Q4 revenue of $30-32.5 billion, below Wall Street expectations, sending its share price lower after hours.
Meta net income fell by 52 percent to $4.4 billion, while its daily active user base rose by 4 percent to 2.93 billion.
The company is in the midst of a strategic pivot toward the “metaverse,” which it seems to define as being driven by virtual reality and augmented reality. However, its early efforts in the space remain niche, even as it has committed billions of dollars toward investing in the space.
In its Q3 earnings report, the company said it was making “significant changes across the board to operate more efficiently,” including shrinking some teams and keeping others flat, so that it is “investing headcount growth only in our highest priorities.”
Those priorities will include developing its AI discovery engine, its ads and business messaging platforms, and its future investment in the metaverse.
In the near-term, the company expects savings as it “rationalizes” its office footprint.
The AI discovery engine is particularly relevant to Meta’s TikTok competitor Reels, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg says is stealing time spent from the other app. Reels is now a $3 billion annual run rate business, he added.
When the discovery engine is built out, the company will be able to “recommend photos, text, links, communities, short and long form videos, alongside posts from family and friends,” Zuckerberg said, differentiating it from TikTok.
“While we face near term challenges on revenue, the fundamentals are there for a return to stronger revenue growth,” Zuckerberg added in a statement. “We’re approaching 2023 with a focus on prioritization and efficiency that will help us navigate the current environment and emerge an even stronger company.”
Still, on the company’s earnings call, Zuckerberg also projected some optimism, telling analysts that “our product trends look better from what I see than what some of the commentary suggests.”
On Facebook specifically, the number of people using it each day is the highest it has ever been,” he added, noting that it now has nearly 2 billion users, and that WhatsApp’s fastest-growing region is now North America.
Meta’s quarterly report follows similarly disappointing results from Snap and Alphabet, which have also been feeling the pinch of the advertising environment. Snap cut about 20% of its staff last quarter, and saw its losses widen, as it seeks to restructure. It did, however, see double digit user growth.
Alphabet, the owner of YouTube and Google, also missed expectations, with YouTube revenue falling year-over-year for the first time since it was broken out by the company.
This article was originally published on THR.com.
A Los Angeles judge on Wednesday ordered Tory Lanez be placed under house arrest ahead of a trial over accusations that he shot Megan Thee Stallion, citing an incident last month in which the singer allegedly assaulted singer August Alsina in Chicago.
Lanez (real name Daystar Peterson) had been out on bail over the alleged shooting, but last month Alsina claimed that Lanez and his entourage attacked him following a Chicago concert. At the time, prosecutors in the Stallion case said they were “aware” of Alsina’s claims and were investigating them.
At a hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday, Judge David Herriford cited those accusations to revoke bail, ordering Lanez to be placed under house arrest until Nov. 28, when the trial is scheduled to begin. If convicted, he faces more than 22 years in prison.
A rep for Lanez did not immediately return a request for comment from Billboard.
Lanez was charged in October 2020 with one count of assault with a firearm and another gun possession charge over the July 2020 incident, in which he allegedly shot Stallion in the foot during an argument after a pool party in the Hollywood Hills.
Stallion had initially told police officers that she cut her foot stepping on broken glass, but days later revealed that she had suffered a gunshot wound. After media outlets reported that Lanez had fired the gun, Megan directly accused him in an August 2020 Instagram video.
Lanez pleaded not guilty in November 2020. At a December 2021 hearing, a Los Angeles judge allowed the case to move forward to a trial. During that hearing, a police detective testified that Stallion had told him that Lanez yelled “Dance, bitch!” as he opened fire around her feet, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Though he’d remained out on bail while awaiting trial, Lanez has repeatedly drawn the ire of the judge overseeing the case.
In August 2021, the rapper’s bail was increased from $190,000 to $250,000 after he made a surprise appearance at the Rolling Loud Miami Festival on July 25 just moments after Stallion departed the stage — effectively violating a protective order that requires him to stay at least 100 yards away from the “Savage” hitmaker. And this past April, a judge increased his bail again to $350,000 after some of the rapper’s social media posts were found to have breached court orders requiring him to avoid any contact with Stallion.
The incident with Alsina was apparently the last straw.
In a Sept. 18 post on Instagram, Alsina shared an image in which he can be seen standing in an elevator with blood coming from his mouth. In the caption, Alsina claimed Lanez physically assaulted him after he refused to shake his hand following a show the previous night.
A video published to Twitter a day later, which purported to document the lead-up and aftermath of the alleged assault, appears to show Alsina rebuffing a handshake from Lanez backstage. In the final half of the video, Lanez seems to be celebrating as a man off-camera can be heard saying Lanez “knocked him out.”
Alsina appears to have filed a police report with the Chicago Police Department, who confirmed to Billboard that they had received a report of a “30-ye[a]r-old male” being “punched in the face by a 30-year-old male after exiting a building in the 2300 block of S. Lake Shore Drive” – the location of a theater where both Lanez and Alsina were billed to perform that night.
Slacker is pleading with a judge to overturn his recent ruling requiring the streamer to pony up $10 million in unpaid royalties, arguing it will cause the company economic ruin. But SoundExchange says it is merely the company’s “latest attempt to shirk their obligations.”
The two have been battling in court since June over allegations that Slacker’s parent LiveOne — formerly LiveXLive — owes millions to artists and labels. Earlier this month, SoundExchange demanded — and quickly won — a ruling from Judge André Birotte Jr. that LiveOne must pay up the full $9,765,396 in unpaid royalties.
Faced with that massive judgment, Slacker now says that SoundExchange’s demand for full payment was an unfair tactic and must be overturned — or risk permanently harming its financials: “This economic damage this will cause LiveOne will be unsustainable for this small company.”
But SoundExchange is unimpressed. In a response, the company says that LiveOne has “steadfastly” avoided paying for music for years, and that harsh measures are “necessary to protect performing artists.”
“The court should deny defendants’ latest attempt to shirk their obligations with the promise that next time will be different,” SoundExchange’s lawyers wrote.
“Refusing To Pay”
SoundExchange, which collects performance royalties for sound recording copyrights, sued LiveOne in June, claiming the company had stopped paying artists and labels way back in 2017. And it claimed that a subsequent audit revealed it had been underpaying for years before that.
Court records show the two sides entered into the repayment plan in 2020, which gave Slacker two years to pay its debts. But in the June lawsuit, the SoundExchange claimed that Slacker had quickly failed to live up to the terms of the agreement.
“By refusing to pay royalties for the use of protected sound recordings, Slacker and LiveOne have directly harmed creators over the years,” SoundExchange president and CEO Michael Huppe said at the time. “Today, SoundExchange is taking a stand through necessary legal action to protect the value of music and ensure creators are compensated fairly for their work.”
Just a few months into the litigation, SoundExchange played an unusual legal trump card. On Oct. 12, the group invoked a pre-signed judgment, which had been inked by execs at Slacker back in 2020 as part of the repayment plan. Under the terms of that earlier deal, if Slacker ever defaulted again, its executives agreed that a judge should enter a so-called judgment against the company for the full sum owed.
On Oct. 13, Judge Birotte Jr. did exactly that, ordering the Slacker to pay $9,765,396, which covered both unpaid royalties and late fees. He also permanently barred the company from using the so-called statutory license, an important federal provision that makes copyright licenses for recorded music automatically available to internet radio companies like Slacker and Pandora at a fixed price.
“Economic Damage”
Faced with that huge debt, LiveOne responded last week with a motion seeking to “set aside the judgment” and asking the judge order the two companies into settlement talks – a move they say will allow them to reach “a fair payment schedule.”
LiveOne’s lawyers said they had been engaged in “ongoing and fruitful negotiations” for a new repayment plan when SoundExchange had suddenly invoked the pre-signed consent judgment. They argued the move came only because LiveOne did not agree to “a complete acceptance” of SoundExchange’s “last and final” settlement offer.
More startlingly, LiveOne’s lawyers said SoundExchange’s big judgment had quickly caused other creditors to call in other debts owed, threatening “economic damage” to the company that would be “unsustainable.”
“Plaintiff’s surreptitious request for entry of judgment has triggered LiveOne’s default on two substantial senior secured notes which are secured by all of LiveOne’s and their subsidiaries assets,” LiveOne’s lawyers wrote. “If LiveOne does not promptly discharge SoundExchange’s default judgment, the secured creditors will accelerate the loans and call for immediate repayment of principal and unpaid interest.”
A rep for LiveOne did not immediately return a request for comment on the filing or for elaboration on its claims about the company’s finances.
“Long Enough”
In a new filing this week, SoundExchange offered no apologies for playing hardball with LiveOne. It said it had spent years “indulging” the company’s “many excuses for non-payment,” and that it had simply become time for the streamer to be legally forced to pay up.
“Five years is long enough,” the group wrote. “SoundExchange has no obligation to negotiate ad infinitum with defendants, who have demonstrated at every opportunity that they will leverage the creativity of others without compensation.”
SoundExchange’s lawyers said the group had been “initially amenable” to working out another deal, but that their patience quickly ran out: “Facing stalled settlement negotiations and an apparent unwillingness to abide by their contractual, statutory, or judicial obligations, that willingness had limits.”
As for LiveOne’s warnings that such a ruling might destroy the company, SoundExchange was skeptical. The group’s lawyers pointed out that LiveOne had missed key deadlines in the case, and had waited months to hire litigation attorneys to deal with the lawsuit.
“Defendants’ contention that the judgment poses an existential threat to their business is difficult to square with their lackadaisical approach to finding counsel and subsequent non-adherence to the court’s deadlines,” they wrote.
And if things really are as bad LiveOne’s attorneys claim, SoundExchange said it’s all the more reason for a final judgment to be entered against the company.
“Every hour defendants divert consumers who might otherwise use a different, royalty-paying digital music streaming service, thereby depriving rightsholders of royalties to which they are entitled,” the group wrote. “If Defendants’ dire financial situation is to be believed, artists may never see those royalties.”
Over one year ago, alt-pop sister duo Aly & AJ released their first album in 14 years — and the pair has been on a steady release streak ever since.
Now, Billboard can announce that the act’s upcoming single, “With Love From,” will arrive Nov. 2, ushering in a new deal for the duo. The single doubles as the title of a new album, coming in the spring, which will be the first through a new distribution deal with SoundCloud that will also see the company provide Aly & AJ with marketing support.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled to have the support of SoundCloud entering this new album cycle,” Aly & AJ said in a joint statement. “They’ve allowed us to have the creative freedom we need to make our best possible music to date.”
The signing comes at a crucial time for SoundCloud, which cut 20% of its workforce in September. Not long before that, the company had added new features such as “the roster” — which signs artists to more traditional record deals (initial members included Lil Pump and Tekno) — and Repost, a distribution service offered at $30 annually that allows artists to keep up to 80% of the royalties they make from other streaming services. Aly & AJ’s deal fits into neither category, proving artists can still choose their own path when partnering with SoundCloud.
With Love From follows Aly & AJ’s independently-released 2021 album A Touch of the Beat Gets You Up on Your Feet Gets You Out and Then Into the Sun. Also last year, Aly & AJ scored a top 10 hit on Billboard’s Digital Song Sales chart with the re-released hit “Potential Breakup Song (2020),” which went viral on TikTok years after its initial release.
Following the arrival of A Touch of the Beat, Aly & AJ hit the road performing at festivals including Lollapalooza, Governors Ball and Austin City Limits. They just wrapped an opening gig on Ben Platt’s national tour, including stops at New York’s Madison Square Garden and Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl. Next up, a performance at Corona Capital in Mexico City followed by a string of overseas dates in Europe and the U.K.
For now, as fans patiently wait for Nov. 2 to arrive, a snippet of Aly & AJ’s new single can be heard in the teaser for an upcoming collaboration between Rowing Blazers and Seiko watches, with the collection set to drop Friday (Oct. 28) at 11 a.m. ET.
Robert Louis Gordy, Sr., younger brother of Motown Records founder Berry Gordy and chief executive for many years of the company’s successful music publishing division, died Oct. 21 at age 91. He passed away from natural causes, according to his family, at his home in Marina del Rey, Calif.
The youngest of eight siblings, Gordy enjoyed a little-noticed music career as a recording engineer and songwriter before taking command of Motown’s Jobete Music in 1965.
“His ability to succeed at whatever he attempted or that I threw his way amazed me over the years,” said Berry Gordy in a statement, noting that he was “deeply saddened” by his brother’s death. “He was absolutely the best lil’ brother anyone could ever hope for.” Gordy added, “I will miss his love, his support, and his loyalty.”
Born July 15, 1931 in Detroit, Robert Gordy followed his elder brother into boxing, then moved into music circles such as the city’s Flame Show Bar. Sister Gwen held the popular club’s photo concession, where he operated the darkroom. In his autobiography, Berry Gordy recalled visiting the Flame with Robert to see Billie Holiday perform; 20 years later, the younger Gordy played a character in Lady Sings The Blues, Motown’s production of the Holiday biopic.
In 1958, Gordy co-wrote and recorded “Everyone Was There” under the name of Bob Kayli. Leased to Carlton Records, the lightweight pop song referencing recent hits such as “Peggy Sue” and “Yakety Yak” became a minor chart success.
After his brother started Motown Records, Gordy left a post office job to join the venture, initially working for in-house engineer Mike McLean. “At that time, he was building the first eight-track machine in the east,” Gordy later explained. “I put together the electronics, learned how to read the schematics, helped with the writing and so on.”
He went on to become the company’s first stereo engineer, before working for the Quality Control department.
Reflecting its founder’s songwriting roots, Motown operated its own music publishing arm from the start. When Jobete manager, Loucye Wakefield, died prematurely in 1965, Robert Gordy sought the job. “When Loucye died, in fact, Berry first rejected my offer to go into Jobete,” he recalled in 1980. “‘What do you know?’ was his reaction, but I said, ‘Believe me, I’ll learn.’ ”
Motown’s explosive success from 1964 onwards with the Supremes and other acts made Jobete a substantial revenue source, capitalizing on the talents of writers Smokey Robinson, Holland/Dozier/Holland, Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, among others. Jobete opened its own professional department in 1966, securing covers and expanding the catalogue’s reach. Among its most popular titles to this day: “My Girl,” “Dancing In The Street,” “I Heard It Through The Grapevine,” “The Tears Of A Clown,” “You Are The Sunshine Of My Life,” “What’s Going On” and “For Once In My Life.” Earnings continued to grow as stars such as Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye evolved into self-sufficient, influential songwriters.
By 1971, with Robert Gordy promoted to vice president/general manager, the division had 5,000 copyrights under its roof and 100 writers under contract. He joined the board of the National Music Publishers’ Association, and actively participated in industry seminars and conferences. He retired from the post in 1985.
“One of the main values of our catalog,” Gordy once said, “is that it has stood the test of time.” When Britain’s EMI Group acquired half of Jobete in 1997, the sale price of $132 million proved that to be true (EMI bought the balance seven years later for $187 million).
In his 1994 memoir, To Be Loved, Berry Gordy wrote, “So Robert, I’d like to thank you for moving Jobete from a holding company for our copyrights into a highly profitable, competitive international publishing company, keeping us No. 1 for many years. And also for being my little brother.”
YouTube’s ad revenue dropped down to $7.07 billion during the third quarter, marking a 1.9 percent decrease compared to the previous year, parent company Alphabet reported on Tuesday.
The $7.07 billion figure is also a decline compared to the second quarter, when the video platform reported $7.34 billion in advertising revenue during the second quarter, slightly missing analysts’ expectations but representing a 4 percent year-over-year increase.
YouTube’s ad revenue growth has slowed down considerably since the earlier years of the pandemic, when the company saw massive gains; in July 2021, the company had even outperformed its first quarter ad revenue earnings by $1 billion, representing a whopping 84 percent year-over-year increase.
But the video giant isn’t the only tech and social platform to be impacted by a declining digital ad market. Snap, which has previously warned of macroeconomic headwinds impacting its ad business, reported a net loss of $360 million during Q3 as the company has seen engagement in the U.S. decrease by 5 percent year over year.
As YouTube continues to fend off competition, the video platform is preparing to launch one of the biggest updates to its ad revenue sharing program with creators. Beginning next year, short-form creators posting to YouTube Shorts — the company’s TikTok competitor — will receive a 45 percent cut of ad revenue, which will be calculated based on the creator’s share of total Shorts views.
To come to this calculation, YouTube will count the total amount of ad revenue from all ads displayed on Shorts each month. Of that total, an undisclosed percentage will be allocated toward creators, while the remainder will be used to cover the costs of music licensing, Neal Mohan, YouTube’s chief product officer, said at an event on Sept. 20 announcing the program. Creators will then receive 45 percent of the funding allocated toward creators, though each individual will receive different amounts based on their contribution to the total number of Shorts views.
The decision to opt for a 45 percent cut, rather than the 55 percent share that long-form YouTube creators receive, could also signal the start of platforms beginning to reassert themselves as they contend with declining ad revenue.
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
