According to MRC Data’s 2021 year-end report, US on-demand audio streams are up 26.3% over 2020, and vinyl sales are up 51.4%, beating CD sales. In addition, catalog streams and sales account for more than 74% of music consumption during the year. Early sound recordings from 1926 like Winnie-the-Pooh are now in the public domain in the United States, according to a full list of works published by Duke University this year. Approximately 400,000 early sound recordings have been included as part of the 2018 Music Modernization Act. The 64th annual Grammy Awards are postponed amid the Omicron sur ..read more

The FCC has recently approved investment entity GMEI to acquire up to 14.99% of the shares in American radio giant iHeart. Earlier this year, GMEI had already bought more than 5% of the company controlling approximately 6.6% of total equity and 8.7% of voting interests. Taylor Swift is filing another dismissal of the song-theft lawsuit over the lyrics of “Shake It Off” before it ends up in front of a jury. Songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler accused Swift of ripping off their 2001 song “Playas Gon Play” in 2017. After a first dismissal, the duo brought it to the appeals court and the case ..read more

Ahora con subtítulos en Español! SoundExchange’s royalties dispute with US television service Music Choice has been decided that the case will be referred to the Copyright Royalties Board (CRB) for further investigation, rather than being heard in Federal court. SoundExchange launched the lawsuit to recover underpaid royalties in April 2019. YouTube creators now have the ability to appeal video monetization decisions on the Studio mobile app, a feature previously only available on desktop devices. To do so, they will have to navigate to ‘Content’, tap the yellow ‘$‘ icon, and then select ‘Requ ..read more

Austria is set to pass a law as part of the European Copyright Directive that creates a limited exception for clips of less than 15 seconds shared on online platforms and offers uploaders to declare that their material does not infringe copyright when used as a parody or pastiche. A similar law was passed in Germany. Eight other countries including France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands have so far implemented the directive. In a recent “Year on TikTok 2021 Music Report,” the ByteDance-owned video platform announced that approximately 430 songs surpassed 1 billion video views in 2021, which ..read more

CRB posts the latest royalty hike for 2022, UK streaming bill debate scheduled, TikTok reveals the “Creator Next” monetization portal, and a whole lot more! Remember to ask any questions you have in the comments below, we're here to help!   Have any questions? Contact us at: hello@exploration.io Exploration: https://exploration.io/exploration-we... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/exploration... Twitter: https://twitter.com/explorationio LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/expl... YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Exploration... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Exploration.i ..read more

The Copyright Royalty Board recently announced a royalty increase on December 1 for record labels and performing artists in regards to a select type of streaming platform. In 2022, subscription-based “non-interactive” streams will see a per-stream royalty rate increase from 0.26 to 0.28 cents, while non-subscription will see an increase from 0.21 to 0.22 cents. These royalties will be paid out by webcasters such as Pandora and iHeartRadio. Politicians in the UK are scheduled to debate a proposed law today on December 3 over higher artist royalties from music streaming platforms as well as reve ..read more

Tidal is now launching a free tier in the US as well as a new user-centric payment model for its premium subscription offerings, according to an announcement made on Wednesday. Rights holders will be paid based on the streaming activity of each individual subscriber on Tidal’s HiFi Plus tier. An annual report on the “Global Value of Music Copyright” by former Spotify chief economist Will Page states that the calculated value of music copyright for 2020 totalled $32.5 billion, growing by 2.7%. “The driver of these changes is streaming: Its contribution to labels, publishers, and their CMOs has ..read more

Spotify is soon to acquire audiobook distribution company Findaway, marking the company’s first major acquisition in the audiobook space as it competes with other giants like Amazon’s Audible. The purchase is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year as it is pending regulatory approval. According to Peloton’s fiscal Q1 2022 (calendar Q3 2021) results, the fitness company posted a 6% year-on-year increase, marking a significant deceleration compared to the prior year quarter, when Peloton’s revenues rocketed by 232% YoY. As a result, annual revenue forecasts have been reduced from ..read more

The creator economy is showing a lot of potential as established stars are seeking to grow their personal brands on a bigger array of digital platforms. According to research by YouTube and Oxford Economics, YouTube’s creator ecosystem contributed $20.5 billion to the U.S. GDP in 2020, and chief business officer Robert Kyncl expects the creator economy to “rival Hollywood in terms of economic impact and job creation”. Mexico and Brazil both are the first and second countries where people consume most music per capita: 25.7 and 25.4 hours per week, respectively, compared to an average of 18.4 h ..read more

YouTube hit $7.2 billion in advertising revenue during Q3, close to surpassing Netflix’s reported advertising revenue of $7.5 billion in the same quarter. Google Advertising increased roughly by 5% in Q3 compared to last quarter. According to a report published by CISAC, global music royalty collections dropped 10.7% in 2020 due to the pandemic, declining to a pre-2017 level of approximately $9.3 billion. Digital collections, on the other hand, were up by 16.2% in 2020. It surpassed live and background for the first time to become the second largest income stream. In Spotify’s latest financial ..read more