The latest issue of Music & Copyright is now available for subscribers to download. Here are some of the highlights. Spotify pivots toward a tailored podcast business, but where’s the music? Music streamer Spotify has officially declared its much-vaunted and highly expensive foray into podcasting as something of a flop. It has, by its own admission, overpaid for production expertise and content and failed to make a decent return on investments. The company is now bent on reinventing the way it develops, markets, distributes, and monetizes the spoken word. Part of that involves shedding its ..read more

The latest issue of Music & Copyright is now available for subscribers to download. Here are some of the highlights. Global music market set to double in value, with streaming and live the big growth providers US investment bank Goldman Sachs has published its latest set of forecasts for the global music industry. In what can only be described as eyewatering numbers, the bank is expecting major growth for the recorded-music, music publishing, and live music sectors. Forecasts for the global total in all years have been raised from the previous estimations published 12 months ago. Streaming ..read more

The latest issue of Music & Copyright is now available for subscribers to download. Here are some of the highlights. US rights holders square up to radio sector in new push to end the performance right anomaly New legislation aimed at forcing AM/FM radio broadcasters in the US to pay performance royalties to producers and performers has been introduced in Congress. The bipartisan American Music Fairness Act (AMFA) would line up terrestrial broadcasters alongside non-interactive online services which do pay a performance right. The US is unique in the industrialized world for not having a r ..read more

The latest issue of Music & Copyright is now available for subscribers to download. Here are some of the highlights. The US Copyright Office selects the Music Licensing Collective and Digital Licensee Coordinator The US Copyright Office (the Office) has chosen the two groups that will facilitate the new system of mechanical licensing as determined by the Music Modernization Act (MMA). The aim of the MMA is to do away with the song-by-song notice of intention process and create a new blanket compulsory licensing system for digital music services. Moreover, the blanket-licensing structure sh ..read more

The latest issue of Music & Copyright is now available for subscribers to download. Here are some of the highlights. Despite legal successes, stream ripping remains a significant threat to the recorded-music industry Music streaming has quickly become the dominant revenue source for recorded-music companies. Moreover, recorded music is now a growth industry and is likely to remain so for the medium term at least. However, the process of stream ripping, where websites enable users to rip streams from audio and video services and convert them to permanent downloads poses a major threat to th ..read more

The latest issue of Music & Copyright is now available for subscribers to download. Here are some of the highlights. Midyear trade results suggest a very big year for global recorded-music sales With all the world’s major recorded-music markets and a good number of smaller ones having published midyear trade figures, an assessment of the results suggests that global recorded-music trade earnings could be heading for a particularly positive full year. Based on the numbers, combined global trade revenue from the sale of physical and digital recorded music and income from music access service ..read more

The latest issue of Music & Copyright is now available for subscribers to download. Here are some of the highlights. ECJ clarifies the copyright infringement rules concerning hyperlinks The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that the posting of a hyperlink on a website to works protected by copyright and published without the author’s consent on another website does not necessarily constitute a communication to the public, so long as the person that posts the link does not seek financial gain and acts without knowledge that the works have been published illegally. The Dutch Supreme ..read more

The latest issue of Music & Copyright is now available for subscribers to download. Here are some of the highlights. Russia’s royalty collection system heading for a big shake-up Russia’s music royalty collecting segment has been in turmoil over the last few weeks as Sergei Fedotov, head of state-approved authors’ rights collecting society the Russian Authors’ Society (RAO), was arrested and a group of rights holders left the organization to set up a new collecting society, the Russian Authors’ Union (ROAS). Police opened an investigation into RAO a year ago, alleging that RUB500m ($7.7m ..read more

The latest issue of Music & Copyright is now available for subscribers to download. Here are some of the highlights. Little change forecast for global recorded music retail sales Ovum has published new forecasts for retail sales of recorded music that suggest little variation in overall spending levels, but the continuation of the transition from ownership to access. Although global consumer spending on recorded music will change very little in the years to 2020, spending on digital formats and services will overtake physical formats this year and go on to account for almost three-quarters ..read more

Music buyers in Japan are continuing to confound the rest of world, with digital sales falling and physical-format sales rising. Recent figures published by Japanese music trade association the RIAJ show that the once loved mobile music formats are continuing to suffer big drops in sales. Internet sales are growing but nowhere near fast enough to stem Japan’s digital-music collapse. For most developed countries around the world, it would be safe to assume that the sales trend in the recorded-music industry is one of falling physical-format sales and rising revenues from a growing number of dig ..read more