August spelled success for songwriters and artists alike as revenues grew and new opportunities opened up, but AI presents new threats. The post The biggest music industry news | August 2024 appeared first on RouteNote Blog ..read more

Music publishing revenues have leaped upwards in 2023, though there are questions over whether 2024 can keep up. The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) have revealed 2023’s results. The association works on behalf of songwriters to collect music publishing revenues for musical compositions and saw a fantastic year. The NMPA report nearly 11% growth in music publishing revenue in 2023. Publishing revenues in the U.S. reached $6.2 billion last year, representing growth of 10.74% on 2022. At the NMPA’s annual meeting they awarded Lana Del Rey with the award for Songwriter Icon. Savan K ..read more

Music publishing revenues for independent artists and labels are seeing fantastic growth with billions of dollars in earnings. Independent music is growing the world over with streaming services levelling the playing field between major label artists and indies. Spotify revealed earlier in the year that over a quarter of their streams are made on independent artists and indie labels’ music. The burgeoning world of independent music publishing is also seeing powerful growth. The IMPF, a global trade body for independent music publishers, have published their latest report on where independent m ..read more

If you’ve played your original song live, received radio play or had a few streams on Spotify – you will have performance royalties that are waiting to be collected! Performance Royalties are a form of Publishing Royalty that are generated through the play of a composition rather than a sound recording. Whether a composition is a performance on TV, broadcast on the radio, a background playlist streamed at a restaurant, a jukebox in a waiting room or a live performance. If you hear music when you’re out and about, it’s generating royalties to collect. You also earn performance royalties on Non ..read more

The end of January saw Universal Music pull its full catalogue including Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and many more from TikTok in row on licence fees. Universal Music Group (UMG) stated that TikTok was offering to pay a fraction of the rate of the other major social media platforms. UMG said that it’s an “indication of how little TikTok compensates artists and songwriters, despite its massive and growing user base” and that TikTok only accounts for “about 1% of our total revenue”. TikTok wrote: “It is sad and disappointing that Universal Music Group has put their own greed above the interests ..read more

Image credit: Vishnu R Nair Although Digital Music Publishing has improved immensely since the beginning of streaming – it is still an uphill battle to get these royalties to the correct party. Music Publishing is the collection of an artist’s compositional royalties which are generated whenever an artist’s composition is played, recreated or performed. Unlike sound recording royalties (also known as the ‘master right’) which are usually collected upon distribution of a song and only collected from that single audio file – publishing royalties can attach themselves to multiple audio files, liv ..read more

Quite often you’ll find that your favourite artist isn’t always the one behind your favourite song. So we are looking at three songwriters you may not have heard of. Diane Warren Image credit: AP News Born in California in 1956, Diane Warren is a multi-award winning songwriter and publisher. She has written 9 number one singles and over 30 ‘Top 10’ singles, and has been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She also owns her only Music Publishing company called Realsongs to look after her rights, as well as running The Diane Warren Foun ..read more

Although most independent artists are only just discovering Music Publishing, the collection of compositional royalties has been around for centuries. How we listen to, own and distribute music has changed dramatically over the decades. With streaming becoming the number one way to listen to our music, the music industry has had to make some changes. This was to make sure that everyone had access to all the royalties that were available to them when physical media was more prominent. Music Distribution and the collection of Sound Recording Royalties transitioned to streaming smoothly, however ..read more

You can earn different Publishing Royalties in many ways and we’re going to take you through what your composition can earn you! Performance Royalties: Whether a composition is a performance on TV, broadcast on the radio, a background playlist streamed at a restaurant, a jukebox in a waiting room or a live performance. If you hear music when you’re out and about, it’s generating royalties to collect. Mechanical Royalties: When a composition is reproduced in any form, a Mechanical Royalty is generated. This means you can earn more whenever your composition is purchased from stores like Amazon o ..read more

Image credit: Alexander Grey As Digital Music Publishing refines and tools at royalty collectors’ disposal grow increasingly accurate, we continue to see more publishing earnings reach artists. The British Performance Rights Organisation ‘PRS for Music’ have reported their largest quarter ever with the distribution of £239 million to rightsholders (a 13% increase from October 2022). It is their largest royalty payment since they began in 1914. Along with this, the American Mechanical Rights Organisation ‘The MLC’ announced that they have paid out over $1.5 billion since their launch in 2018. W ..read more