ICE Licensing // Senior DSP Audit & Assurance Manager (London)

ICE Licensing // DSP Audit and Assurance Manager (London)

IDOL // UK Label Manager (London/Hybrid)

Nonclassical // Executive Director (London)

Free Trade Agency // Office Co-Ordinator (London)

Today's music business news

TOP STORY

Spotify also in talks with industry to change track allocation process

Spotify is in conversation with the major record companies, key indies and distributors about changing the way it allocates revenues to individual tracks and catalogues each month.

It follows the pilot scheme launched by Deezer earlier this month which makes similar changes. Spotify’s plans include the introduction of a threshold for monetisation, meaning tracks will need to reach a certain number of streams each year before any money is allocated to them at all. There will also be new rules for “functional audio”, such as white noise and birdsong.

The changes by both Spotify and Deezer reflect growing pressure from the major record companies to change aspects of the business model employed by the streaming services. In particular, the majors increasingly resent that their content - which they see as “premium content” - is monetised the same as what they would consider “lower value” content.

That lower value content includes functional audio, but also tracks uploaded by what the majors might regard as “non-professional” musicians - creators for whom pure monetisation may not be a priority, but who nevertheless want their music available on the streaming platforms.

Music streaming services operate on a model where revenue is shared with the music industry based on consumption share. That means that each month, in each market, each service allocates a portion of its revenue to each track - or to each catalogue.

Under the current system the portion of revenues allocated to each track is based on what percentage of total consumption any one track accounts for - with all tracks treated equally and plays counted at 30 seconds.

There have been calls for changes to be made to this track allocation system for years, though mainly from the indie and music-maker communities. However, since the start of this year the majors have been calling for changes too, so now we are starting to see some alternative systems being seriously considered.

When it comes to functional audio, Deezer’s alternative approach removes third party content of that kind entirely, replacing it with similar content made by the streaming firm itself that will not be allocated any revenue.

Under Spotify’s proposals - first reported by MBW and Billboard and since confirmed by CMU’s own sources - new rules would be brought in specifically for this kind of content regarding the duration of listening to any one track.

Because plays are currently counted at 30 seconds, functional audio producers often create playlists of tracks split into 31 second segments - meaning that each short track triggers a payment. Spotify’s current proposal is to significantly increase the play time required for payment, making it harder for functional audio producers to generate revenue from lots of short tracks.

In terms of music uploaded by what the majors regard as “non-professional” musicians, Deezer’s new system is set up so that tracks by “professional” artists get a “double boost”, meaning each play counts as two plays, and therefore less money flows to “non-professional” artists.

Spotify’s solution, however, is based on setting an annual threshold for the number of streams a track must pass before it starts to be allocated any revenue at all.

It is this proposal in particular - splitting music-makers into two tiers - where these changes get controversial. Deezer, Spotify and their mates at the majors insist that the definitions and thresholds being proposed mean independent artists and emerging talent will end up in the privileged group, with many of those in the lower tier not really seeking to make money from their music anyway. However, the new policies will affect everyone in that lower tier, and the change could particularly impact certain niche genres or artists from non-traditional backgrounds.

Those artists may well ask why, if their music gets played - even just a few hundred times - they should not be paid the same as anyone else. They might also ask whether the two tier pay-out proposal is not just price-fixing, where dominant streaming platforms collude with dominant music companies, and a small handful of major players push millions of independent creators out of the marketplace - or at the very least offer them less favourable terms.

While the streaming services and majors might argue that UGC and social media platforms have already set a precedent that creators must have a certain amount of traction before they qualify to monetise their output, many in the music industry might argue that such a distinction is a false parallel.

It will be interesting to see how Deezer and Spotify's plans progress as they seek to get buy-in from across the industry. But what seems certain is that the track allocation systems employed by the streaming services are going to change in the next year, making everything even more complicated. Hurrah!

Oh, as with Deezer, Spotify is also making some new commitments to tackle streaming fraud. Needless to say, specifics are not yet clear.

ONE LINERS

Green Day, Loyle Carner, Amon Tobin + more

DEALS

Sentric Music has signed Amon Tobin and his Nomark label to a worldwide publishing administration deal. “Sentric has a positive, forward-looking attitude and I’m very happy to be working with them on my Nomark catalogue and future releases”, he says.

Warner Music has signed Turkish band Mavi to a worldwide recording deal. “We’re super excited about the journey ahead”, say the band. “Our music is simply good! Borderless, seductive, and liberating”. You can be the judge of that when new single ‘Sen Ve Yıldız’ comes out next month.

LABELS & PUBLISHERS

IMPALA has published its latest Equity, Diversity And Inclusion Report, outlining the pan-European indie label trade group's work championing and facilitating more diversity and inclusion, within the organisation and the sector it supports and represents. You can access it here.

APPOINTMENTS

The Association For Electronic Music has announced a rejig and expansion of its leadership team which, the organisation says, is "designed to bolster the association's commitment to excellence, innovation and continued growth". Finlay Johnson, who joined AFEM last year, becomes Chief Operating Officer, and is joined by Jay Ahern as Chief Growth Officer and Georgia Taglietti as Culture And Campaigns Manager.

RELEASES

Green Day have released new single ‘The American Dream Is Killing Me’. Their new album ‘Saviors’ is set for release on 19 Jan. “As soon we cut it, we said, ‘Okay, that’s going first’”, says Billie Joe Armstrong of the new song, adding that it is “a look at the way the traditional American dream doesn’t work for a lot of people - in fact, it’s hurting a lot of people”.

Duran Duran have released a cover of Talking Heads’ ‘Psycho Killer’ featuring Måneskin’s Victoria De Angelis. The track is taken from upcoming album ‘Danse Macabre’. “I met a couple of the guys from Måneskin at a party and they said, ‘you’ve got to meet our bass player’”, says the band’s John Taylor. “She’s such a dynamo! I was like ‘what inspired you?’ and Vic said, ‘Tina Weymouth’. So when ‘Psycho Killer’ made the cut for the album, I thought, ‘I’m gonna ask her if she’d like to have a bass-off!’”

The Kills have released new single ‘Wasterpiece’. New album ‘God Games’ is out this week.

Chelsea Wolfe has announced that she will release new album ‘She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She’ on 9 Feb. Out now is new single ‘Whispers In The Echo Chamber’. She is also set to play Heaven in London on 21 Apr.

Coco - featuring Maia Friedman of Dirty Projectors - will release new album ‘2’ on 1 Mar. Out now is new single ‘Mythological Man’.

Deep Tan have released new single ‘Xenomorph Queen’.

Gag Salon have released new single ‘Fishyman (Part 2)’. The band are set to play the Sebright Arms in London on 28 Oct.

GIGS & TOURS

Loyle Carner has announced UK and Ireland shows next summer, kicking off at Dublin’s Fairview Park on 30 Jun. Tickets go on general sale on Friday.

Underworld have announced UK shows in April next year, including a performance at London’s Alexandra Palace. Tickets go on general sale on Friday.

DEALS

The Circuit Group and Defected Records partner

The Circuit Group - formed earlier this month by the merger of artist management firms Seven20 and AYITA - has announced an alliance with dance music label Defected Records.

Under the alliance, The Circuit Group will, and I quote, “provide Defected expertise across their suite of services to help the label build their presence in North America, while Defected will support The Circuit Group as they expand their presence in the UK, Europe and other territories around the world".

When launched earlier this month, The Circuit Group said it aimed to "create a new business model centred around artists’ intellectual property, partnering with artists and strategic partners to create business verticals around recorded music, publishing, merchandise, brand partnerships, gaming, events, Web3 technologies and cutting-edge music innovations".

On the new tie-up with Defected, The Circuit Group co-founder Dean Wilson says: “Defected Records is without a doubt one of the most respected label brands in the world. Working closely with the label head Wez Saunders and his team will be invaluable to us as we continue to establish our new vision across the music landscape".

The there mentioned Saunders adds: “My strategy for Defected is to build a model for the future of the music business and we see that in what Dean and his team are doing too. In combining our teams of world-class specialists, I hope to demonstrate how alliance at this level can ultimately mean longer, more profitable careers for our artists across the board".

LABELS & PUBLISHERS

Deezer and Sacem evaluating artist-centric model for songwriters

Deezer and French collecting society Sacem have announced that they are exploring how they might apply an artist-centric streaming model to song rights.

This follows the launch earlier this month of Deezer’s pilot scheme in France which involves changing the way the streaming service allocates its revenues to individual tracks on the recordings side.

“Sacem is a world leader in managing music authors rights, and we’re delighted to join forces to explore how we can develop the way publishing is monetised in the age of streaming”, says Deezer CEO Jeronimo Folgueira. “Songwriters, composers and publishers play a crucial role in the music industry as the creative driving force behind the songs we love, and it’s time to evolve how we reward these efforts”.

Sacem CEO Cécile Rap-Veber adds: "Sacem has always anticipated changes in the music market and been a pioneer in seizing every opportunity to better redistribute rights and maximise the value of its members' works. By proposing an alternative remuneration model via 'artist-centric', we welcome Deezer's desire to put creators and publishers back at the heart of their concerns. This is why we felt it was essential to launch this in-depth study, which we hope will make it possible to increase the value of streaming for our members".

Through the partnership, the two organisations say that they will analyse streaming data from Deezer’s platform to assess the viability of different economic models for songwriters, composers and publishers.

Deezer announced plans to switch to what it calls an artist-centric model for recordings in September. Confirmation that it is now looking at doing the same for song rights comes alongside the news that Spotify is also looking at changing how it allocates royalties on the recordings side, with its plans having some parallels with Deezer’s.

MEDIA

Three more DJs to be supported by Radio 1's Annie Nightingale Presents Scholarship

BBC Radio 1 has announced the three DJs that will be supported via the Annie Nightingale Presents Scholarship this year.

Nightingale launched the Scholarship initiative in 2021 with the aim of supporting talented women and non-binary people who are gaining traction in the electronic music scene across the world. They will all appear on a special edition of the 'Annie Nightingale Presents' radio show next month.

The DJ's supported this time include two Brits - Imogen and Jay Carder - plus American Rossy.

Says Nightingale: “It’s so exciting to be presenting the third Radio 1 Annie Nightingale Scholarship show for up-and-coming women and non-binary DJs. This year's winners … all possess great taste in music; versatility and dexterity on the decks and all convey their enthusiastic personalities on the mic. I wish them all great success and recognition".

Radio 1 chief Aled Haydn Jones adds: “The Annie Nightingale Scholarship is extremely important in uplifting and supporting new DJing talent. I can’t wait to celebrate the newest ones to watch, and look forward to hearing what they each bring to the show".

LABELS & PUBLISHERS

Hipgnosis Songs Fund confirms it has received no higher offers for catalogue sale

The board of the Hipgnosis Songs Fund have confirmed to their investors that they have not received a superior offer for the catalogues they are proposing to sell to Hipgnosis Songs Capital.

That confirmation comes ahead a big vote tomorrow when investors will be asked if they back that sale and whether they want the Songs Fund to continue operating.

The board of the publicly listed Fund proposed the sale of a stack of music rights to the separate Blackstone-backed Hipgnosis Songs Capital last month. The $440 million raised from that deal will be used to buy back shares and service a credit facility, with the aim of boosting the Fund’s flagging share price.

Following the announcement of that proposal, a ‘go-shop’ process was instigated in which other parties could bid for the same catalogues, in an effort to reassure investors in the Fund that the other Hipgnosis entity had offered a fair price.

That process, the Fund’s board said yesterday, resulted in “substantive engagement with a number of parties”, but did not result in a higher bid being made.

“The company was in contact with seventeen parties at the beginning of the go-shop”, the board’s statement continued, “with eight parties signing non-disclose agreements; one first round non-binding offer was received, but did not subsequently result in a binding bid”.

“The board received feedback through the process”, they added, “that a number of the parties assessed that they could not justify paying a higher price than the offer from the buyer for the first disposal”.

With that in mind, the board unsurprisingly recommended that investors back the Hipgnosis-to-Hipgnosis deal.

There has been increased investor scrutiny of the Songs Fund in recent months, with some shareholders and analysts criticising the proposed catalogue sale, and others more generally criticising the Fund’s board and its advisors at Hipgnosis Song Management. The board last week announced a strategic review to allay investor concerns, but it remains to be seen if that works.

LEGAL

GESAC welcomes European Parliament support for measures against buy-outs

GESAC has welcomed the news that the culture and employment committees of the European Parliament have adopted a report that includes various legislative recommendations on creator rights.

For GESAC, which represents the song right collecting societies of Europe, of particular interest is what the report says about buy-outs. That’s where entities that commission songwriters and musicians to create new music seek to own many, or maybe even all, of the rights associated with that music. This means that, while the writer or performer will get an upfront fee, they won’t earn ongoing royalties when their music is used.

Buy-outs are more common in Anglo-American markets, with complete buy-outs mainly happening in the US. But commissioning entities seeking more rights is becoming more common and that’s affecting more European music-makers, hence GESAC’s concerns.

It explained yesterday that buy-outs “are typically imposed directly by giant non-EU based video-on-demand platforms or through their local producers and deprive composers of soundtracks of series, films or other audiovisual works of appropriate and proportionate remuneration, as well as the exercise of their moral rights, against the provisions of EU and national laws”.

The report adopted by committees in the European Parliament yesterday, it added, “calls on the European Commission to propose the necessary measures to address such coercive and harmful practices of global players that try to bypass EU laws through choice of law and jurisdiction clauses”. GESAC is now urging the Parliament at large to back the committees’ position.

Its General Manager Véronique Desbrosses says: "An important step has been reached today with this strong call for a European action against buy-outs from the two technical committees of the European Parliament involved in the matter and we are thankful to them”.

“The creators' community relies on the European legislator to take the necessary measures to stop the unfairness in the market and ensure that global streamers comply with the EU rules and principles when they operate in Europe”, she goes on. “Retention of copyright and authors right within Europe is essential for the future of European creativity and economy and we look forward to the confirmation of this strong position of the European Parliament in the plenary vote".

AND FINALLY

K-pop group accidentally perform in Glasgow Rangers football kits at Texas show

When K-pop girl group STAYC played a show in Dallas last week, they decided to don the distinctive blue shirts worn by the Texas Rangers baseball team. A good way to get the crowd on side. Or it would have been, if that was actually what they were wearing.

Somehow - in a feat of what I imagine was a hasty trip to eBay - the singers actually turned up on stage wearing the 1996 home shirts of Scottish football team Glasgow Rangers. What Texans attending the show made of it all isn’t clear, but when pictures appeared on X it delighted people who sit in the middle of the Venn diagram of K-pop fans and those nostalgic for one of the Glasgow team’s most successful seasons.

The group have apparently been wearing the kits of local sports teams on all the dates of their US tour. Until this point, things had apparently all gone to plan.

STAYC are set to play Wembley Arena on 8 Nov. It remains to be seen what they wear on stage that night. Although, given the bitter rivalry between the different London football teams, it might be less of a faux pas to turn up in Texas Rangers kits.