Welcome to Music Enterprise Worldwide’s weekly round-up – the place we ensure that you caught the 5 largest tales to hit our headlines over the previous seven days. MBW’s round-up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximize their revenue and scale back their touring prices.
The large information this week was, after all, the top of the months-long licensing dispute between Common Music Group (UMG) and TikTok, which noticed UMG’s recorded and publishing catalogs disappear from the quick video platform.
In a word to workers, UMG Chairman and CEO Sir Lucian Grainge stated the brand new take care of TikTok will imply extra money for artists and songwriters.
But disagreements between TikTok and the music business are hardly over. This week the Nationwide Music Publishers Affiliation (NMPA)’s take care of TikTok expired.
Which means music from NMPA-represented indie publishers is now uncleared to be used on TikTok, until these publishers have made their very own unilateral offers with the platform.
In the meantime, one other struggle between the music biz and a significant platform is brewing, this one over Spotify‘s choice to categorise its Premium subscriptions as music/audiobook “bundles,” which means the service will probably be paying a decrease mechanical royalty price to songwriters and publishers within the US.
And Okay-pop big HYBE is embroiled in a disagreement of its personal, this one involving Min Hee-jin, the CEO of HYBE sub-label ADOR, who’s alleged to have plotted to sever ADOR from its mum or dad firm.
Lastly, the competitors between Harmony and Blackstone to amass the portfolio of Hipgnosis Songs Fund took one other flip this week, with Blackstone making a $1.57 billion bid.
Thursday’s large information: Common Music Group and TikTok, by means of a joint announcement, have confirmed that they’ve struck a brand new licensing deal – three months after UMG pulled its recordings catalog from the service.
What does this new deal imply for UMG and its artists and songwriters? Standout headline: Extra money.
That truth was confirmed and expanded upon in an inside memo from UMG Chairman/CEO Sir Lucian Grainge, issued to Common workers on Could 2 and obtained by MBW.
Grainge writes within the memo: “Beneath the brand new settlement, artist and songwriter compensation will probably be better than underneath our prior TikTok deal, and the overall worth UMG’s artists and songwriters garner from this partnership will probably be extra intently aligned with different platforms within the social music class.”
Information of the deal broke shortly earlier than UMG launched its Q1 2024 earnings, displaying complete revenues of EUR €2.594 billion (USD $2.816 billion), up 7.9% YoY at fixed forex. EBITDA grew 95.2% YoY at fixed forex to €490 million ($532 million)…
The Nationwide Music Publishers’ Affiliation (NMPA)‘s licensing take care of TikTok – representing the music publishing rights of a number of indie music publishers – formally expired on Tuesday (April 30).
The US commerce physique instructed its members final month that it wasn’t planning to increase the deal and that in the event that they wished to proceed to license their music to TikTok past the April 30 deadline, they would want to “interact straight” with the platform.
NMPA President & CEO David Israelite confirmed to MBW this week that the NMPA is “not partaking in an extension of its deal”.
Which means, as of Could 1, music managed by indie publishers represented by the commerce physique who haven’t unilaterally agreed a brand new direct settlement with TikTok, will probably be unlicensed to be used on the platform…
Blackstone is placing its cash the place its mouth is.
Final week, Harmony – partly financed by Apollo International Administration – launched a USD $1.511 billion money bid for the portfolio of Hipgnosis Songs Fund. That was the equal of USD $1.25 per share.
On Monday (April 29), Blackstone and HSF’s board collectively introduced a brand new provide from Blackstone price round $60 million greater than Harmony’s newest bid.
Blackstone has bid USD $1.572 billion – $1.30 per share – in money for 100% of HSF’s share capital.
The Hipgnosis Songs Fund board says it’s now recommending Blackstone’s provide to its shareholders, and withdrawing its earlier advice of Harmony’s $1.25-per-share provide…
Per week earlier than Okay-pop big HYBEreported disappointing earnings (income down 12% YoY in Q1 2024, and web revenue down 87.5%), a narrative emerged a few battle between the corporate and Min Hee-jin, CEO of HYBE sub-label ADOR.
Disputes between report corporations and their executives have occurred earlier than, however this one would possibly take the cake for the strangeness of a few of the alleged particulars which have been reported over the previous few weeks.
South Korea’s music scene has been rocked, repeatedly, by a sequence of claims and rumors involving allegations that Min had tried to sever ADOR from its majority proprietor HYBE; and that the latter firm had “copied” ADOR’s star lady group, NewJeans, for its new lady group ILLIT; that Min had allowed a spiritual “shaman” from outdoors the corporate to affect enterprise choices; and, most not too long ago, that HYBE is one way or the other linked to an alleged yoga cult known as Dahn World…
On the newest Music Enterprise Worldwide podcast, MBW founder Tim Ingham is joined by David Israelite, the President and CEO of the Nationwide Music Publishers’ Affiliation.
We most likely don’t have to ask you to guess which explicit controversial matter they focus on.
Earlier this month, Spotify introduced that it was altering the best way it calculates mechanical royalty funds for songwriters and publishers within the US.
Spotify has re-categorized its Premium subscription tiers within the States as ‘bundles,’ enabling it to pay out a lesser mechanical royalty price to songwriters than it might if stated Premium tiers have been categorised as pure music providers.
As David Israelite explains on this podcast, the NMPA is at present contemplating authorized motion towards Spotify that might search to undo the newly-lowered ‘bundle’ mechanical royalty price on the service…
