Welcome to Music Business Worldwide’s weekly round-up – where we make sure you caught the five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days. MBW’s round-up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximise their income and reduce their touring costs.
This week, Universal Music Group partnered with TIDAL to explore what they call a “new economic model for music streaming”
According to the announcement issued by the two companies, their research will cover how different economic models “could accelerate subscriber growth, deepen retention, and better monetize fandom to the benefit of artists and the broader music community”.
The announcement came three weeks after UMG Chairman and CEO Sir Lucian Grainge sent a memo to UMG staff, in which he referenced the company’s preference for a switch to an “artist-centric” model to transform the way that artists and rightsholders are paid by streaming services.
Also this week, as first reported by Bloomberg, and confirmed to MBW by multiple sources, a number of TikTok users in Australia are being restricted from adding some major label-licensed music to their videos.
Our sources suggest TikTok is aiming to use the results of the experiment in their next round of record company licensing negotiations…
Elsewhere, on Monday (January 30), it was announced that Hartwig Masuch is stepping down as CEO of Bertelsmann-owned BMG at the end of the year.
He will be succeeded by Thomas Coesfeld, who joined Berlin-headquartered BMG as CFO in April 2021.
Elsewhere, BandLab reached 60 million registered creators on its service, while Spotify grew its global paying subs audience to 205 million in Q4 2022.
Here’s what happened this week…
1) UNIVERSAL PARTNERS WITH TIDAL TO DEVELOP ‘MORE ARTIST AND FAN-FRIENDLY’ STREAMING MODEL
For the past three weeks, the music industry has been pondering Sir Lucian Grainge‘s thoughts on potential alternative streaming payout models.
In a memo sent to UMG staff on January 11, Universal Music Group’s Chairman and CEO referenced UMG’s preference for a switch to an “artist-centric” model to transform the way that artists and rightsholders are paid by streaming services.
This week, UMG announced an interesting alliance with TIDAL that will see the two companies work together to explore what they call “an innovative new economic model for music streaming that might better reward the value provided by artists….”
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2) TIKTOK IS TRYING TO PROVE THAT IT DOESN’T NEED MAJOR LABEL MUSIC – AND THE EYES OF THE INDUSTRY ARE UPON IT.
A major story is brewing in Australia that could have far-reaching implications for the global music industry’s relationship with video giant TikTok.
As first reported by Bloomberg, and confirmed to MBW by multiple sources, a number of TikTok users in Australia no longer have the choice to use some major label-licensed music in their videos.
In other words: TikTok has removed major record company music from its service for a subset of users in Oz.
Why? Our sources suggest TikTok is aiming to use the results of the experiment in their next round of record company licensing negotiations…
3) THOMAS COESFELD: ‘I AM DETERMINED BMG WILL GROW EVEN BIGGER AND MORE SUCCESSFUL UNDER MY LEADERSHIP.’
On Monday (January 30), BMG announced that its CEO for the past decade-and-a-half, Hartwig Masuch, is to step down from that role at the end of 2023.
Taking Masuch’s place as CEO? BMG‘s current CFO, Thomas Coesfeld, who will be elevated to Chief Executive of the Bertelsmann-owned music company in January 2024.
Subsequent to breaking the news this morning, MBW obtained two memos from Masuch and Coesfeld respectively sent to BMG’s 1,100 staff members…
4) SPOTIFY WANTS 50 MILLION CREATORS ON ITS PLATFORM BY 2030. BANDLAB ALREADY HAS 60 MILLION.
BandLab is a music creation platform that offers a suite of tools for creators to “make music, share their music with fans, earn a living, and even top the charts”.
This week, the Singapore-headquartered firm confirmed to MBW that it now boasts over 60 million registered creators on its service, up from the 50 million milestone that it surpassed in June last year.
That means BandLab has added around 10 million creators to its platform in little over six months – having already added 20 million in the 15 months between March 2021 and June 2022…
Credit: Shutterstock/Diego Thomazini
5) SPOTIFY PAYING SUBSCRIBERS REACHED 205M IN Q4 2022, UP BY 10M ON THE PREVIOUS QUARTER
Spotify’s Q4 2022 results are in.
The music streaming company added another 10 million net Premium subscribers to its user base in Q4 2022 (the three months to end of December), taking its total global paying subs audience to 205 million.
Those 205 million subscribers marked Premium Subscriber growth of 14% YoY, and 3 million above the company’s guidance. This growth was aided, according to Spotify, by promotional intake and household plans…”
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