November 2019

The Spotify Blacklist Continues ⁠— Artist Faces Retaliation After a Fader Exclusive

Fresh allegations of a ‘Spotify blacklist’ are surfacing, with artists still excluded from editorial playlists if their music debuts elsewhere. Initially, we thought this was primarily a reaction to Apple Music exclusives and pre-release promotions. But the ‘Spotify blacklist’ now seems to go beyond competing streaming services, and includes blogs, music publications, radio, or, according […]

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Music Industry News

Top Streaming Exec: The MLC Is Choking On a ‘Once-In-a-Lifetime Opportunity’

Major streaming services appear to be growing increasingly frustrated with the as-yet-unformed Mechanical Licensing Collective, or MLC. Just this morning, a top executive at one of the largest streaming platforms in the world — who wished to remain anonymous — shared this statement with Digital Music News. It describes a disheartening situation around the Mechanical […]

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Music Industry News

Tencent Music Earnings Surge 31% In the Latest Quarter

Tencent Music Entertainment Group has released its third-quarter financials for 2019, with revenue surging a staggering 31% and beating the expectations of Wall Street analysts. In spite of the news, shares of the company are down by more than 7% at the time of this writing. While revenue at the company during the period rose […]

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Music Industry News

BMG Announces a 30,000 Square Foot LA Office Upgrade

BMG has announced that it will be moving its Los Angeles operations 7 blocks from its current facility, to a 30,000-square-foot space on the very same street: Wilshire Boulevard. This is just the latest of office moves for BMG, whose L.A. operations represent its largest grossing unit. In September, the company opened a massive new […]

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Music Industry News

Adult Mom Says Indie Label Tiny Engines Isn’t Paying Royalties — Or Even Sending Statements

Adult Mom is accusing her indie record label Tiny Engines not only of not paying her but also of using revenue from her releases to fund other artists at the label. In a long series of tweets, Adult Mom — whose real name is Stevie Knipe — says that Tiny Engines is neither providing her […]

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Music Industry News

Hi-Res Audio Platform Qobuz Ditches MP3s for Good — “MP3 Is Really Bad for Music, Artists, and Listeners”

The format that started it all is now getting ditched by hi-res platform Qobuz. The move is part of a broader streamlining of the service. In audiophile-speak, two terms often pop up: ‘lossless’ and ‘lossy,’ with the latter being the inferior, compromised version of the former. The MP3 format, which emerged as a revolutionary codec […]

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Music Industry News

People Aren’t Getting Paid After Spotify’s $43.5 Million Class Action Settlement — No Responses, No Payments

Two years ago, independent songwriters and publishers agreed to a $43.5 million settlement with Spotify over unpaid mechanical licenses. Now, the payout process doesn’t seem to be working. Back in 2017, Digital Music News broke the story that Spotify had agreed to settle Ferrick, et al. v. Spotify USA Inc., a massive copyright infringement lawsuit with independent […]

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Music Industry News

The Latest Music Industry Gigs: Audio Network, TickX, Rhapsody, Fader, SiriusXM, Blackbird

Here’s a recap of recent executive shuffles — including both hirings and in-house promotions — from across the music industry. If you have a job listing to share, we’re all ears. Send us a note to news@digitalmusicnews.com. If you’d like to post a job on our Job Board, just send us a request to noah@digitalmusicnews.com. Audio Network […]

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Music Industry News

Live Nation’s Acquisition of MCD ‘Does Not Raise Competition Concerns’

The United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has provisionally approved Live Nation’s acquisition of MCD Productions, which is a leading Irish music promoter. In August of last year, LN-Gaiety Holdings Limited, which is a joint venture between Live Nation and Gaiety Investments, announced that it intended to acquire MCD. The terms of the deal have never been […]

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Music Industry News

CISAC Collections Reach a Record €9.7 Billion

Digital revenue in 2018 helped the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) achieve a record €9.65 billion in global royalty collections. On November 7, the organization, which represents 232 music societies in 120 nations (which, in turn, represents over 4 million music artists), released its 2019 Global Collections Report. Jumping out in the report was […]

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