Tag: Licensing
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Could Deezer test ‘user-centric’ streaming licensing?

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Midia Research’s Mark Mulligan tends to focus on analysis and predictions rather than breaking news, but yesterday he claimed a scoop: that Deezer is exploring an alternative form of licensing.

Specifically, the ‘user-centric’ form that sees royalties paid out based on each individual user’s listening habits, rather than the entire pool of monthly listening.

“So if a subscriber listens 100% to Metallica, Metallica gets 100% of the royalty revenue generated by that subscriber,” as he described it. Compared to the current model where “if Katy Perry accounted for 10% of all streams in a month, the 10% of that metal fan’s subscription fee effectively goes towards Katy Perry and her label and publisher”.

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Confusion surrounds status of Universal Music Prince deal

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The question ‘what is going on with Prince’s digital music licensing?’ has been posed many times in recent years, both before and after his death.

It seemed to have been answered when Prince’s estate struck a deal with Universal Music Group to exploit the non-WMG elements of the late star’s back catalogue, as well as his archives of unreleased material.

This week, though, even that agreement is causing confusion. The Wall Street Journal broke the story, claiming that UMG “is concerned it didn’t get what it was promised in its contract” as part of the $30m deal.

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Now Pandora is reportedly seeking better deal terms from labels

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The exact details may not (yet) be public, but Spotify’s recent licensing deal with Universal Music Group is widely expected to include a lower royalty rate, in order to make the streaming service’s growth more sustainable.

In the run-up to that deal, there has been some discussion within the industry about whether any such change to Spotify’s licensing terms would spark a domino effect of rival services asking for similar discounts.

Cue Bloomberg’s report yesterday: “Pandora Media Inc., the embattled music streaming company, has asked major record labels for money or better deal terms to help reverse losses and reduce pressure from impatient shareholders… In addition to asking for direct investments from the labels, Pandora has sought to renegotiate licensing deals to reduce its costs.” Although note, the report also claimed that labels “are unlikely to accede to the requests”.

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Spotify seals new licensing deal with UMG and agrees to window albums

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The long, hard path to a new set of licensing agreements for Spotify is nearing its conclusion. The music-streaming service has announced a multi-year, global deal with Universal Music Group.

One down, two to go from the trio of major labels, with Sony Music and Warner Music Group still negotiating with Spotify.

Unsurprisingly, the terms of the UMG deal have not been laid bare, although there are some lines to read between in the two companies’ announcement.

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Native Instruments buys remix-licensing startup MetaPop

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Music production and DJing company Native Instruments has snapped up startup MetaPop, appointing its founder, former Beatport CEO Matthew Adell, as its chief digital officer.

We first wrote about MetaPop a year ago, in February 2016, when the company announced its plans to find a legitimate business model around remixes and mash-ups.

MetaPop recently announced that it had successfully licensed more than 20,000 bootleg remixes, with the company paying rightsholders 70% of the subsequent revenues; remixers 15%, and keeping a 15% cut for itself.

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Report claims premium-windowing is on the way for Spotify

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Spotify’s latest round of licensing negotiations with major labels is bringing the prospect of premium-windowing for high-profile albums closer on its service.

The Financial Times claimed yesterday that Spotify is close to securing lower royalty rates with the three majors, in return for the ability to “restrict the biggest album releases to its paid tier for a period of time”, placing a new limit on its free tier.

“People close to the matter say licensing talks have picked up considerably and deals could be inked within weeks after months of gridlock, with the caveat that nothing has been signed and talks could again stall,” reported the FT.

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Mash-ups and mixes startup Dubset Media raises $4m

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Dubset Media has closed a $4m Series A funding round to continue building its business licensing remixes and mash-ups for distribution on music-streaming services.

Boston-based VC firm Cue Ball Capital led the round, with Redwood Venture Partners, Resolute Venture Partners, Neoteny 3 and MediaNet chipping in.

Note the involvement of the latter: MediaNet was acquired by Canadian collecting society SOCAN in May 2016. Dubset CEO Stephen White’s statement focused on the lead investor though.

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Kate Nash to Snapchat: ‘Dude, where’s my pay cheque?’

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Musician Kate Nash has sparked a discussion about Snapchat’s music-licensing strategy, after she claimed that the company was using her song ‘Foundations’ in one of its lenses without paying her for the rights.

“HI SNAPCHAT it’s KATE NASH I can barely hear myself here on this filter over MY OWN SONG FOUNDATIONS. You know it well. So uhh SHOW ME THE MONEY MATE,” wrote Nash on Instagram under a video of herself using the offending lens.

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Rightsholders could ‘turn very quickly’ over Facebook licensing

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Bloomberg’s piece on Facebook’s music-licensing efforts offers some good colour to the negotiations that are kicking off in earnest between the social network and rightsholders.

It emphasises the fact that deals covering music in user-uploaded videos on Facebook will be a necessary step towards any moves to add official music videos to the service.

There is also some familiar sabre-rattling from NMPA boss David Israelite. “We’re hopeful that they are moving towards licensing music for the entire site,” said the publishing veteran. “Facebook is a very valuable company, making a lot of money, and in part because of the music on the site… We are looking forward to being business partners with Facebook. If that doesn’t happen, you’ll see the situation turn very quickly.”