Apple Music revealed that it pays penny per stream, roughly double what Spotify pays music-rights holders.
The Union of Musicians said that all music streamers should pay one penny per stream at a minimum.
Apple has 60 million Music subscribers while Spotify has 155 million. Amazon has 55 million subscribers.
Artists aren’t paid directly by streaming services, rather they pay royalties to rights holders (labels, publishers, distributors). The right holders then pay artists.
Apple roughly 52 cents of every dollar, to record labels, whereas Spotify says it pays two-thirds of every dollar of revenue to rights holders, with 75% to 80% of that going to labels—translating to 50 to 53 cents on the dollar.
TikTok is disrupting the music industry. It’s done good for the industry, but the good also has a downside.
Users on TikTok are all about the song, not the artist. The song goes viral, not the artist. Sure, the artist is attached to the song, but remembering the name of the artist is like remembering the 9 digit phone number. No doubt, TikTok is an explosive marketing tool for song exposure. Warner Music, Sony, and Universal Music Group struck licensing deals with the platform, artist have signed deals with labels, and a few TikTok viral tracks even bubbled into the mainstream sphere. With all that, it has created some long term problems.
Right now, TikTok is the dominant algorithmic machine that’s being fed daily with tracks. I’m not sure artists have another go to place outside of TikTok. It’s certainly not Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.
Also, the 30 to 60 song clips are furthering hijacking attention spans which is not necessarily healthy for the creative business. TikTok has changed the way music sounds. As far getting paid for your work, that’s another issue and I’ll delve into that next time.
Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino predicted in February that large-scale 2021 concerts could return in the United States by this summer. Since then, he’s been very quiet. We all thought we’d be further along ahead with the covid virus. Unfortunately, the CDC predicted a tough rough ahead before getting back to normalcy.
Also, Live Nation has invested more into virtual events, acquiring the streaming platform Veeps.
Live Nation and Ticketmaster are focusing on selling tickets for 2022 events, including The Weeknd’s After Hours World Tour. The Weeknd is scheduled at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh on Jan. 29, 2022 and the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on April 3rd.
“On the artist side, there is a broad desire to get back on stage – to connect with their fans and to provide economic support to their bands, crew, and the hundreds of others employed each night putting on the show. Given the limited touring activity in 2020 and 2021, the pipeline for 2022 is much stronger than usual, with almost twice as many major touring artists on cycle in 2022 than a typical year – about 45 artists versus the usual 25. And there remains plenty of scheduling availability at arenas, amphitheaters, and stadiums to accommodate these additional tours, with over two-thirds of these venues’ nights unused by sporting events or major concerts in a typical year.”
Mick Jagger has dropped a surprise track Eazy Sleazy along with a video that features David Grohl. The lyrics are about COVID, masks, and the vaccine.
Mick writes:
“I wanted to share this song that I wrote about eventually coming out of lockdown, with some much needed optimism – thank you to Dave Grohl for jumping on drums, bass and guitar, it was a lot of fun working with you on this – hope you all enjoy Eazy Sleazy !”
Some lines in the song..
THATS A PRETTY MASK
BUT NEVER TAKE A CHANCE TIK TOK STUPID DANCE
TOOK A SAMBA CLASS I LANDED ON MY ASS
SHOOTING THE VACCINE BILL GATES IS IN MY BLOODSTREAM
ITS MIND CONTROL
Global Citizen has hired Selena Gomez, Jennifer Lopez, Foo Fighters and H.E.R. for a multi-network broadcast that will push the COVID-19 vaccine. Gomez will host the special.
The Concert will be pre-taped at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium before airing and live streaming on Saturday, May 8th on ABC, CBS, Fox, YouTube and iHeartMedia radio stations and the iHeartRadio app. The special will air on those outlets at 8 p.m. ET, except for Fox, where it will air at 11 p.m. ET / PT.
“As a global community, we are in a race against time and the key to coming back together is the vaccine. We need to build vaccine confidence in the U.S. and globally, and encourage people to take the vaccine as quickly as possible,” Global Citizen CEO Hugh Evans said in a statement. “There is a light at the end of this tunnel, but getting vaccines to everyone, everywhere regardless of who they are or where they are from, is key to ensuring the end of this pandemic around the world. We must all unite to get back on track to eradicating extreme poverty.”
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