Song Catalog Finances
After the music industry was shocked in the early 2000s by the growth of piracy and file sharing, many investors were skeptical about the future of music publishing assets, worried that the value of...
View ArticleCopyright in Public Places
“All the world’s a stage,” wrote Shakespeare in As You Like It, and he said as much in other plays. The public performance of creative works, including the work of songwriters, has to be seen in that...
View ArticleShortchanging Covers
On February 5, 2015, the US Copyright Office released a comprehensive set of recommendations on how to revise copyright law called “Copyright and the Music Marketplace”. These revisions, if they were...
View ArticleMusic Products, 2015
Americans spend $21 per capita on music products, about as much as they spend today on recorded music. The figure exceeds concert grosses per head and also the total per capita music royalty...
View ArticleYouTube’s Music Pangs
It’s been rumored for quite some time that Google is working on an on-demand music streaming service to be run through their video streaming service YouTube. With Spotify, Apple, and Deezer all growing...
View ArticleArtist Merchandising Made Simple
With recorded music sales in free fall and touring being a very expensive gamble to try to end up in the black, it has never been more crucial for up-and-coming artists to find non-traditional revenue...
View ArticleTalent, Fans, and Equity Stakes
The Internet has been a catalyst for the democratization of creativity in art. The low-cost, high-reach communication tools it affords its users have allowed creators of all types to bring their works...
View ArticleThe Value of Tidal
Before celebrity hip-hop mogul and businessman Jay Z came along, WiMP and Tidal hardly made an impact on music streaming. The two services are now operating under the name Tidal after Jay Z bought...
View ArticleMIDEM in the Music Industry
MIDEM, the music industry conference held in France that is owned by communications company Reed MIDEM, targets the creativity and synergy of musicians, music entrepreneurs, tech geeks, marketing...
View ArticleSpotify’s Clout
In the last four months three new streaming platforms were launched: Apple Music, Tidal, and Google Play Music. Others, among them YouTube, Deezer, and Rdio, still compete for market share. The...
View ArticleApple Music’s Debut
Apple revolutionized the music industry with the launch of the iPod and iTunes in 2003, when it became the first company to monetize music successfully for the labels after Napster’s underhanded...
View ArticleSuperfans and House Concerts
For fans of mainstream pop culture and arena-filling acts, house concerts are an unheard of phenomenon. You won’t see Katy Perry or Kings of Leon announcing a summer house concert tour. However, they...
View ArticleThe Copyright Hearings
For more than a year now the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet has been conducting a series of hearings as part of their comprehensive review of the...
View ArticleSmart Artists, Smart Fans
The Internet age has drastically altered the dynamics of the interaction between corporations and their customers. Talking down at consumers, for instance, is less preferable than engaging them in a...
View ArticleApple as a Record Label
Apple unveiled new products as usual, and this year it put out the iWatch and a new iPhone. But its partnership with Irish rockers U2 garnered all the headlines and pulled off the largest album...
View ArticleConflict over Consent Decrees
In early June, the United States Department of Justice announced that it would be launching a review of the consent decrees governing the nation’s two largest performing rights organizations, ASCAP and...
View ArticleThe Power of False Pretense
They say that money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy likes, views, shares, or followers. From the beginning of social media, users have sought to expand their networks for professional clout,...
View ArticleThe Fair Use Check
Unless you have been following the case of Lenz v. Universal Music Publishing Group1, you would probably never imagine using the words “dancing baby” and “Prince” in the same sentence. Not unless you...
View ArticleA Fair Music Report
The logistics of correctly attributing the money earned from the sale and performance of recorded music has always been a daunting task. This is a global commodity that comes bundled with intellectual...
View ArticleGender in the Music Industry
Gender inequality is a big issue in the music industry. At first glance, it may not seem so. Names like Aretha Franklin, Taylor Swift, and Beyonce have become synonymous with success. Billboard’s...
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