This Week In Music – 26th April 2018

A weekly update on all things music, entertainment and technology, coming straight to you from Anthony Vanger at MassiveMusic.

STARTING THIS WEEK WITH BIONIC ENGINEERING IN MUSIC

There are some radical technological advances happening in the music industry.

With the recent Paralympics showcasing some of the world’s advanced technology being able to restore normality back to those affected with a terrible affliction, it’s only a matter of time before we start seeing it implemented in other creative industries. This rock musician lost his arm to an electrical transformer. Now he’s become the world’s first bionic drummer. This is not science fiction!

INDEPENDENTS RULED GLOBAL MARKET SHARE IN 2017 – BUT UNIVERSAL WAS KING OF STREAMING

The total worldwide money that found its way back to artists and labels in the year amounted to $17.3bn, up 8.1% year-on-year. That $17.3bn stat is very useful when it comes to working out who had the biggest year in 2017 across the global recorded music business – including both the majors, and the independents.

Based on a distribution basis, we can see exactly who owned what in terms of market share.

WHAT ARE THE MAJOR STREAMING PLATFORMS PAYING ARTISTS IN 2018

Who’s leading the way in payouts and who’s got those purse strings firmly tightened up

Statista highlights the streaming giants gross payouts to labels.

source: Digital Music News

AFTER PAYOUTS, WHICH IS THE MOST POPULAR PLATFORM – APPLE OR SPOTIFY?

Record breaking streaming play counts documented by Spotify & Apple might give us indication…

J Cole’s new LP, KOD, managed to achieve record breaking streams on each service in the US during the album’s opening day last Friday.

Apple & Spotify revealed their stats after the opening weekend (on Monday) via Twitter.

With 101.2million streams clocked up between them, Apple Music takes 63.7% of the US action – with Spotify on just 36.3%. That seems a bit strange seeing as Spotify has a much larger customer base.

FACEBOOK FINALLY SIGN MUSIC LICENSING DEALS WITH MERLIN, BEGGARS GROUP, [PIAS] AND INGROOVES

It is anticipated that the deal will be similar to Facebook with Universal Music Group, Sony/ATV and Warner Music Group. This deal will cover use of music across the main Facebook platform, in addition to Instagram, Oculus and Messenger. Facebook is expected to implement a monetisation scheme similar to what Soundcloud and Youtube utilise with auto detection and royalty payout systems in place which will help the social media giant payout to the relevant collecting societies. At long last we’re starting to see the independents receiving whats deserved to them.

“Our partnerships with Merlin, Beggars, [PIAS] and Ingrooves will provide people with access to music from a significant number of independent artists.” Tamara Hrivnak, Facebook

MTV TO LAUNCH NEW MUSIC CHANNEL OFFSHOOT.

MTV UK has announced the launch of a brand new music channel aimed at 16-34s.

Set to launch on 1st March, MTV OMG (obsessed with music & gossip) will feature the biggest names and hits of the moment, as well as all the latest gossip.

It will be available as a PAY TV channel on Sky 353 and Virgin 318. It will feature a wide variety of content including The Official Charts: Weekly Top 40, Artist Hosted Playlists, Voiceover Playlists, Themed Countdowns and Quizzes.

RECORDED MUSIC GROWTH IS ON THE UP!

Revenues grew by $1.4 billion in 2017.

A report constructed by MIDIA Research shows that global music revenues grew an astonishing $1.4 billion dollars in 2017 – putting it at $17.4 billion in trade values from its previously held value of $16 billion in 2016.

Much of this growth can be attributed to companies like Spotify and Apple Music, whose subscription services added a total of $7.4 billion to the gross sum of the music industries yearly revenue this year alone. Yet again, more proof that the streaming model is becoming more important than ever!

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