Analysis News Done deal: Justin Bieber sells catalog to Hipgnosis’ Blackstone fund Deal means Blackstone-backed Hipgnosis Songs Capital has spent around half a billion dollars to date
Analysis News The investment bank that’s been most critical of Hipgnosis Songs Fund… just upgraded Hipgnosis Songs Fund to ‘positive’ Merck Mercuriadis' firm gets a bump from one of its biggest critics in the financial world
Analysis News Streaming fraud accounts for at least 1-3% of plays on services like Spotify and Deezer in France, shows investigation Landmark study into France's music industry focuses on illegitimate streaming practices
Analysis Blog How much productivity is too much productivity? This op/ed comes from long-time music industry journalist Eamonn Forde
Analysis Sir Lucian Grainge’s royalty payout letter was a ‘hallelujah moment’ for streaming’s anti-fraud movement. Nick Dunn, founder of UK-based distributor Horus Music, hopes that Universal's new focus will help neuter criminal activity on platforms
Analysis News After taking stake in TikTok parent, China’s government to snap up shares in Tencent, Alibaba units (report) China's Government is acquiring stakes in local subsidiaries of China’s tech giants Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group
Analysis News From Sir Lucian Grainge on music’s streaming payout model to Kakao Entertainment’s $966m investment… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-Up Our biggest stories of the week, brought to you in association with Centtrip
Analysis News The Sony Walkman is back… as a hi-res streaming player Sony just introduced two new devices called the NW-ZX707 and the NW-A306, which the company claims, offer “evolutionary sound”
Analysis News The Top 10 hits in the US last year accounted for fewer than 1 in every 200 streams The US's Top 10 streaming hits, combined, were cumulatively responsible for less than 0.5% of all on-demand audio plays in the US annually
Analysis News PRS for Music sues platform behind record-breaking Dua Lipa livestream for alleged lack of licenses "No PRS member has been paid for the use of their songs in this event, or the other concerts held by LIVENow."
Analysis Blog ‘There is a real need to look behind the marketing hype and truly understand what is being offered.’ PPL CIO Mark Douglas examines the contribution being made to the industry’s data challenges by Music Recognition Technology
Analysis Blog ‘Consumer desire is driving the great music unbundling.’ The following op/ed comes from Forrest Browning, Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer at Audius
Analysis News TikTok offers cheaper ads in race against social media rivals Meta, YouTube and Twitter (report) FT report cites advertisers, industry bodies and brands
Analysis News On-demand song streams grew 12.2% in the US last year, and 25.6% globally US market monitor Luminate publishes Year-End report for 2022
Analysis News These worrying stats send a clear message: The music biz needs a Spotify price rise… now. The latest episode of MBW's Talking Trends dives into important new data out of the UK