Music Business Analysis

The Great Royalties Hustle

BigStar’s Nick Lawrence on why the royalties system is well past its sell-by date

Why The Beatles, 56 years ago, were prototyping the kind of pop artist that 2020 demands

There's no doubt 2020 was an innovative year for music and artists – but, says Dave Roberts, it owes a clear debt to 1964

Analysis Blog

Why the music industry must think big about livestreaming: ‘Could an artist following in Freddie Mercury’s footsteps execute the same call-and-response with an internet audience?’

The CEO of Kiswe, which provided the tech for BTS' record-breaking digital concert earlier this year, on the future of shows in screens

Analysis News

Chance The Rapper sued by ex-manager for millions – and the music business will be talking about it for years to come

Pat Corcoran says he's owed $2.5m of his own money he invested in Chance, plus $3m in unpaid commissions

Analysis News

Hipgnosis Songs Fund is now worth $1.7bn… and is on course to generate $120m-plus this year

Merck Mercuriadis: "We’ve been one of the FTSE 250’s biggest yielders and have now reached a £1.25 billion market cap."

Analysis

The One True Fan Theory

Peter Robinson wonders if the secret to a happy and successful artist career is focusing on your biggest fan – literally

Analysis

The independent artist market is exploding in China – with NetEase and Tencent battling to woo the best indie acts

Stat Of The Week: How indie acts are central to the strategies of China's two biggest streaming music providers

Analysis

Thoughts of a Manager: A Paean for Artists

David Whitehead, an experienced artist manager who has worked with the likes of David Bowie, David Byrne, and Lloyd Cole, lays it all out for the next generation

Analysis

Could Epidemic Sound really be worth more than $1bn?

How Epidemic might pitch investors on its catalog, rather than its company

Analysis News

Over 2bn YouTube users are now playing music videos every month

Lyor Cohen calls on music industry to link arm-in-arm with YouTube to "pitch Madison Avenue"

Analysis

Indie distribution giant Believe looks headed for a $2bn-plus IPO next year

Reuters report points to another potential ten-figure moment for the modern record business

Analysis News

Refunds, revenues and redundancies: Behind the numbers of Live Nation’s Q3 earnings

What we learned from Michael Rapino and co. during firm's quarterly fiscal update last week

Analysis

Spotify is testing price rises and paying labels billions – but, in alarming news for investors, it appears to have a subscriber problem in emerging markets (update)

MBW digs into the numbers behind Spotify's newly-announced Q3 results – and discovers a surprising failure in the company's mission to grow everywhere

Analysis News

Sony ups its annual Music revenue forecast by over $500m… during a pandemic

Firm's recorded music streaming revenues grew by over $120m in the three months to end of September

Analysis News

In tough year for merch sales, Bravado CEO exits Universal Music Group

Stat Of The Week: Universal Music Group had its best ever quarter in Q3 2020, generating over $2bn... despite its merch division seeing revenues fall 44.4% year-on-year