Welcome to Music Business Worldwide’s weekly round-up – where we make sure you caught the five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days. MBW’s round-up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximise their income and reduce their touring costs.
Spotify‘s Investor Day was the big news this week.
Hosted in New York on Wednesday (June 8), it was the publicly-traded music streaming company’s first ‘Investor Day’ presentation since 2018.
At the event, which saw in-person presentations from CEO Daniel Ek, Chief Freemium Business Officer, Alex Norström, EVP/CFO Paul Vogel and others, SPOT revealed that it’s aiming to hit 1 billion users by 2030.
Elsewhere at the event, investors quizzed SPOT’s leadership on the topic of price rises, and Daniel Ek also said he “believe[s] that over the next decade [Spotify] will be a company that can generate $100 billion in revenue annually.”
Also this week, DIY music distribution company TuneCore, owned by Paris-based music company Believe, announced an overhaul of its pricing model for indie artists, calling the update its “biggest change since opening for business 16 years ago”.
TuneCore has historically charged artists under a price per-upload model, most recently at USD $9.99 per single, and $29.99 per album.
Now, with its ‘Unlimited Release’ plans, that’s all changed – bringing TuneCore closer in its pricing structure to rivals such as DistroKid.
Meanwhile, in South Korea, an acquisitive Seoul-based company called Beyond Music, which refers to itself in a media release as “the Korean version of Hipgnosis“, is claiming to be Asia’s largest single music IP asset management company, and says that it now wants “to conquer the global music IP market”.
Beyond Music says that its current operating assets stand at approximately 300 billion South Korea Won (USD $200m) and the firm also says it expects to have 1 trillion South Korea Won ($800m) worth of assets under management by the end of this year.
Plus, The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas has sold a stake in his music publishing catalog to Primary Wave, while Zara Larsson bought back her entire recording catalog in an agreement with TEN Music Group.
Spotify held its first ‘Investor Day’ presentation since 2018 in New York on Wednesday (June 8).
There was plenty of optimism on display during the event’s near-four hours of corporate chatter, which we’ll be breaking into bite-size chunks in the days and weeks ahead.
(Apologies in advance if things get especially Spotify Business Worldwide round these parts as a result. But SPOT is the biggest music subscription company on the planet, so, y’know, fair’s fair.)
In his opening remarks today, Spotify co-founder and CEO, Daniel Ek, discussed Spotify’s expected expansion into audiobooks, before teasing a standout presentation from Spotify’s Chief Freemium Business Officer, Alex Norström.
Norström, promised Ek, was about to “walk you through how we plan to get to a billion users” over the next eight years.
A while later, Norström took the stage, and wasted no time in making this claim…
Believe-owned DIY music distributor TuneCore has overhauled its pricing structure for independent artists – in what it says is its “biggest change since opening for business 16 years ago”.
Announced this week by Andreea Gleeson, TuneCore’s Chief Executive Officer, the platform is introducing new ‘Unlimited Release Pricing Plans’.
What that means: TuneCore is – for the first time in history – enabling artists and labels to distribute an uncapped amount of music to services like Spotify and Apple Music each year for a single annual price….”
A serious new player in the global music rights acquisitions space is making itself known.
Seoul-based Beyond Music, a company calling itself “the Korean version of Hipgnosis”, has been splashing cash in the music rights market in Asia, and says that it now wants “to conquer the global music IP market”.
Beyond Music claims to be Asia’s largest single music IP asset management company, with current operating assets of approximately 300 billion South Korea Won (USD $200m).
The firm says it expects to have 1 trillion South Korea Won ($800m) worth of assets under management by the end of this year.
Primary Wave Music has acquired a stake in the music publishing catalog of Julian Casablancas, lead singer of rock band The Strokes.
Described in a media statement as a “multi-million-dollar deal”, Primary Wave says it is buying a stake in Casablancas’ “share of music publishing on all Strokes compositions, as well as his share of master copyrights and master royalties.”.
Multi-platinum Swedish pop star Zara Larsson has bought back her entire recording catalog.
According to a statement, the artist has struck what’s described as a “unique agreement” with TEN Music Group CEO Ola Håkansson, and has now “taken control of her entire recording catalog”.
Larsson signed to the independent Swedish music company in 2011. Larsson’s catalog has been streamed over 9 billion times.
