Music Business News: France

Starwatch Entertainment & Tigerspring partner with Believe on new ‘super-indie’ label, Lobster

'The flexibility of an indie label with the marketing power of a major player.'

Sylvain Gazaignes promoted to General Manager of BMG France

Exec first joined BMG France in 2011 as A&R Manager

Deezer takes on Spotify with 5 new global podcast company partnerships

Company also reveals 250% growth in podcast usage in the last two years

Kobalt hires Sebastien Cayla as Director of Synch and Brand Partnerships, France & Belgium

Exec was previously Head of Synch at Warner Chappell Music France

Deezer plans 2020 User-Centric Payment System pilot launch – if it can get rightsholders to sign up

Companies that support Deezer’s UCPS proposal so far include Because Music, Wagram Music, Play Two, Idol and others

Why, in a post-Tencent/Universal world, the three major music companies are worth nearly $90bn

MBW estimates that Universal, Sony and Warner are now collectively worth just shy of $89bn

The major labels are close to generating $1m from streaming every hour – but global growth is actually slowing down

MBW analysis shows that global major label streaming revenue growth slowed by 19.1% YoY in the first six months of this year

Vivendi appoints banks to help it sell up to 50% of Universal Music Group

'Several contacts have already been established with potential strategic partners,' says company