Music Business News: North America

Blockbuster artists increased their share of streaming cash in 2015

Justin Bieber, Drake and The Weeknd did very nicely on Spotify

Canada is now giving the music biz $30m a year. Will the UK follow suit?

British Columbia joins Ontario, giving rights-holders and venues $15m

Grimes signs to Sony/ATV’s new JV, leaving behind Kobalt deal

Jack Antonoff company Rough Customer welcomes first client

Vevo confirms it’s going to launch a subscription tier

Erik Huggers says ad-supported-only model 'isn't sustainable'

Spotify wants 30m subscribers so badly, it’s giving away Google Chromecast

Streaming service signed deal with Google device in September last year

Pandora is now paying publishers 1/5th of the money it gives labels

Publishers would have seen a share of $140m in 2015

Live Nation acquires festivals from Canadian promoter Union Events

Events including X-Fest and Sonic Boom now under Live Nation control

Kanye West says his new album ‘will only be on TIDAL’. Sadly, he’s wrong.

The Life of Pablo tops piracy charts as Kanye goes exclusive