Music Ally

Y’know what really shizzles Snoop Dogg’s nizzle? Doing bizzle with web3 startups 💸 Following on from previous partnerships with The Sandbox, Gala Games, Sound, Shiller and Transient Labs, Snoop has announced a partnership with Web3 streaming service Tune.FM, telling Billboard "I don't f**k with Spotify anymore, I'm only on Tune.fm." The announcement has resurfaced some of Snoop’s comments on Spotify from 2023, when Snoop claimed that he had been paid less than $45k from 1bn streams on the service — a claim that Spotify has soundly denied. "We can’t speak to endorsement deals for Web3 companies but … $45K for a billion streams? It’s well documented that a billion streams on Spotify generates millions of dollars to rights holders." Read the full story here: https://lnkd.in/e5iA4kzp

After months of speculation and delays, Amazon has finally unveiled Alexa+, the next generation of its AIexa voice assistant — and while there is a lot for the music industry to be excited about with smarter music features in Alexa+, the inclusion of music AI start-up Suno may ruffle some feathers. Suno are currently being sued by all three major labels for copyright infringement in the US, and music rightsholders may not be thrilled with Amazon partnering with the controversial startup while the lawsuits are still ongoing. Read more about what Alexa+ means for the music industry here: https://lnkd.in/egSD-mpP

Welcome to the latest edition of A Little Knowledge, Music Ally’s free LinkedIn newsletter. This week: Taylor Swift and Benson Boone top the IFPI's global charts for 2024; Austere’s Natasha Brito talks artist branding, absurdism and lore; and a few little extras… #linkedinnewsletter #musicindustry

The days of artists vying for advances from their labels are long gone. Artists, songwriters and rightsholders are increasingly able to access funding models that are as varied as their careers are. A prime example of this is Sound Royalties, who provide "creative friendly finance", which fronts money based on future earnings from streaming (and other sources). In the latest episode of Music Ally Focus, we caught up with Sound Royalties' CEO Alex Heiche to discuss the current funding landscape for artists, songwriters and rightsholders, and how increased access to funding can open up new forms of creativity. Listen to the episode here: https://lnkd.in/eWMHpt9s

UK artists are fighting back against AI. Today, more than a thousand musicians have launched a ‘silent’ album called ‘Is This What We Want?’, as part of a campaign against UK government plans which may allow AI companies to train their models on commercial music unless the rightsholders have opted out. According to campaign organiser and AI veteran, Ed Newton-Rex, this campaign reflects how the general public really feels about music and AI, and that the government has a duty to reflect that: “The public totally agrees with creators here. Every poll there’s been on this shows that the public overwhelmingly have what is clearly the common-sense view, which is that training data should be paid for. That’s really important to remember.” Newton-Rex also issued some stern advice to AI companies who may be considering using unlicensed music: “Just don’t steal. Go and work with these people. Go and license, and you won’t make the world’s creators hate you! Why become the enemy?" You can read our full interview with Ed for free here: https://lnkd.in/gtYctZ-B

YouTube is testing a new ‘Premium Lite’ subscription tier which will remove ads from most of its videos. According to Bloomberg, the first countries to get the new tier will be the US, Australia, Germany and Thailand. Details of how much it will cost have not yet been leaked, but YouTube’s spokesperson confirmed the plans. “As part of our commitment to provide our users with more choice and flexibility, we’ve been testing a new YouTube Premium offering with most videos ad-free in several of our markets,” they said. “We’re hoping to expand this offering to even more users in the future with our partners’ support.” Read More:https://lnkd.in/dVRgiQRR #musicnews #musically #youtube #readmore

Recent reports suggested that early access to concert tickets will be a key plank in Spotify’s upcoming ‘Music Pro’ subscription tier for superfans, with rivals like Apple Music and Amazon Music also mulling their own ‘super-premium’ strategies. Carving out space for new players in the already-crowded ticketing presales space will be challenging, even for the world’s biggest streaming services. But all three have already held talks with Ticketmaster’s parent company Live Nation Entertainment about what they might do. This isn’t a rumour: it’s information direct from Live Nation’s president and CEO Michael Rapino, talking in his company’s earnings call this week when asked about super-premium tiers by an analyst. “Our job is to use that inventory that we’ve acquired from the artist and maximise it to sponsorship. currently. And we have a lot of pre-sale programs in place with – you’ve seen them all – Verizons and Citibanks etc,” said Rapino. “Our job is always to look at that show, work with the artist and figure out: is there ways to maximise that inventory, to business as well as consumers?” he said. Read More:https://lnkd.in/dWTP7yim #musically #musicnews #ticketing #livenation #readmore

Research firm MusicWatch reckons that there are now 103 million music listeners on social-video apps in the US alone, averaging nearly an hour a day discovering and listening to music within those apps. Its study also explores the competitive landscape. According to MusicWatch’s latest ‘audiocensus’ survey, TikTok accounts for a 29% share of weekly social video hours for American music listeners, ahead of YouTube Shorts (26%) and Instagram Reels and Facebook Reels (both 18%). However, YouTube and Facebook’s short-video features have both gained share over the past year – two points each – while TikTok has seen its share fall by five percentage points. “Perhaps most shocking is TikTok’s decline among it’s core constituents aged 13-24. TikTok’s share fell 9 points from 51 to 42 percent among the younger demographic, with Instagram and YouTube picking up most of the difference,” claimed MusicWatch. If you’re in the mood for some stats on short video – and, indeed, longer-form video – check out Patreon’s new ‘State of Create’ study, based on a survey of more than 1,000 online creators and 2,000 fans. Obviously, there’s a ‘what everyone loves and wants turns out to be exactly what Patreon is doing’ element, which seems obligatory for these kinds of studies. But it also reveals that 61% of fans see more short-form than long-form work on social media. But 52% see think long-form provides more value, and they are more likely to pay for it too. “On one hand, the TikTokification of the internet has helped more creators get discovered by new audiences, and that has been a welcome change,” is Patreon’s analysis. “But creators are agreeing more and more that getting in front of all those potential new fans isn’t so useful if they can’t keep reaching them consistently.” Read More: https://lnkd.in/d4NgDeyf #musicnews #musically #socialvideo #readmore

NEST: a music incubator programme empowering MENA artists to shine on the global stage Samer Jaradat is a musician, artist manager, and entrepreneur who founded Jafra Productions جفرا للإنتاج – a music hub and artist incubator based in Ramallah, Palestine – in 2010. In an article published this week made in collaboration with Jafra, he spoke about the second cycle of the NEST music incubator and creative life in Palestine – and he describes the challenges the cultural community in Palestine face: "Our daily lives are deeply connected to something bigger than just work. We are living a vision of liberation, even if we don’t always frame it that way. This explains how artists and cultural activists keep pushing for justice and freedom despite the challenges we face, like mobility restrictions, political, social, and economic complications." Jaradat says that his mission is to “bridge cultures and create a unique musical dialogue that resonates globally.” Read more about NEST, Jafra, and life as a creative in Palestine here: https://lnkd.in/dMci-dJj #musically #mena #nest #jafraproductions #colab

“Oooo-EEE-oooo… ooo-eee-ooo… OOO-EEE-oooo… ooo-eee-ooo… Dun-dun-dun-dun… DUNNNNN!” This, friends, is how you sing the classic Ron Grainer / Delia Derbyshire Doctor Who theme tune, which was famously created in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Now that team’s pioneering work in electronic music has been turned into a sample pack by Spitfire Audio and BBC Studios – the first time this archive has been mined in this way for use by producers and artists. The sample pack includes sounds from the original tapes made within the Radiophonic Workshop, as well as new ‘recordings and experiments’ by team members and collaborators. “We’re not just looking back at what the members were doing way back when. We’re projecting a strand of their work into the future and saying: if the Workshop was engaged with a similar process now, what would it sound like?” said Spitfire Audio’s head of recording Harry Wilson. Read More: https://lnkd.in/dADDzqcy #musicnews #musically #bbc #readmore