CMU Digest

CMU Digest 01.09.17: Viagogo, Goldman Sachs, Kanye West, musicFIRST, Merlin

By | Published on Friday 1 September 2017

Viagogo

The key stories from the last seven days in the music business…

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission began legal proceedings against Viagogo over allegations the secondary ticketing platform has made false or misleading representations, and has engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct. Meanwhile ministers in two state governments in Australia publicly criticised the ticket resale site, with the Attorney General of Queensland advising consumers to “think twice” before buying tickets via the service. [READ MORE]

Goldman Sachs predicted that the global streaming music market would be worth $28 billion a year by 2030, in part based on the prediction that there would be 847 million people paying to stream music by then, which would be a more than eight-fold increase on current subscriber numbers. Some in the industry reckoned the bank’s analysts were being rather optimistic regarding the growth potential of music streaming. Nevertheless, Goldman Sachs increased its valuations of both Universal Music and Sony Music based on its streaming forecasts. [READ MORE]

Insurers from Lloyd’s Of London countersued Kanye West in a dispute over the insurance policy on the rapper’s cut short 2016 tour. West sued the insurers in early August accusing them of unreasonably dragging their feet rather than paying out on his cancelled shows, which were called off – he said – on the advice of doctors after he had a psychological breakdown. The insurers counter that West has not cooperated with their claim investigators and that there are “substantial irregularities in Mr West’s medical history”. [READ MORE]

US music industry lobbying group musicFIRST launched a new online campaign to rally artists behind its work to reform American copyright law. The four issues highlighted in the campaign are the fact AM/FM radio stations Stateside don’t pay royalties to labels and artists; the compulsory licences covering online and satellite radio in the US; the fact US-wide federal copyright law only covers sound recordings released after 1972; and the much discussed copyright safe harbour. Artists are encouraged to share their stories and write to their representatives in Congress. [READ MORE]

Indie-label repping digital rights agency Merlin confirmed it has now distributed more than a billion dollars in royalties. Merlin represents thousands of indie labels and distributors in the streaming domain, and has negotiated deals on behalf of its members with most of the key streaming platforms, Apple being the exception, which added streaming to its existing iTunes label contracts that pre-dated Merlin. [READ MORE]

The big deals from the last seven days in the music business…
• LG announced a tie up with MQA [INFO]
• Kobalt signed Rudimental [INFO]



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